Household Art

Finally getting some of the art back on the walls.
The photo--click to really emBIGGERate--is of a window shade that I found at a winery in Amador County, California. The desk is Carlos' , from eons past, while the Bible is mine--yes, mine--and is an old family Bible. The statue on the right is called Twisted Kitty, and is made of wrought iron. i found her in a furniture store in the Mission District of San Francisco.

This is one of the many pieces of Asian-inspired art we have in the house; there's something about these things that Carlos and I both love. It sits high on the wall in the sunroom, and you can only see it when you enter the room, so it's kind of a pleasant surprise.

My mother used to do something called Tole painting, which is a type of folk art. She learned to do this from her sister, and my mom spent years painting anything and everything. This is one of the few wall-art pieces of hers that I have and it sits in the kitchen where I can see it, and smile, every day.

And, of course, this is an example of living art. The most beautiful cat in the world, Tuxedo.

Calling All Gays....Or Straight People With Taste....or Gay or Straight People With An Opinion

So, I've repainted the living room from it's Country Bumpkin Chic, to something a little more modern and, well, me! I have one long Chocolate-y Gray wall that will soon be home to some watercolors we have, but I am in a dilemma as to which grouping.
So, what do you think? [click 'em, they emBIGGERate]


Grouping 1:
The Native American watercolor, as well as the two to the right, are being re-matted with simple white mats.

Grouping Two:
The same tow, at the right, will be re-matted in this grouping too.

Whichever is selected, the Crocus watercolor, or the Native American watercolor, the other will be placed on another wall of the living room.

Goodby Cruel Chair Rail.......

Finally! The living room painting project is complete, and I think it looks mah-velous. We changed our paint choices about four times before settling on Rugged Suede and Grey. The first brown was too dark, though I liked it, and the first gray has too much green in it. This brown is lovely, and the gray has more blue in it, and they work so well together.

As I'm apt to do, I wanted something different. So, as I was painting out the trim, from brown to ivory, I brought the trim color down from the crown moldings about two inches and up from the baseboards the same amount. Then, with my trusty ruler, I measured down from the crown about and inch-and-a-half, and taped a half-inch piece of painters tape all the way around the room leaving a half-inch gap between the crown and the tape. i did the same to the baseboards, only the gap was three-quarters of an inch.

Then the painting began. The long wall, er, the art wall, as that's where our watercolors will go, went Rugged Suede, while the other three walls went Gray. And the results, i think, are beautiful, and more importantly, Carlos likes it, too.
Now.....to the hallway and beyond!

Painter Man

Semi-Sweet and Cathedral Stone

It's hot. And sticky. And I hate it when I get all hot and sticky...well, some of the time.
The weekend is over and it seemingly just started. One minute there was a Friday night cocktail, and then it was Monday morning. In the old days that would have been the sign of a really fun weekend, but nowadays it's just a sign of Old Days. But I digress.
I'm on yet another painting binge at Casa Smallville. This time it's the living room. When we moved it, it was painted a very delicate shade of light blue, above a chair rail--do not get me started on chair rails--and then there was some sort of painting technique applied to the wall below the rail. I swear to Ellen, the people who lived here before we bought this house never met a hideous color, or an outdated painting technique, that they didn't slather from stem to stern of the house.
Navy blue sponge-painted kitchen? Yes, we had that.
A flesh colored dining room? Check!

Chair rail and stripes! Ack!

The aforementioned striping below the chair rail--which really just looks like the paint ran, and they called it art. Indeed!
A pineapple wallpaper border in the master bedroom that wasn't actually applied to the wall, but was, instead, stapled, top and bottom, all the way around the room!
Yes, I know you feel my pain.
But, back to the living room. The chair rail was removed, and the walls patched. The crown molding and the baseboards have been sanded and primed, and mostly painted a lovely shade of ivory. Now, comes the time for picking a wall color. And this is where the trouble starts.
Carlos and I never agree on color. I like something a little unusual, a little dramatic. I see the room as a whole; the paint, the art, the furniture. Carlos sees just the color of the wall. And, to be fair, he likes the freaky. He, and I'm biting my tongue here to save you all from a slew of curse words, was thinking of painting the living room lavender.
I know!
La-ven-der.
Oh-em-gee.
Luckily, I was able to persuade him that lavender wasn't really the right color for the room. You know, I said, the furnishings are mostly earth tones, in greens, golds, browns, so lavender would stick out like a sore gay thumb. And it may have been the eloquence of my anti-lavender argument, or it may have been the hammer I kept swinging in my right hand, but the idea of lavender was shelved. Lavender! I mean, we're gay, not queer. I kid. We're queer, too.

The recently painted mantle will soon match all the trim.
Chair rail down, but note the chair rail in the hall!
In The Hall!!!!

I explained that I wanted the neutrality of gray. Gray, with my ivory trim would be lovely, especially when we install carbonized bamboo flooring. But, I also I wanted an accent wall, and I wanted a darker shade of gray there. So we researched grays. Grays with blue. Grays with green. Grays with with brown. Even grays with a hint of purple, that looked, yes, lavender, Those I hid from Carlos.
And we settled on a gray with some blue in it. For about five minutes, and then it was back to the paint store for more samples. And I found it.
Gray. or, as the paint store called it, Cathedral Stone. And the accent wall in Semi-Sweet. it's like a church for chocolate. I bought sample-sized cans and came home and painted splotches on the walls. Carlos, who was working in the yard, came inside, saw the splotches, and promptly made a gurgling, hissing noise and fainted dead away, while muttering, 'Too dark....too dark....too.....'
But I think, on the one wall, covered with our collection of watercolors, the Semi-Sweet is gonna look All-The-Way-Fabulous. I even brought out some of the paintings and held them against the wall.; Gorgeous. I showed him different colors and how they looked against the gray. Wonderful. I even promised that his antique writing desk would look fabulous against a Semi-Sweet wall. But, I also promised to live with it for a few days. 
The first day, I changed my mind, and agreed with Carlos.
Too dark.
Now, I'm not so sure....I could switch the Semi-Sweet for Rugged Suede, which is a shade lighter, and then switch out the Cathedral Stone for something which might be lighter, too. Or, I could go with my gut. or i could go all Rugged Suede Cathedral Stone.
What to do.....what to do.
I hope the room is done before Christmas.
Our tree would look amazing in the Chocolate Church.