Liz et all,
First of all, Liz your hearth and table are fabulous. Once again, your
artistic talent just shines through whatever you do. Cudos. As to what
I've been up to...work, work, work and more work. I've just completed a
major upgrade to our clinical system at work so that has occupied every
moment of mine...but as of last weekend, the project is over. I've been
taking a week to just do nothing whatsoever and enjoy it. We went on
vacation to Cancun the last week of May and I'm still reminiscing about it
most of the time. But as of yesterday, I've decided it's time to get busy
on something domestically constructive.
I went to the parade of homes here in our town. They have 3 sections of
homes with about 8 houses each to tour. I only made it to 2 of the
sections. I went with my MIL, DH, and FIL. My inlaws are redoing their
kitchen after an unfortunate/fortunate stove fire. I say fortunate because
they are getting a whole brand new kitchen out of it to replace their very
dated 1970's one. She wants my help in finishing up the last touches. She
already bought a new stove, countertops, sink, microwave, and getting new
cabinet handles. We toured the homes to get some ideas.
As to the parade of homes...here's my thoughts:
The first section of homes were in the 1600-1800 sq ft range and in the
$150,000 - $250,000 price range. Some were decorated to the hilt and some
were in basic builders beige with no furnishings. My main impression of
these homes is they have very elaborate master suites and kitchens at the
expense of the rest of the house. Living rooms all have built-in
entertainment centers, fireplaces and enough floor space to maybe hold a
sofa. I even commented that "hmm, you could sit 2 people in here
comfortably" Not my cup of tea. I did like the last one we went in and it
won the people's choice and builder's choice for that section. It was much
bigger than the rest so the rooms weren't quite so small. Even in the huge
master suites, I didn't see a king size bed in one of them. I'm guessing to
make the rooms look larger, but other than myself I don't know a single
married couple that doesn't have a king size bed. (I prefer a queen)
The colors in the homes were very rich, very deep. Lots of golds, creams,
greens, burgundies. Lots of faux finished walls (whew! I'm not out of
style!) Alot of the finishes, I couldn't tell how they did it and since I
consider myself an HGTV and TLC expert I thought I had seen just about every
faux finish there was.
I didn't like any of these homes enough to think I would want to live in
one.
On to the next section:
These homes were in the 2000-2200 sq ft range and in the $300,000 - $450,000
range. They were NICE! I liked just about every one I saw. My
impressions: once again, huge master suites and closets so big they amazed
me. I might actually be able to fit all my clothes in them. (yes I have
alot of clothes, yes I have alot of sizes...your point?) The colors were
basically the same as the previous section. Except with the addition of
lots of animal prints. Ceilings were very tall with lots of architectural
detail in them. There wasn't a simple flat ceiling in any home. Most of
the master suites are separated from the rest of the rooms. There were
formal dining rooms, home office's (usually off the living portion of the
great room) and mainly big huge great rooms. They had huge expansive
kitchens completely open to the living area and then a separate seating area
in the kitchen along with a breakfast area and a formal dining area. I
really like the look of 2 leather wing back chairs facing the kitchen with a
fireplace right there too. There were lots of basements with home theatres
in many of them. One in particular had 2 sections on each of the side walls
with pleated red velvet and sconce lighting at the top. Hard to describe,
but it made it look just like a theatre. Most of them had flat screen
HDTVs. You can imagine how my DH drooled over those.
My favorite of all of them had a stained concrete floor in most of the house
except wood floors in the bedrooms. I have a friend that just learned how
to do that technique but I had never seen one done. It was great. I know
by talking to my friend that it is very expensive and I can see why. The
look is so luxurious and it can withstand large amounts of traffic
undamaged.
As to getting ideas for my MIL's kitchen/dining room. I just don't know.
Most of the kitchens had very little decorating done to them. Lots of
granite counters and tile back splashes but it seemed like the decorating
was done with those elements and the cabinets. There wasn't alot of wall
space to decorate in them. I'm hoping you guys can give me some ideas.
Here are the basics. Her new counter tops are a sort of white with
sprinkles of other colors in them. It may sound cheesy, but for her they
are actually really nice. She bought a black granite sink (very nice) and a
new black stove. They bought a built in microwave that now sits above the
stove. Their stove is in a counter that has cabinets above it, but is open
below it to a bar area where they do most of their eating. The dining room
is just past this, so the two are basically one room. They have wood floors
and the cabinets are a maple color (guessing on that???). The one long wall
that joins the two rooms is my main project. It is wood. Real, tongue and
groove wood. The color is maple (not quite matching the cabinets though)
They wanted to paint it and I just couldn't see it painted so I talked them
out of it. I did tell them to paint the cabinets because I just don't care
for the color and they wouldn't go for that. It has a big double window in
the dining room area and a door to the their new family room (used to be an
enclosed porch and they made it a real room). She used to have the wall so
cluttered with stuff you could never really see the wall and she doesn't
want to do that again. She bought a clock with some blue and fruit and she
has 2 pictures of some fruit that she wants to hang up. They are only 8 X
10's so pretty small. Sooooo... any ideas? I know I haven't given much to
go on, but any suggestions would be appreciated. Did I do the wrong thing
in telling them not to paint the wall?
Thanks for listening...sorry the post was so long!
Terri
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