Sunday, December 29, 2013

Not a blank slate....

Not a blank slate....

December 29th  -- Today's homework assignment was to take the 16 12" by 12" Italian slate tiles that will be installed at the rear entry into the mud room.  As you can see from these photos, each slate tile is unique with its own pattern of browns, gray, blue, and variations of color in between.  I worked to arrange each one of the 16 tiles in a way that would look interesting, and this is the pattern that I came up with.



These photos show the pattern that I came up with from different views from walking into the mud room


 to being inside the mudroom....







These slate tiles have a slight surface texture that I hope they will catch and hide enough of the "outside" on the bottom of the shoes that will come through this doorway into the mudroom, especially during winter and from the garden in the summer.

 After I played around with arranging the tiles, I numbered them 1 to 16 and taped an individual number to each tile.  






I created a schematic of where each tile will be placed -- the member of the tile installation crew, who is a native Russian speaker, will be able to follow the numbered tile and the numbered grid so that he can set the tiles in the desired location.  My understanding is that he will set these tiles next week.


 Color me hopeless....I spent a good part of the morning throwing paint samples on walls all over the house.  I am so hopelessly confounded and confused by choosing color.  I thought I had settled on a lighter gray with a tint of blue ("On the rocks") and a warm light gray with a tint of brown ("agreeable gray").

Here they are, side by side, with photos taken at approximately noon on what is a sunny day after an overnight snowfall.

These photos were taken in the upper-level sitting room on a wall facing southern-exposed windows;

agreeable gray -- top                                                                    on the rocks -- top
on the rocks --  bottom                                                                  agreeable gray -- bottom






These photos were taken in the master bedroom, the ceiling color is called "snowbound"


Agreeable gray on the left                                        Agreeable gray on the left; On the rocks, right
On the rocks on the right                





















Agreeable gray on the left and on the rocks on the right

 These photos were taken in the foyer, on the main level:

On the rocks, top                                                                         Agreeable gray, top
Agreeable gray, bottom                                                             On the rocks, bottom






These photos were taken in the living room/temporary kitchen with an eastern window and a southern window:

Agreeable gray, top
On the rocks, bottom














                              Agreeable gray, top
                              On the rocks, bottom



















These photos were taken in the dining room



On the rocks, left     Agreeable gray, right



On the rocks, top                                                       On the rocks, top
Agreeable gray, bottom                                            Agreeable gray, bottom




On the rocks, top 
Agreeable gray, bottom



These photos were taken in the kitchen, next to the white cabinets

Agreeable gray, top                                                 Agreeable gray, top
On the rocks, bottom                                                On the rocks, bottom















Agreeable gray, top
On the rocks, bottom


These photos were taken on various walls in the gathering room


Agreeable gray, bottom                                                                On the rocks, top
On the rocks, top                                                                            Agreeable gray, bottom









On the rocks, top                                                                                           On the rocks, left
Agreeable gray, bottom                                                                                Agreeable gray, right




On the rocks, left and Agreeable Gray, right



These colors were suggested to me by a color consultant at the Sherwin-Williams store yesterday.  I asked for lighter colors than the ones I tried previously and I explained the nature of my house, showed her lots of photos (albeit in my phone), and told her than I was leaning to a preference for a light gray with a hint of blue or a warm gray, but that I was having so much trouble with selecting a color that I was also open to "warm neutrals," as long as they were not too yellow or too peach.  The idea between these two colors, "on the rocks" and "agreeable gray" is that I would take a monochromatic approach with all the ceilings painted in "snowbound white," all the trim painted in a high gloss bright white, and all the walls would be the same color.  I decided that once I brought furniture into the house I could add color by painting accent walls.  Despite saying several times that I was open to other colors besides gray within the family of "warm neutrals" the color consultant steered me yet again toward the gray palette, explaining that gray is an appropriately historical color for the age and style of my house and it is "very popular" now.  I will try living with these colors and will see how they look at different times of the day when the light changes.

There is no doubt that selecting interior paint colors is 100 times worse than selecting either lighting fixtures or plumbing fixtures.....color me hopelessly confused and confounded by color.














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