colors for the china cabinet

I picked up some paint samples for the china cabinet:

Normally I tend towards bright, deep tones when painting furniture, like the Bella Blue on the antique secretary.  Here, however, the curtains are dark, the sideboard is staying black, and the table is a dark wood.  While I'd like some color on the china cabinet, I don't want to go overly dark this time.  I'm thinking a medium-tone blue, like the Gossamer Blue (the upper right corner).

This room is coming along.  I'd like to have it done before Greg's birthday party in September.  Things that remain to be done:

New light fixture
Paint china cabinet
Replace glass panes on china cabinet with mirrors
New lamps (or lampshades?) on sideboard
Art over sideboard
Hang remaining five shelves on other side of window
Put pictures on shelves
Pelmet for middle window over sideboard
Paint raw edges of shelves
Put away all the junk that needs to hide in the china cabinet
Art by doorway
Find handy magical elf to accomplish all of this in four weeks

orange or pink?

Since its a long holiday weekend coming up, I plan to do some furniture painting.  Right now we live in a one-floor apartment, so its really easy to pull my bedroom furniture a few feet into the kitchen and do some painting after the kids are in bed.  Once we move I will have to move the furniture up and down the stairs to do any painting, so it makes sense to do it here before we move.

One of the things I hope to paint this weekend is the Princess's Malm dresser.  I am torn between painting it pink, orange or black.

I tested a few colors:

I've narrowed it to two colors.  There's Benjamin Moore's Autumn Red, which is the most ridiculous name--it should be Bubblegum Pink as there is nothing red about it.

and BM's Orange Appeal:

Orange is a difficult color to find.  Benjamin Moore has about eight thousand shades of beige, but about 10 shades of orange.  There's screaming neon orange, there's terra cotta orange, and not much in between.  The Orange Appeal is a soft, creamy orange, not too neon, not too terra cotta.  I think it would be a nice pop of color.  But so would pink!  Or black!

SOOO MANY CHOICES.  Am paralyzed with indecision.

Five more weeks!

terrible, horrible, no good, very bad paint

I have been itching to paint something a nice glossy black, and I decided on the sideboard for my intended victim.  I got my MIL to watch my barfy kids for an hour and I went to my friendly neighborhood Benjamin Moore Store.  As usual, my friends who run the store denied my request for the paint I wanted and interrogated me as to what nefarious plan I had for the paint.

Honest to Pete I hate this damn store.  And now, Grandma, you should avert your eyes and possibly not read further because I plan to USE MANY CURSEWORDS.

Those DOUCHENOZZLES refused to make a high gloss black paint, because they claim it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a high gloss black paint.  Even if they COULD, they would only make it in an oil-based paint, but they wouldn't  want to sell me THAT.

Breathing deeply, I agreed, I did not WANT to buy an oil-based paint because I planned on painting the sideboard in my dining room, and thus why would they not sell me a latex-based high gloss paint?  Mumble mumble oil no latex mumble mumble why you want it anyways mumble mumble NO.

We compromised by them giving me this:

THIS IS SHIT, by the way.

Shit is not the look I was going for.

I used a tinted primer and two coats of this crap on my sideboard, and it looks terrible.  Sort of a thin, watery, grayish, crappy, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad PIECE OF SHIT.  

But don't worry! I have plenty of time to do stuff like paint!  I don't have to wait till barfing children go to bed! No, I have lots of free time to do FORTY SEVEN coats of watery gray crap without interference.  NO PROBLEM.

Why do I keep going back to these jerks?

*shakes fist in rage at the sky*

pronunciation

Many years ago, I took my younger sister to a college tour day at University of Delaware, in Newark, DE.  If you've never been to Newark, its pronounced new-ARK (not NEW-ark, like the city in NJ).  The dean gave a talk welcoming everyone, and trotted out this joke, as I'm sure he does every year at college tour day:

"A family came here to visit the college, and afterwards went to get something to eat.  The dad asked a woman at the restaurant to please tell them exactly where they were, very slowly and carefully, as they were confused about the pronunciation.  The woman very slowly and very carefully said "BUR...GER....KING."

Hardy-har-har!  Actually, its become somewhat of a family joke, if you are acting stupid, to say "Bur...ger...King."  

This morning, I went to Sherwin Williams to pick up some paint for the foyer. (I am so sick of painting that foyer.)   Most name brand paint stores will color-match other brands of paint, if you ask them.  The manager at this store is very nice and has frequently color matched other paints for me.

I walked in and asked the young man behind the counter to give me a gallon of Benjamin Moore satin Decorator White and a gallon of semi-gloss Clinton Brown.  He looked at me like I was the world's biggest idiot.

"You know you're at SHER...WIN...WILL...IAMS, right?"

I find that as I get older, stupidity enrages me far more quickly than it used to.

I gave him a cocked eyebrow and said "Yes?"  And stared at him.

"We don't have Benjamin Moore paint."

"Yes, you do. Go ask your manager."

Half an hour (!) later I finally had my "decorative" white and "clicking" brown.

two completely unrelated pictures

The two year old staged this one:

Quick, Lassie, go get help! Timmy fell down the well! (Technically Elizabeth has fallen down the well, and Woody and his friends are trying to get her up. Although Woody appears to be the only doing anything.)


Here are three color swatches on my bathroom wall. I don't like any of them. Yes, we keep our hula hoops on the bathroom vanity. Their round shape nicely offsets the square lines of the mirror, yet mimics the circular nature of the 80s light fixture.


Color ideas? I want a pretty sea-glass blue-green....but am having trouble finding one I like. I am thinking of a dark brown for the vanity, a creamy white for the countertop, and the sea-glass color for the walls. I need to do this toute de suite (toot sweet? how does one spell that?) because NEXT WEEKEND there will be a million people in my house for a 1 yr old's birthday party. Perhaps I should have started a bit sooner.

Oh, and I attempted to make my own roman shade using a bedsheet and a venetian blind. Currently I am lacking a roman shade and have only bits of detritus of a venetian blind to show for it.

Crafty, I am not.