New Growth Green

I've been on a remodeling kick which started during the pandemic lockdown. Well, really it's an excuse to paint the rooms in my house happy, bright, cheerful, inspiring colors. Besides being stuck inside all winter or during a pandemic, I wanted to be surrounded by happiness. No dulls or pastels for me. I want vibrant visuals to keep my mood up and my disposition playful. Joy is in the little things.

For the kitchen I needed a bright color that was different from the turquoise living room and purple office. I decided green, the color of lettuce, celery, Granny Smith apples and spinach. FOOD! Oh, wait, I have a lime green staircase that ends in the kitchen so the color needed to be a different shade. 

Most paint samples in hardware stores are dull and gray-toned. I wanted bright. I created a color using acrylic paint. I think I bought no less than seven samples to get just the right tone. Initially I called it "Lettuce Green" before I realized lettuce is more yellow-green. I renamed it New Growth Green, the green that appears in early spring as the new shoots push through the ground giving new life to the world. Beginnings. I love it.

After painting the walls I decided the cupboards were too dark. Originally this room was a "Harbor Blue". Great color, but I was determined to go bright. I did not realize the work involved! These cupboards are as old as the house (1922) and I was stripping up to four layers of paint plus a shelf liner that was used for decoration and painted over! This was a nightmare. I did attempt to strip and paint one of the inside cupboards. That was way too much work! I admit I got tired and lazy. I decided to do white because if one day I sell, no one is going to want crazy colored cabinets and white might be a more neutral option. I also stripped and repainted the knobs white. I used a really smelly, toxic Urethan Alkyd Semi-Gloss Enamel paint for cabinetry by Behr. Glossy is easier to wash. It was all done out in the garage a little at a time and offgassed/cured for a month.

The first set of cupboards completed were really...WHITE. That's what I wanted, but I had no idea what a whole wall of white would look like. I questioned my decision. I kept working as the second set of cupboards would be around the sink and window so the white would break up. I got used to it and it definitely brightened the room.

I decided the kitchen table didn't match. I had painted it years ago and now it needed some green. I decided on a whimsical leaf pattern. I had no idea what I was about to do and just jumped in and went with it. I LOVED IT!

I looked around and decided I needed more of it although worried if I did all the cupboards, it would darken the room. I started with one mini-wall where I hang my towels. (See above photo with sink.) The last set of cupboards were screaming for some pattern and I obliged. I figured it would balance the white, give the room accents. Now I want to redo all the cupboards this pattern! Thankfully I was too exhausted. Maybe next year?

As I was stripping the floor I moved the refrigerator from the alcove. Drats. It was boring white so I patterned the alcove! The refrigerator is slid back into this space so it's hardly noticeable.

 

Then stripped and resealed the floor grout!  So gorgeous!

I started experimenting with pastel drawing and began a series of fruits and vegetables as a theme. I painted the frames bright colors. I admit I'm not that great at pastels, but it sure adds some color. I hope to fill the room with colorful frames and drawings.

Granted, paint is toxic. Even the low-VOC paint is. I've been using Behr Marque which is a high quality paint that supposedly takes only one coat so it's quick. I also wear a mask, gloves, glasses and jumpsuit and have lots of ventilation and fans pointing out the windows.

Fete

The party series continues...

I found this chair in a pile of stuff in an alley with the sign "free":

Although I vowed I wouldn't paint anymore furniture and sold most of the pieces left in the garage, this one was so small I couldn't help myself.

Festival!!!

I've had this little shelf for years, nearly my whole adulthood. One early morning as I was driving to work I past my apartment complex's garbage dumpster, there this little shelf stood looking neglected and unwanted. I slammed on my brakes. It was painted a strange bright red paint that looked like an oil gloss or auto paint. It had heart stickers on it. I loved it immediately and threw it in my back seat. I loved the red and the mangled stickers that screamed, "I have a history!" so I didn't strip and paint it for a long time.

I used to display my ceramics on it. Then years later used it for my art history books until my collection got too big. For the past twelve years it's been in my kitchen filled with cookbooks. I have red accents all over my kitchen because of this shelf. It's such a whimsy little shelf, so I put a whimsy little design on it with curly leaves. No red though. I hope I can cope. I guess I should buy new dish towels....or move it to another room. I don't think it matches any of my rooms!

My house is looking so cheerful!

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Fiesta!

More Party Series polka-dots...

With blue pillow...

With purple pillow...

Actually the pillow is double-sided. I wanted purple because I like purple with this orange-peach color, but this chair is in the blue room so I needed something blue.

FIESTA!

My house is getting very colorful...

Cheers!

Here is my latest from the "Party Series" of polka-dotted furniture:

Cheers!

Spree

I've continued my Party Series on my bedroom nightstand. This one is called Spree.

I keep thinking I should do a different pattern, but I LOVE these dots!! So cheerful.

HAPPY EASTER!

Celebration!

My winter project is finished, and it's barely even winter!

The table has a very interesting history. I have no idea how old it is although the hardware indicates it's at least forty to fifty years old. It was painted a lovely 1970s lime green and orange by the mother of my best friend from childhood. When my best friend moved out of state, her parents couldn't afford to pay the rent they owed and left the table along with other furniture. My family moved into her rental house, inherited the furniture, and eventually bought the house. We had this little table in our bathroom for at least twenty years. I always referred to it as "Lori's Table." *

When I moved out, I needed a kitchen table. "Why don't you take that crappy, old table in the bathroom?" OK! Nineteen-seventies color schemes were not popular in the 1990s so I had it stripped and it has been sitting bare for all these years waiting for inspiration. For too long it was the only furniture in the house not painted, taunting me, begging for some cheerfulness. I was also afraid I wouldn't be able to repair it properly (it had cracks, gouges, holes, and missing hardware) and I worried if I painted it, it would become unusable like my other kitchen table. That might happen, but after painting the polka-dot chair, I just couldn't resist a polka-dot table to match.

It's called Celebration!

This photo distorts the color, but you can see how the top fold out.

The panels are actually blue, teal, and purple, not purple, teal and pink.
The color in the photo below is accurate.

With Confetti the chair

I love living like it's a party!

Oh! And Merry Christmas to everyone...ho! ho! ho!

* I sent Lori photo of the newly painted Celebrate table and she said it used to be in her brother's room which was decorated lime-green and orange.

Party Time!!

The dots have returned! 
 

Chair seat

I believe my anti-dot phase was just a temporary brain failure. I let those stripes stew for a couple days hoping I'd get used to them. I didn't. Blah. Blah. Blah. So I decided if I tweaked the polka-dot plan, maybe that would do the trick. And it did!

SO JOYFUL! I love it!

 

 

I'm calling it Confetti.

 

It feels like a party.



HOORAY!!

Anti-Dots

I'm worried. I have developed an aversion to dots. BUT I LOVE DOTS!? I put dots on everything. It's my signature! I'm like Dot, the cartoon girl who loves dots!

That dress is disturbingly short!

Lots of dots in different sizes.

 

 



Dots in different colors.

 

 

 



Dots on everything.

 

 

The porch I painted was supposed to have dots. Lots of dots. Dots on the edges. Dots on the background. Dots down the vines. Dots on dots. I painted them, then painted over almost all of them. What is the matter with me?

My latest painting project is a $1 chair I bought at a yard sale over the summer. I have not been motivated so I put off painting it for a long time. Any idea I had didn't feel right. I decided to paint it different colors like my stairs and then to load it with dots like another chair I have:

I tried three times to paint dots and each time wiped them off. So it's just stripes.

Just stripes. No dots. Not one dot. The thought of dots is repulsive. The stripes are screaming for dots, but I can't do it, but it doesn't feel finished. It looks plain. But I can't do dots!

Maybe it's brain trauma of some kind? Or maybe it WAS brain trauma and now my brain has healed? Or maybe now my thing is stripes?

 

I am perplexed...and disturbed.

Californication

Why is California so far advanced from the rest of the country???

I've been office chair shopping. It's a real challenge trying to find a comfortable chair, let alone a non-toxic chair. Yeah, I could probably spend thousands of dollars on a chair and get perfection. Or not. Spending lots of money doesn't guarantee safety from chemicals. It just guarantees poverty.

Last week I found this incredibly comfortable chair, but I worried about the "faux leather" upholstery and the cushy seating. I was pretty sure it was made from 100% petrochemicals, stuffed with poisonous foam, and seasoned with a generous supply of toxic plastic, but the floor model didn't stink. My unrealistic positive attitude and relentless hopefulness is a recipe for brain dead-ness.

So I go back to the store to buy it today hoping to use my soon-to-expire coupon which will make it even cheaper, but the floor model is gone. They have a new one still in the box just delivered. OK. This will work. This WILL work. THIS WILL WORK. I chant because I'm confident the universe will hear me and grant me perfection and serenity. And I know if I don't chant I'll come to my senses. But I don't want sensibility! I want a new chair!

I start to load the box into my van and I see the warning sticker on top of the box:

Granted, these chemicals are only in California, right? These chemicals must be perfectly harmless in the remainder states of the un-United States. Thankfully, this warning brought me back to my senses just in the nick of time. I couldn't argue with the black and white. I carted the box back into the store and returned the chair.

Maybe if consumers refuse to buy or return merchandise made with toxic materials, it'll stop being made? But without safe alternatives, for now we don't have much choice.

I am thankful for the powers-that-be in California who are looking out for the rest of society.

My Remedy for Depression

I've heard depression is classified as self-anger. OK, I can accept that. I am angry at myself for wasting $700 plus $500 in multiple attempts to escape my circumstances and I am angry at myself for moving to these circumstances in the first place and getting stuck here. Understanding why I'm angry and depressed doesn't make it feel better. What does make it feel better is DEMOLITION. Or...I need a project! Something physically and mentally exhausting.



 

Remember my three-quarter antique spool bed I found free off Freecycle? The same bed I stripped and painted twice? It needs a mattress. Three-quarter size mattresses aren't common so this means I'd either have to special order one which is impossible since they soak them in formaldehyde and fire-resistant treatments OR make one. Making one involves finding organic mattress pads, stacking them, sewing them together, covering them, and hoping the plywood I place underneath as support doesn't stink to high heaven. I read I might need up to seven pads and at nearly $100 each, that's $700. Well, you know I already spent that money unwisely when it would have gone to better use toward a new mattress! Damn, that makes me angry.

The bed frame has been sitting mattress-less for the last six months. It depresses me to look at it. I need something to destroy, or rather, repurpose, so I decided to take it apart and make a bench out of it. This was my original plan for this bed as I didn't think it would be in such great shape. I figure the bench can serve as my new couch. The plan is to use the existing hardware so I can take it apart and move it easily. Currently my upholstered antique couch weighs nearly 2,000 pounds. It's hell to move. I'd love to sell it. I want something smaller and lighter weight. Can I do it?

The first challenge was figuring out how to cut the foot board in two parts without screwing it up. I looked forward to this as the foot board makes me angry. I thought the bed was in its original condition until my woodworking friend came over and pointed out the foot board decoration had been removed. Damn. Besides watching this bed sit for six months, looking at the foot board reminds me it's damaged. I want it to be pretty. It's not and that makes me angry. I need to annihilate it. (Expressing emotions is good....)

See the middle of the foot board where it's straight?
There used to be pretty woodcarving there probably
repeating the design of the head board.

Unfortunately, all I have is a hand saw. I bought it many years ago for one dollar and it has assisted me through all kinds of construction projects. I don't trust myself to be able to cut through twelve inches of wood by hand in a straight line. My woodworking friend suggested using a chop saw in order to get a straight, clean line and offered to let me use his. Bonus! Once I completed this very important step, I studied and contemplated the remaining steps and then continued to hand-saw all other wood pieces: the front board (made from the original bed rails) and the supporting seat boards. Physical labor makes a person forget about anger or depression. Especially if it hurts and hand-sawing hurts!

Check it out:

 

I have yet to make a cushion for it so I used my quilts and folded them up for some temporary padding.

Here is the view of the hardware so you can see how it all attaches. It was tricky.

I'll wait to touch up the paint this summer. I made all kinds of
mistakes in the name of demolition like drilling right
through the wood. HA!

 

If I were to attach everything permanently with screws, it would be the weight of a whole bed and too heavy for me to lift let alone move gracefully. That would make me angry.

There is a problem, however. When I picked up this bed from the Freecycle giver she told me, "It's a wonderful bed. Just don't have any monkey sex and it'll be fine." Now, I didn't ask for details. I thought it was really weird and little creepy a stranger would talk to me about monkey sex. I visualized this woman having monkey sex for a horrible instant and promptly ignored the comment pretending she never said it. Ah ha! Now I know what she meant...

It falls apart. Any little movement and the hardware attachments come undone. I would think a heavy mattress would hold it down and stabilize it, but according to the woman, I guess not. With much trepidation, I've test-sat on my new bench. It's not a relaxing piece of furniture nor something I would want to curl up on and watch some T.V. It wiggles. The first time I tried to move it from my guest bedroom to another bedroom, it leaned slightly, and the whole thing fell apart. SPLAT! If it wasn't so comical, it might have made me angry, but I had just finished hand-sawing six 2 x 4 pieces of wood so I was rather relaxed. Still, the splat did not give me great confidence...a bench sitter could get hurt. Not sure how to remedy the situation. I'll think on it.

Thinking and planning, besides physical labor, is also a remedy for depression. It occupies one's mind.

I feel better.