As renovation progressed, I was, of course, plotting the decoration end of things. I have a few mood boards put together to give an idea of where my head was.
First up was the living room. We of course had the floors, the brick wall, and a lot of white walls as backdrop. I chose Benjamin Moore's Decorator White, which is a classic soft white that isn't too blue. My windows are all north-facing, so I didn't want the walls to look cold.
None of the finishes here are precisely what I ended up with, except the gray chairs - those I already owned. Mine have a skirt on them, but otherwise look the same. These are the swivel chairs that were in my living room growing up, where my sister and I would wait by the window to see when my dad pulled in the driveway. I have a serious attachment to those puppies. The cats have scratched up the arms, which makes me consider turning them into luxurious hats, but so far I have refrained.
The dining room is closer to what I envisioned from the get-go. That amazing dragon fabric is from F. Schumacher, and I did the lame thing and ordered two samples from the showroom instead of actually ordering a yard of fabric. I made pillows out of the samples, despite the big brass grommets that they punch in the fabric to ensure you don't do just that. My baaaad.
The orange chairs, while not precisely what I own, are a good approximation of the set we scored from a flea market. Zany orange vinyl, cushy, swively. I love them. The dark green is on the cushion on a built-in banquette, and that portrait (while hanging in the living area instead) is of my great-great-great-great-grandmother, Virginia McLean. The peace treaty for the civil war ended in her parlor. It's super neat.
The kitchen ended up whiter than planned, partly because when the shelves got installed, Leo painted them before I could request that they stay a nice wood finish as I envisioned. Eh, it's fine. Also I ordered a sample of that silver tile from Home Depot, and it was AWFUL in person, so we went with a white subway tile.
The powder room ended up nothing like this. I did get a wall-mounted white farm sink, but the green looked bad with the purple-gray of the giant bookshelves, so I did a nice robin-egg blue instead.
The litter box fits right under the sink! Glamorous.
Upstairs, the bedroom has gone through a bunch of iterations, none of which were just like this. The artwork is the same, but I got a great gray stripe coverlet and made myself navy curtains. I'll post more later about the various wall ideas, but this was the starting point, at least.
The wall color I had planned for the bedroom ended up being used for to the bathroom walls! I know, I know. Try not to get too excited. But it's true.
The hardware ended up pretty close to this, white subway tile on the walls, but I scored a way cooler shower curtain from West Elm. The floors also ended up a different white tile, which I fell in love with in the store and was convinced would be super pricey. Turns out? Half the price of my original plan! What whaaaaaaaat. That's the first and last time that happened.
So, best laid plans. I was so excited at all these ideas, but I discovered that, with the open plan, the mix of colors was too much. You could see everything all the time, and not all those colors jived. If I were doing it now (ahem, hinting at new house plans), I would choose an overall whole-house palate and just have each area be a variation on one theme. Here, I needed to scale it back - as we've lived here, I slowly changed bits and pieces to be more in line with one another, more neutral. I ended up with a lot more gray and white and navy, which I have come to appreciate over time. It's airy. It's what all the designers do. Get off my case. Harumph.