Lesson Learned

Weeell, I listened to The Voice. For three short days this week I had a green kitchen. An absolutely beautiful shade of green - truly. So soft, with a hint of gray. Matched the picture I posted here to a T. I had the white dishes out, with touches of cream here and there - it was calm. And soothing. And lovely. And NOT ME AT ALL. I tried, oh how I tried to fall in love with it. I mean, the picture I saw of the green and white kitchen was positively gorgeous! So much that The Voice would NOT leave me alone until I tried to replicate it. But every day (for those 3 days), I would walk by it and just not feel like it was home. My husband thought it looked great, but said the cabinets should be painted white. My mom also adored the color, and tried to convince me it could work, if I did this or that. But I knew it was not going to happen. So yesterday, I ran to Sherwin Williams and bought a couple samples (oh how I love $5 samples! Thank you SW!) of some different shades of green, thinking, maybe if I went a tad bit darker, it would be right. Nope. I came to the conclusion I am not a green person. 8pm rolls around, the kiddos are in bed, and the hubby's on a run. I head downstairs to the laundry room, just out of curiosity, mind you, peek on the paint shelf, and wouldn't you know it - there's a good half gallon left of Pottery Red! It was almost like it was screaming at me, "Please! You love me! Put me back up on your walls!" At this point, I had just about had it with trying to figure this whole green thing out, so I gave it a good stir, and started. Without really even thinking much about it. My husband comes in from his run and just shakes his head. Not really sure if he even said a word, just asked if I needed any help (I said no, I made this mess, I need to clean it up myself!), and headed downstairs to watch tv.

Let me show you a picture of the green, circa Thursday:

Pretty enough. And granted, this was before any window treatment, or finishing touches, but even then I just knew. I knew it wasn't me. I've learned a lot about myself throughout this whole ordeal. I need POP. I need CONTRAST. I need COLOR. I need WARM COLORS. As much as I adore the simplicity and loveliness of the light green, it just didn't scream home to me the way the red did. I think I could have made it work if I had endless money to spend, and felt like doing a looot more work (like painting the cabinets, which even I find exhausting), it wasn't gonna happen. Like perhaps if I had dark wood floors, or something...who knows. But there was a lot to work into the mix - I had yellowish floors, creamy yellow cabinets, dark countertops - and the dining room and kitchen are one big open space, so it had to somewhat meld together. My dining room is a deep gold color, with black furniture, and the beautiful light green and white colors just seemed to be clashing. It'd be a whole lot cheaper and easier to solve the kitchen dilemma than start painting and redoing every room in this house!

So I paint my first stroke of Pottery Red on the wall. Ahhhhh, immediately it feels like home. And that's what I want to feel when I walk into my kitchen. The kitchen is truly the heart of this home, and maybe if I were talking about a bathroom, or basement, I would have gone along with it for a while, to see if it grew on me, but NOT my kitchen. I don't mess around with my kitchen. That is just too precious of a room to not have just right. Which is why I went all psycho-painter late last night and was up until midnight getting it back to the way it was. The way it should be. For now at least. I know me, and I know at some point, might be many years, or very few, but I'll get the itch. I'll hear The Voice again, and I'll try and change things. And then it might work. Who knows. Maybe then we'll go all out and redo floors, and cabinets, counters and such, and a light color will be just the right choice. But not now.

I almost titled this blog, "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It..." but changed my mind. Because I don't want to send the message that if something is working just fine, leave it alone. Sometimes things that "ain't broke" but you try to fix them, turn out even better than before. I've had that happen in the past, and some of my favorite projects have been perfectly fine before I updated/changed them. But sometimes they're not. I've mentioned in a previous blog, that The Voice isn't always right, but I always listen. Here's a perfect example. Do I regret listening to it? Not one tiny bit. I know me, and I KNOW the green kitchen would consume my brain until I took action. Not a doubt in my mind. That's how I work. I get ideas and they just don't. leave. me. alone until I do something about it. So it had to happen, and now I am even MORE in love with my red kitchen. I am a red kitchen kind of gal, and now I know that. I see those loud, bright walls, and the contrast with the white molding, and I just feel ME. I'm loud. And so is my kitchen:) We're a perfect fit. I love the way it meshes with the dining room. And the floor. And the counter. And the cabinets. And the black and white island...oh WAIT! I DID NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THE ISLAND!!! Here's another reason why I don't regret the green kitchen fiasco:

GAH! I LOVE IT SO!!! And I would never have thought to paint it this way had it not been for this whole thing. It was red before, with brown stools, and I painted it to go with the green, and I could not love it more! The contrast! The pop! It's ME ME ME! And also this week, I painted a bunch of things white and cream, and they look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G against the red. Like these shelves:

And these letters:

And I've simplified the tops of my cabinets:

 Oh, and speaking of...another bonus: the tops of my cabinets and behind the fridge got cleaned for the first time in 5 years...always a good thing! Did I really just admit that to the world?!

So nope. Not one regret. I've learned some mighty good lessons this week, and if I don't pick up another paint roller or brush ever again, it'll be too soon! Oh, who am I kidding?! I'll be doing something crazy in the next day or so, I'm sure. But you can bet it won't be these kitchen walls!

One more picture of my island before I finish this post, just because...

Did I mention that I BIG FAT LOVE it?!! And I BIG FAT LOVE my Pottery Red kitchen! Home again, home again, jiggity jig. And it feels oh-so-gooooood to be home.