Green with Envy

As many of you already know, I'm spend quite a bit of time on instagram. If you follow me, I thank you greatly! If you don't, you can here. The other day I came across the instagram of hrhduchessofstate and am green with envy over her amazing library dining room. Take a look:

On her instagram, HRH Duchess of State also known as Alexandra Trujillo de Taylor, shows off her Savannah townhouse and a variety of lavish tablescapes that she creates in her home and garden. This one was for this May's supper club dinner. A theme she titles "indochine". 

Yes, you're seeing goldfish in that centerpiece. Alexandra says this is her take on a koi pond. A lucite display box with a beautiful chinoiserie temple jar inside, filled with water ... a chic home for lucky little goldfish. Don't you think? 

It's actually a Behr color, from Home Depot called Emerald Forest (MQ4-49) so if you're curiously investigating the color for a green room of your own, look no further. Digging a little further back into her instagram, you can see that the room had a very different look not long ago:

The same room in Martha Stewart's "Driftwood Gray" which is no longer available. Sadly. If you're interested in seeing more of Alexandra's green dining room, or more of her beautiful tablescapes, follow along with me via her instagram here: HRH Duchess of State.

I'm off to buy a few gallons of paint! 

That Kitchen ...

Mixed into the fold of photos in yesterday's Space to Fill post, was this kitchen:

 

It struck a chord with me, and with a lot of you. I got 31 emails, (so far) asking me if I knew who was responsible for designing the space. At the time, I didn't. The joy and fault of sourcing things from Pinterest is that while you're exposed to millions of images, the origin of the image may not exist. In fact, in the case of this kitchen, it was a veritable rabbit hole of pin after pin after pin - none of them leading me back to the person responsible for such beauty.

 

In fact, I wasn't able to find the designer's site until I came across the image in a completely different search, and then walked almost backward into their other rooms. The company, Twist Interior Design, is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Owner of Twist, Sandy LaMendola decorated the home that architect Jeff Tritch designed, and builders L.Cramer built in Edina, Minnesota.

 

 

In this expanded view you can see more of the kitchen, including the limestone counters on the distressed cherry cabinets, the two cabinetry faced sub zero refrigerators that flank the beautiful custom cabinetry in that gorgeous green. The beams and ceiling timbers are all reclaimed in Minnesota.

 

These two photos are by Susan Gilmore and were featured in a magazine spread in June/July of 2010 in the Minnesota local, Midwest Home.

 

Now that I feel like I have credited all involved, I have to say that I am only sorry there aren't more photos of this lovely kitchen out there. Vignette shots, different angles, etc.. While I've looked at each of the designer, builder, photographer, and architect pages for more of this room, it seems to be a bust. There are, however, more photos of the 11,000 square foot house on Sandy's HOUZZ page, here.

Green Kitchen Cabinets

I know you're thinking about this, maybe scratching your chin, wondering where in the world this came from ... and I'll tell you - it's something I've been working on for a while, so yes, it does sorta come out of left field, but I felt now was a good as time as any to break the seal on this baby and start talking about kitchens again.

Plus, not for nothin', I'm kinda shifty like that.

Ooo ... a puppy, no look over there something shiny!

Squirrel!

 

But I digress.

 



We've been "working" on our kitchen for a long time. Too long. It's stalled and stalled, for one reason or another, and I'm at the point now where I'm either going to finish it - or burn the place down. And since they don't let you blog from jail (do they?) I guess the latter isn't gonna work!

Ok, so here we go. Kitchen cabinets. Green. Yes? Oh just you wait!

Design by Martha Mulholland

 

When I saw this kitchen, I knew, instantly that it was the kitchen for CDLV. It felt all at once comfortable and appropriate, beautiful and utilitarian, gracious and industrial. A prissy kitchen, you know the kind, just wasn't going to work in the bastardized craftsman meets dutch colonial house that we loving call Casa de la Vanderdogan. It needed to be earthy, it needed to look old but function as new. It needed to "flow" with the rest of the house, but not feel decorated as much as designed. When we move, the people who luckily get to call CDLV whatever they're gonna name it, should walk into that kitchen and feel "at home". For me, this kitchen does that ... and then some!

 

The color is Benjamin Moore Amherst Gray, part of their Historic Color Collection. Now, I know you're thinking Artie said this was green, and it looks green, but it's called Amherst Gray? So, I did what I know you're about to do!

 

Benjamin Moore Amherst Gray

Alright, so it's clearly a gray green. A bit sagey, a bit olivey, a lot greigy ... a gray by any other name (GREEN!). I hopped down to Benjies and picked up a sample, took it home and tested it out. It was nice. But not quite the green I had in mind. So, I took it with me to Home Depot, initially to have them play with the tint. That's when I found this:

Witch Hazel by Behr

 

This was just a tad bit lighter, and a tinge more green. Exactly what I thought I was looking for. So I took it home and tested it out. NEAR PERFECTION! I find that the coloring of the cabinetry in the photo, which is what I was drawn to immediately, is much closer in ACTUAL color to Witch Hazel. Of course, I did what anyone would do, and googled Witch Hazel to see if anyone may have been crazy enough to use this on kitchen cabinets ... and guess what!

 

Design by Lauren Leiss

 

Blogger, Designer, Fabric-tress Lauren Leiss used it in her old kitchen prior to their new move. Again coloring changes from photo to photo - the joys of photoshop, right? In this photo, the same kitchen - different little artist, shows what I think is a much "truer" photo of the color:

 

 





Are you seeing the difference? Everything about that image up top looks yellow, doesn't it? The beadboard, the green of the cabinets, the ironstone ... this I think is closer to the real deal.  So, I got to thinking about the colors. Here I have BM Amherst Gray and Behr Witch Hazel. Both are great, but neither is perfect. What if I mixed them together!?

VOILA!

Problem Solved!

I'm calling it CDLV Green. You can name paint when you have it custom color matched. Did you know that? Oh yeah! Name away! And the good thing is - you can go to your local Home Depot and ask them for CDLV Green (I know you want to) and they'll pull it up out of the throws of their fancy schmancy computer system - and you can have your own CDLV Green Kitchen Cabinets!

 

So, now I've got the color - it's just a matter of doing the work! Which not only includes painting, (why would it!?!?) I have to take the doors off the hinges, add some molding detail, patch holes from the old hardware, sand, paint, sand, paint, seal, add new hardware (already picked that out too!) and then plop those babies back into place, hoping that I did it all the way I was supposed to, and it all fits as it once did. Yeah, easy peezy!

 

So that's what I'm doing this weekend. What are your plans?