This New Old House: Our Kitchen is Still a Kitchen of Many Colors

When I told Friend Robyn that I was looking forward to a restful, neutral kitchen redesign, and a similarly neutral hallway bathroom, she kind of laughed and said words to the effect of, "Yeah, YOU'LL be able to pull off neutral.  That's TOTALLY gonna happen."  (Actually, I think she was a bit scared, in the sense of, "What planet are you from, pod person, and why did you take over the body of my friend whose typical color palette veers in the direction of 'Mexican restaurant'?")

I really did give neutral the old college try.  Exhibit A:  These canvases I created using sample backsplash tiles.

These, and this dinosaur butcher chart

were going to be the only art in the kitchen.  One tile over each window, and the dinosaur on the back wall in the desk area in the corner.

Somehow, the tiles ended up clustered together ("OF COURSE THEY DID," screams Friend Robyn) along a strip of wall running next to the pantry that I had planned on leaving unadorned.  The dinosaur did make it over a door, but only because that was basically the only space left after I finished doing the decorating I swore I wouldn't do.

My downhill slide began here:

Display cabinet over the bar sink.  It was supposed to be all Bundt pans.  Chalkboard gray Bundt pans, to match the chalkboard gray dinosaur butcher chart.  But then I put this serving bowl in the middle.  And I kind of liked it, in that it played well off of the greige-y cabinet color and the paler green walls.

The serving bowl is from the Fitz & Floyd "Cape Town" line.  It just so happens that I own several pieces from said line.  So the serving bowl above the bar sink begat this over the window in the corner:

Okay, still not going crazy with the colors.  That aqua is in the adjacent dining room, as is the darker green.  Speaking of dark green, I have always really loved this piece (Bible verse painted on a salvaged cabinet door, with an iron floral accent piece painted red and green) that used to hang in the old kitchen.

It was destined for resale, but since I had added darker green elsewhere . . . and since the dimensions were perfect for one of the column walls . . . yeah, that's how red became an accent color in my "neutral" kitchen.  Except the red and green looked too Christmas-y just by themselves, you know?  Hmm, what do I have that's red, and green, and some other colors?

TOLE CHRISTMAS SANTA!  He has orange and some other colors - and the wood is the same shade as the dark cabinets.

Okay, so I have now backed into a folkloric floral motif.  Which totally reminded me of this cool spice sachet doll that new sister-in-law Mo gave me for Christmas last year:

Again, perfect, dimension-wise, on the column in the corner.  But just the scripture verse, and the doll, looked kinda . . . sparse.  You know, I have always wanted to display those cool measuring scoops that Alicia gave me.  And so this little folk art bird hook followed me home one day:

Doesn't he coordinate so nicely with the doll?  But the column still looks unbalanced.

This photo of Spouse's family used to hang in the old kitchen, as well.  And was unassigned.  Past-tense.  Now, it, too, is on the column in the corner:

The scrolls on the frame, and the orange showing through the black paint, reminded me of THESE:

(Pictured in foreground:  the dreadlocked Rasta Tabby.)

 

In the dark frame:  "Life is tough.  I recommend getting a manicure and a really cute helmet."

In the light frame:  "I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world."

And so my pale green kitchen became a pale green/dark green/aqua/orange/red kitchen.  As Friend Robyn knew it would.

Wide shots to follow, when the drills and toolboxes are off of my island.