Category: Color

A Touch of Color

Color, Decorating

My number one non-essential wish right now would be to discover a few thousand dollars in my pocket, then whiz through my home updating furniture and adding graphic color and pattern all over the place using paint, wallpaper and, most of all, fabric.

My number one mental/emotional health challenge right now is gray skies.  They’re really getting to me in spite of all my efforts to pretend that it’s sunny.    On a gray day last week I said to my husband, “I want to paint something a bright color.”  (I actually wanted to paint three or four things, but I didn’t say that.  It might have worried him.)  He argued that it wouldn’t change anything, that happiness is something we choose no matter what the weather is outside.

And while I agree with him wholeheartedly, I must also argue that color and paint can start us down the road of cheerfulness on ugly days.  So I fed the family dinner, watched my husband leave for some meetings, let the children play (what is spring break for, after all?) and got out my paint brush.


The formerly all-white cabinet in my dining room got a little makeover.




Not only does the blue look spectacular, the white now pops and the entire piece suddenly has nicer lines and more character.


I’ve always loved the look of shelves painted a contrasting color on the inside.  I’m not sure why I’ve never done it before, but now I’m eying all the shelves in our house.


The dining room is north facing and in the center of our house, so it really gets very little natural light.  I love the butter yellow on the walls for that reason.  It’s the perfect color for the room, and helps to lighten it up.  Now, however, I’ve got a gorgeous splash of paradise in the middle of the room.

I pared down the silver pieces on the shelves.  I’ve got an idea brewing for them, but for now this is great.


Even the view from the kitchen is improved by this reflection in the mirror.


And when I come downstairs this is the first thing I see:


My favorite little gravy boat now enjoys a place on the shelf.  I like how it looks against the blue.


Yes, happiness is a choice.   But paint sure helps.

Jennifer

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Feast for the Eyes

Color, Decorating



I’ll be honest.  I’m not a fan of Las Vegas.  I can think of a million other places I would vacation first.  When I ended up there early this week I really didn’t do any exploring.  I mostly stuck to my hotel room and worked on things that are important to me.  I can shop anytime.  I can’t be alone anytime.

I didn’t frequent many places, but one thing I noticed in the hotels/casinos I did end up in was the dim lights.  It seems they forever want you to live at dusk there… it must dull your awareness of what time it is and how long you’ve been there.  Imagine my surprise on Monday morning on our way to breakfast in The Wynn to see something like this:


There was light back in there, and pastel colors, and flowers!


I had to get in there!  It’s called The Buffet, and I must now admit that I have a favorite place in Las Vegas.  I didn’t have my camera with me, so we ate somewhere else that morning (and discovered my husband’s new favorite smoothie) in order to go back Tuesday with the camera.


I was not disappointed.  The Buffet has 17 different food stations with an impressive variety of food.  Everything we tasted was delicious.  There are large rooms tucked back in the restaurant and off to the side, but we requested a table in what I’m calling the garden room.   Eight huge arrangements line this room, reaching from floor to ceiling.  The ceiling is arched with a glass ceiling and lots of mirrors high on the walls.  I estimated that each of these arrangements was around 20 feet high.  To get a feel for how big they really were, notice the scale of the tables and chairs next to the arrangements in the picture above.


Flowers, succulents, fruits, vegetables all used in incredible ways to create the most amazing artificial arrangements I’ve ever seen.  The bananas were my husband’s favorite while I loved the light fixtures:


I loved the use of lavender and succulents as well.


My husband insisted on taking somewhat blurry pictures of my left-handed self eating breakfast.


I think the arrangement below (on the right) was my favorite.  I love the balls at the top, the red tulips beneath, and the pots of trailing succulents.  Gorgeous.


But really, what made each arrangement so beautiful was the variety in them all.  Next to one another there was much to admire, compare and contrast.  It was all so beautiful and I kept wondering who the designer was.


This one was drenched in flowers.  So beautiful.


I found a lot of online food reviews for the Buffet, most of them positive.  Our experience was a good one; we would definitely go back.  In my mind this experience was about more than the food.  I didn’t feel like I was on The Strip.  This restaurant was a place of light and beauty.  Atmosphere was a huge part of my experience.  It was the most fun I’ve had eating out in years. (Or maybe I was just really relaxed after 36 hours away from my children.)


I admit I didn’t want to leave.  I wanted to sit and read a book just so I could look around at all these awesome flower arrangements and be surrounded by such color for a while.  I commented to my husband that I must be flower starved, and he reminded me that I have 250 tulips coming in the spring.  It’s a start.


Last night I dreamed that I created centerpieces for a party with this room as my inspiration.  Wouldn’t it be fun to re-create something similar?  Lots of inspiration there.  You could go a dozen different directions with this.

Have a great day!

Jennifer

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