Blessing in Disguise

I've been complaining (mostly to my husband) for a while now that Charlotte, NC is literally the LAST town to get Martha Stewart paint at Home Depot. You better believe I've been hounding them for weeks ;) I even called down to South Carolina (which is only about 15 minutes away) and they, too, are some of the last stores to get it.

BUT yesterday I turned that frown upside down when I learned my kitchen inspiration picture is RALPH LAUREN paint!!

Here is the picture:


[kitchen of Jayson House and Home owner via Country Living]

How gorgeous is that paint? So rich and intriguing. Is it brown? Is it gray? I looked at every Benjamin Moore, BEHR and Valspar swatch and there was nothing like it. The Country Living magazine did not source it.

So I went to the wonderful world of the interwebs and checked out countryliving.com and luckily for me, there it was quoted as "Ralph Lauren Mercer". And even more luckily, I ran down to my car where I had stuffed a handful of Ralph Lauren swatches and there it was!



Inspection is next week. If everything goes well, I'm going to buy two gallons of that beautiful paint. I'll be even luckier if it's on sale [Our Martha Stewart paints are coming in May 5th].

EDIT: A very nice representative contacted me from Ralph Lauren [how cool!!!]. She informed me that Ralph Lauren will STILL be available through local Independent Paint Dealers after it leaves Home Depot. This is great news since I adore their colors. They will keep their website, RalphLaurenHome.com, updated on where to get it, etc. As a designer, I am very excited to learn this.

Paint Fantasies

Really the only thing I need to decide for the house quickly is paint. The house obviously hasn't been painted since the 90's so it's a bit dingy and definitely not our style. (you can tell from the picture I posted earlier).

I've known for a while the type of palette I'd put in our future home. Neutrals with gray tones, my favorite. I whipped up this little board during the weekend to get a plan put together:

All paint colors listed are Benjamin Moore:


Just a little taste of what I'm dreaming up.

We haven't had the inspection yet, but I thought I'd jump the gun and post this anyway. If something bad happens and we don't get THIS home, these are still some of my favorites.

Celebration

Happy Easter! I hope you are having/had a wonderful Easter. Our Easter was pretty low key - we went to Carowinds, thanks to a gift of season passes from Matt's former boss in California.

I'm not a roller coaster person. For my entire life I was always the one who sat it out while others had their thrills. But I've grown so much in this past year, I was thinking of celebrating by facing my fears. But who knows.. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway I didn't start this post to write about roller coasters.. I wanted to update you about the house! You may have seen on my twitter, but ANOTHER offer came in. So we submitted our final and best, and our offer was accepted! [It was accepted verbally but we're waiting on the signed papers. But it was Easter weekend so I'm not stressing too much.]

You won't be surprised to hear I've been obsessively thinking about how I want to decorate the house. However, the decorating will be a slow process due to funds and of course my clients taking priority... I hope I don't disappoint you!

We told our family that we are claiming Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, and I've been dreaming about what type of dining room table I want. I've NEVER hosted a holiday before so I'm excited to think about decorating the dining room. Through a random eBay search, I found my dream dining room table and chairs at the tune of $3,500. Yeah.. not going to happen. But I had to share how PERFECT it is with you!



This is the best part. It EXTENDS. A glass and chrome table that extends. Cue heavenly music.




Cheers to life's celebrations and gathering around awesome dining tables like above ;)