Our Front Hall

Our front hall is tiny.  Really tiny.  Too tiny for all the giant shoes and boots it needs to hold.  Too tiny for all those feet that land on the mat on a wet or snowy day.  Too tiny for a small console table.  But it's what we have.

The door on the left side is for the front hall closet and the door on the right is the back of our front door.  There is a little dog bed at the foot of the stairs because our faithful dog waits for me by the front door when I go out.  

We needed to make this area both functional and pretty.  It is the first thing people see when they enter our home and the last thing they see when they leave.  It is a busy area with a lot of needs. 

So in pursuit of making the entry pretty, I painted the end wall a medium gray-blue colour (Nimbus Gray by Benjamin Moore) to give the area a focal point.  

We also needed somewhere for keys and glasses and purses, so we put up a pewter key rack made by Brian Seagull, a Nova Scotian artist.  I use the straw purse, bought at the thrift store, to hold my glasses.

The woodblock print, we hung in the entry, is a picture of Bristol sketched in about 1795.  We bought it on eBay after my husband lived in Bristol for six months in 2002 on a work contract.  The kids and I went over to the UK to visit him and we had a wonderful Christmas holidays together, so it holds special memories for us.

The details in the woodblock print are amazing.  See the ships sailing into the harbour in Bristol?

And on the other side are a group of people standing on the hill overlooking Bristol.

The mirror in the front hall was one we already had, but it had a gold frame so I painted it black, to complete the vignette.  

So there you have it - it's our welcome to the world, with a little bit of personality and a few organizational pieces to keep it working.

What about your front hall?  Have you added some interest to say welcome home? How do you deal with keys, glasses, purses?

 

Bathroom Up-date (part 2)

Some progress was made on the bathroom wall this weekend.  I'm know you are all waiting in keen anticipation so here is what we got done:

We took the towel rack off the wall (and by 'we' I mean hubby) - it was only glued on and just popped right off.

I measured, hubby cut, and I glued and hammered the v-groove boards onto the wall.  I want you to admire the wonderful measuring job I did.   Why does it always end up like that? I really try to be accurate.  It won't matter in the end, though, as the top will be covered with trim.

We held up the trim so we could get an idea of what it will look like.  Looks much better with the uneven ends covered up, doesn't it.

Can't you just picture the towel rack there and the pictures going along the shelf.  Much work still to be done, though.

• put last board up along wall behind the door
• fill nail holes
• re-install baseboard and quarter-round
• put up shelf and trim
• paint
• hang up towel rack and pictures

More progress coming soon.

Wardrobe Inspiring Decorating

 
It is common wisdom that if you are looking for inspiration for colours to decorate your house, you should look in your closet.  It makes sense that you would dress yourself in colours that are pleasing to your eye and look good on you, and that they would be the same colours you would want to surround yourself with in your home. 

So I thought I would put it to the test. 

In our home we have used the following paint colours (all Benjamin Moore paints - and I checked the colour descriptions with Maria, who not only is sweet and friendly, but is a genuine colour consultant, and writes the fabulous blog Colour me Happy):  

• Honey Harbour (a soft yellow beige ) in the living room and powder rooms
• Tea Light (a light gray green) in the family and dining rooms
• High Park (a medium gray green) on the backsplash in the kitchen 
• Silver Gray (a soft blue gray) in the master bedroom and ensuite 
• Nimbus Gray (a medium blue gray) on accent walls in the master bedroom and in the front hall

While the paint colours are all light pastel yellows, greens, and blues, there are some slightly darker shades of these same colours in throw pillows, carpets, patterned materials, and accessories. 

Turning to my closet now, I have a lot of dark neutrals, such as blacks and greys, with a bit of brown as a nod to the last decade of brown clothing, and also a fair amount of pinks and reds and some light blue, green, and turquoise showing up in shirts, scarves and sweaters. 

Here's a peak into my not so organized closet

So let's see how the dressing and the decorating line-up.  I divided up my analysis into colour groups, as follows:

Neutrals - Yep there are lots of neutrals (white, cream, beige, black, and brown) in both my closet and my home.  However, I would never wear an outfit or decorate a room entirely with neutrals.  I often admire rooms or outfits that are all black and beige, and think they look sophisticated and elegant, but in reality it's just not me.  Wait a minute, what am I saying, that I'm not sophisticated and elegant?  

Blues - I should start off by saying that I LOVE BLUE - I always have and I always will.   I wear blue and I have tons of blue around the house.  I gravitate to blue, what can I say?  I was meant to live by the ocean.  I love any shade of blue (it is the only colour I can say that about) and would happily decorate with them all. 

Yucky colours (shown below) - Now this is my opinion only, but I really don't like pinky-beige colours, peachy tones, acid yellows, and yellowy-greens. They will not be put on my body, or enter my house.

 

Pinks and Purples - I enjoy wearing purpley-pink (which I refer to as Michelle Obama purple) shown on the left below, and the bright pink on the right.  I have those colours in sweaters, scarves, camisoles, and t-shirts.  I love to wear these colours, especially the Obama purple; however, I could not see myself putting these intense shades of pink and purple around the house.  Ever.  Even in candles or pillows, or plates.   I have tiny amounts of pale pink around the house in candles, soap, and a few dishes.  Any more and I think hubby would rebel.

   

Greens and yellows - I like most greens and some yellows and have a few items in those colours around the house and in my wardrobe.  I really only like yellows that stay away from the mustardy-pukey shades. These days I usually wear apple greens and have soft gray greens around the house.  However, unlike the pinks and purples, I actually could envision using other shades of green in decorating in the future, such as teal, celery green, apple green, and pistachio (shown below).

 

Reds -  Reds are something like the greens.  I actually wear a fair amount of red, but have only a little of it around the house, including a few rasberry red pillows and a throw on our bed and some true red accents in the laundry room.  Like greens, though, I would love to incorporate  more shades of red around the house in the future, in particular true red, rasberry red, orangey red, and persimmon colours, all shown below. (Isn't it strange how often I use food to describe paint colours.)

In general the colours in my wardrobe are much darker, and more intense than the colours around the house.  I know some people can paint jewel tones or dark navy/brown/black on their walls but we would never enjoy living in a space like that.  Maybe it is because we live in a northern country with gloomy, cold weather for half the year.  Likewise,  I can't wear really soft pastel colours because of my pasty anglo fair skin colouring.  I do wear pastels a bit more in the summer, but even then I like bright colours and often choose them over pastels.

While the colours of my wardrobe only sort of match up with the colours in our house, if you were to describe in words how I dress (and I did ask a close friend her opinion) these words spring to mind:

• classic
• comfortable
• with a splash of colour or detail

Those same words definitely apply to how I decorate!


How about you?  Do the colours in your wardrobe match with the colours around your house?  Is the description in words a better match than the colours?

Giveaway

I had a giveaway recently, that ended on February 21st.  Two names have now been drawn and I have attempted, without success, to contact the winners by email.  

Sooooo - here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to draw a name from the same yellow bowl every day at 5:00 pm EST and that person has 24 hours to get in contact with me and give me their mailing address.  If I haven't heard within 24 hours, another name is drawn and so on. 

Who would have thought giving away things could be so difficult.  Not to mention that I would like to have my yellow bowl back for cooking.

Today's winner is:  KRISTEN.  An email has been sent to you to get your mailing address. 

UPDATE:  Kristen has given me a mailing address so we have a winner.  Yahoo!!!

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

My father's father was born just outside of Cardiff, Wales and came to Canada when he was about 7 years old.  Since I am part Welsh, I thought it would be fun to celebrate St. David's Day.  St. David is the patron saint of Wales and March 1st, which is his feast day, is a time of great celebration in Wales.  

Leeks are the symbol of Wales and daffodils are the flower of Wales, so today we had some of each.

I couldn't find any daffodils in bloom so these ones were the best I could do - they'll open in a few days.  We also had some cock-a-leekie soup, a traditional Welsh chicken and leek soup. I know, kind of a bad name.

A lot of people don't know how to cook with leeks - even my mother emailed me for cooking instructions.  Leek are a very mild onion and taste great on their own or in soups.   You need to cut them approximately where the green part of the leaves starts, cut off the root part, slice lengthwise, and rinse carefully.

Then cut into small 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.

I'm not sure how authentic this soup recipe is but this is what we (my Mom and I) made.

 

Cock-a-Leekie Soup (for 6 people)

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

3 celery sticks, thinly sliced

3 medium carrots, thinly sliced

3 small potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces

10 mushrooms, thinly sliced

3 leeks, trimmed and washed and cut into slices

salt and pepper to taste.

How to prepare:

Boil chicken in water for about 20-30 minutes (use the water for the broth).

Remove chicken from the water.

Add celery, carrots, and potato pieces to the water and boil for about 5 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and leeks and boil for about 10 minutes.

Chop chicken into bite-size pieces and add to soup.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with some crusty bread.

Happy St. David's Day!

Anyone else have a Welsh background?  Anyone cook with leeks?