Recovering

Ya'll, last weekend's renovations marathon was EXHAUSTING.  We are one wall and an electrician shy of being completely finished with this first round and so far we're in love with it all.  We spent a good part of the week recovering and have decided to relax this weekend and tackle that final wall (which had some plaster damage and needed professional work first) during our evenings this week. 

Our kitchen looked like this when we bought the house last year:

"Has potential" is the diplomatic way of putting it. You can't really see it, but the kitchen had a tiled ceiling and ancient, industrial light fixtures.  Even with the beautiful salvaged fir table, set of cane-bottomed chairs and the new appliances, it still felt dingy and the lighting was awful. So we sheetrocked over the tiles, hung a chandelier and started painting:

I tested a few Farrow and Ball shades, but they weren't the pale cream that I was looking for to keep the room warm--we eat and entertain in the kitchen and Missoula winters are loooong and dark--but not muddy or frumpy.  The F&B looked a little frump. 

Farrow and Ball Farrow's Cream, Tallow and Lancaster Yellow.  Three strikes and I went back to my old pal Ben.  Ben Moore, you know.  We went with "Calming Cream," and it's perfect.

 

The Mountain Man has also painstakingly cut and put up new crown moulding.  He's my home renovations hero.  He wired and hung the chandelier too.  He might have hung the moon too as far as I'm concerned! So we still have outdated cabinets, hardware, countertops, backsplashes and lino on the floor, but all in good time.  For now we're happy with fresh paint and good light.