Painting project

We are really hoping to be able to redo our kitchen.

Laurie Peirick (former kindergarten student of mine and kitchen designer extraordinaire) has been over, drawn up plans which we love, and has given us estimates for the work.  We will proceed with that project if and when we get some money from the sale of John's folks' condo.

I am getting antsy to do something and until we find out about the remodeling, we are very limited to what we can do. 

I would love new flooring  and carpeting, but our remodel involves quite a bit of construction so we can't redo floors yet.

I did decide a little paint would do us well, so I hired a great painter who works for beer, food, and cigars.

Courtney and Mallory both helped me pick out the colors and I am loving them.

Not sure if I blogged this or not, but we did switch the dining room and living room around awhile back to see how we liked it, since that is ultimately one of the goals in the remodel.  Happy to report we like the change.

Anyway my painter husband started his work on Saturday morning.

This is the color when we first saw it.

It was love at first sight.

 My intention was to do just the one wall in this ginger color, but I liked it so much we went ahead and did another wall.

Eventually, if all goes as planned that second ginger wall will come down, but for now it looks good.

 The other walls were painted a sandy color.

 I used the sandy color to paint the, shall we say, very dated and rather ugly bricks in the kitchen.  This is the painted bricks above the stove.

Of course, this would all go, too, but I just wanted to lighten it up.

 Here you can see the dark bricks and compare them to the new sandy wall on the right.

Those bricks were hard to paint, so uneven, but I managed to get it done.

 This is the dining room before I got it all decorated.

 These are our Ethiopian treasures which were the inspiration for the ginger color.

Courtney and Paul brought us the wall hanging, the basket, the cross, one of the pictures and the scarf.  I purchased the Ethiopian prints on the wall, the giraffes were a gift from a favorite family at St. John's. 

I also have a memory angel for Natnael and pictures of my three precious Ethiopian grandchildren.

At any rate, it was the ginger color that made me want to choose paint in that color.

 The dining room table all decorated.

 This was the inspiration for the sandy color.

This print was a gift from Courtney and Paul for all we did to help with their wedding on St. George Island, Florida.

I love the print because it reminds me of that wonderful place where we have made so many memories.

And here is a shot from the living room which used to be the dining room into the dining room which used to be the living room.

I really am happy with the way it all turned out.
It is amazing how something as simple as paint can change the way a room looks.  I don't even mind the carpet as much anymore, well, for now anyway.