Sticks and Stars

I am nesting something fierce these days. I would be very happy if no one required anything of me that didn’t involve decorating, doing small repairs on my house, gardening, and cooking.

I mowed my lawn for the first time since I moved in and although it was absolutely exhausting (my lawn is infinitely larger when viewed through the lens of a push mower — and the endless blade cramping sticks don’t help matters either), it’s so satisfying to look at its weedy, patchy, uneven lush greenness. Plus, it’s also nice to no longer feel I’m the one dragging down property values in our neighborhood. Now it’s time to drag out the string trimmer and tackle all the edges, but I’m a little bit afraid of the string trimmer.

This morning I strained my neck something fierce while I was working out and even now it’s so painful that I can hardly stand it, but I also had an epiphany as to how to redo my bathroom so that it’s both pretty and functional without having to hire a plumber, so my day has pretty much been a wash. My plans for the evening are to read some more design blogs and either paint another test board with my latest living room paint samples, or curl up in bed with the novel I just started (All Souls by Christine Schutt). Let’s see what my achy neck is in the mood for.

My latest paint dilemma is whether, in the bedrooms, I should paint the ceilings and closet interiors white, or whether I should paint them a lighter version of the wall color. I read a while back that white ceilings are “out,” and that a lighter version of the wall color is the way to go with regard to ceiling coverage. While I don’t particularly care whether or not my paint decision are in line with current trends, I do like the idea of breaking away from the white ceiling standard.

Either way though, I cannot wait to paint the insides of my closets (which, if the segue wasn’t clear, will be painted to match the ceilings — don’t ask why, that’s just how it has to be). They are wood paneled (which I originally mistook for cedar, thus inspiring a great deal of painting-over-cedar-closets angst), they have no interior lighting, and are only accessed by narrow doors, the light from which a person’s body blocks pretty thoroughly when she attempts to access anything inside. Even though they are small (2′ x 5′) it’s impossible to find anything inside them because they are so damned dark. They are like my own personal mini pits of despair. But once they are painted a lighter color they will be so much improved.

And now, completely unrelated to paint, ceilings or closets, I’d like to recommend a cookie recipe to you. I am in the process of baking (and eating) these cookies at this very moment and they are really, really good. I wasn’t about to make a special trip to a special store for cocoa nibs, so I used dark chocolate chips and they are still fantastic. Without further ado, Orangette’s Chocolate Featherweight Cookies with Walnuts and Cocoa Nibs. Now excuse my while I go avail myself of another one.

Oh, and also, I watched Julie and Julia last night and I really didn’t like it, but it sure made me want to cook. And indeed, I cooked a big (and entirely unplanned) Easter dinner, chana masala for my lunches this week, and now I’m topping it off with the cookies. I must leave you now as you’ve held me back from my next cookie for too long already.

This paint color business has really been stressing me out but I think I finally have a handle on it. As mentioned (in great detail), I’m going to paint my living room more or less yellow. The problem with painting my living room any color at all is that every other room in my house (with the exception of the decrepit little laundry room) is visible from the living room, and given that I have a small house, I’ve been concerned that painting every room wildly different colors will make my house seem even smaller by visually chopping it up instead of letting it all kind of flow together.

But last night I made an official decision: Screw it. Right now my living room is mint green, my bedroom is a darker grimy hospital green (I think that might be the actual name on the paint swatch), my kitchen/hallway is grimy peach and my boys’ room is light peachy beige. None of those colors look good together (or good at all) and the house is still standing and it’s livable even. So maybe I should just choose some colors and get some paint on the walls so that I can finally put up shelves and artwork and whatnot and officially finish moving in.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Either I paint my living room yellow and every other room blue (maybe not the same shade, but all from the same swatch so that they don’t look weird), or I paint my living room yellow and my boys’ room yellow (the boys’ room a brighter version of the living room), and I paint my bedroom and my kitchen blue (again, maybe not the same shade, but from the same swatch).

I had already settled on blue for my room because blue is my very favorite color, and because I have a lot of furniture and accessories that are white, and because my duvet is white with blue flowers. I like the thought of a cool, calm room of blue and white with green plants (and a super soft sage green throw I recently purchased because I am totally weak against soft throws — I probably own six or seven of them).

I had also settled on blue for my kitchen as of last night, when I was reading Apartment Therapy and came across a photo of a kitchen with white cabinets and pale robin’s egg blue walls. It was so pretty and bright that I immediately knew it would be perfect (whether I stick with robin’s egg or go with another light blue). I also plan to paint over my greenish-blackish linoleum with a black and white checkerboard pattern, and I think that the whole combination will be a good one…especially once I install butcher block counter tops…but that one might be a while.

My boys’ room is where the question rested. I’ve long planned to paint the bottom half/two thirds of their bedroom walls with a bright color (I usually imagine a very saturated yellow), with the rest of the walls and ceiling white. I planned to line the spot where the paint colors met with picture rails (or at least trim) that would allow us to prop artwork around the room. The rest of their furniture is white and I figured that artwork and toys (and the bright red or green area rug I want for their cold, cold floor) would be enough to make it feel like a bright, cheerful room.

But now I wonder whether I should go with a bright blue instead (the most saturated version of whatever I choose for my kitchen and bedroom), and let my living room stand out as the warm, yellow center of our home while the cool blue rooms recede away. Or should I stick with yellow, which means that if you imagine my house as a square divided into four square rooms (which, essentially, it is), the rooms diagonal from each other would match in color (even if not in shade). Again, it seems important to mention that you can see all the other rooms from the living room, and you can see most of the rooms from every other room.

When I asked my boys their opinion about the color of their room, they both chose the blue swatch I showed them over the yellow (although they preferred the murky greenish seawater swatch over everything, and I’m pretty sure that’s not happening). As I write this all out, I too find myself leaning toward a house with cool blue rooms and a warm yellow center. I like the way it feels…and I can tell from the pile of yellow and blue paint swatches scattered over the desk in front of me that seeing a blue room from a yellow room and vice versa will look nice too.