>
I thought last week was busy with painting and wedding deadlines, but this short week (because of the holiday on Monday) is pretty jam-packed, so I didn’t have a chance to post my sketch from yesterday.
7.6.11: Today’s sketch is of some tile designs. This summer, my husband and I are hoping to complete the hand-painted stair rise tile project we started over six years ago. He’s had all the travertine tiles mounted to the Hardibacker boards (perfectly cut to fit the face of each stair riser) for years now. We just haven’t had the time to finalize the designs that I’ll hand-paint onto the tiles…and we haven’t really been able to agree on them either. We go back and forth between a very ornate and structured look of Italian tiles, and a more painterly and casual look of Spanish/Portuguese or Mexican tiles. Once we agree on the four designs, we’ll need to figure out the color scheme for each tile. I want it to be colorful, detailed and obviously hand-painted…and not stenciled. But we don’t want it to be over-the-top and too busy. These designs are referenced from a specialty tile manufacturer that many of my clients (and their interior designers) have purchased from: California Pottery and Tile Works. They have a really cool feature on their website where you can “paint” the tile designs to create custom colorways. This will certainly come in handy for helping us plan out this project.
7.5.11: Yesterday’s sketch was done really quickly, while waiting in the car (um, I think in a drive-thru) during some of my many errands for a few weddings next week. Aaron and I have been discussing some home improvement and decorating projects and the topic of our kitchen has come up a few times, especially as some of our appliances are nearing the point of needing to be replaced. I’ll do a more comprehensive sketch of it some other time, but here’s what we’d like to do (when/if time, money and resources will allow):
1. Darkening the cabinets to a rich walnut or even espresso (the reddish-orange-brown “cherry” stain we chose ten years ago feels dated)
2. Building additional small cabinets and shelves above the existing cabinets, creating functional hidden features and storage/organization within the cabinets
3. Adding in some decorative grates to some of the cabinet doors
4. Replacing the counter-tops with a creamy marble or limestone
5. Completely tiling the back splash
Of course, a huge farmhouse sink (hammered copper perhaps), faux stone or cast plaster hood above the range, all new appliances, and a cream colored island (crafted from an old dresser or table, with a butcher block top) are part of the plan too.
For number 5: the tile back splash…we originally thought of subway tile. But I think it’s become too popular and I wonder if it’ll look too common and overdone…not really “us”. I’ve always been drawn to Gothic and Medieval art and architecture…and would love to have windows and doorways with a Gothic arch…featuring the iconic quatrefoil symbol. So I thought some sort of quatrefoil-shaped tile in a creamy bisque would be interesting. Quatrefoil means “four-leaves”, which I kinda like since it could represent our family of four.
Love Paper Paint 
