First Floor Draft
Hello. At the end of my last post (reviewing the dining room decor) I said if I was able to make a decision on which kitchen option to go with that I would review the first floor in its entirety today and guess what?!?! The decision has been made. For reference, here is the spreadsheet comparing the options:
And here are the links to options one and two, three and four, and the fifth option if you need them
We have chosen, are you ready for it? For starters, John's favorite is Kitchen Option Five and my favorite is Kitchen Option Two. Shocker, we are going to go with Kitchen Option Two so long as I consider marble for the island in place of the soapstone. I said, sure, we'll "consider" it. Haha. All joking aside, John, aka Mr. Practical, did say that soapstone is soft and I would most likely regret the choice on what will be a hardworking island. John's favorite island countertop was this one:
In my mind's eye, the putty cabinets need dark countertops to work in this house. The dark will be grounding to the eye in the wide open sight lines from the dining room, family room and circle room. The kitchen will not scream "look at me, I'm the kitchen" from every angle and that's the feeling that I want, subtle. This is also the reasoning behind why none of my kitchen options have white island cabinets. White islands from a distance seem too "obviously kitchen" to me. I gravitate towards homes with separate rooms, I have never completely jumped on the wide open floor plan train. (I talked about this a bit in the post for designing our house in Holland). This house though is wide open and I want to tone that down a bit. Mr. Practical also mentioned that the island is so large that we will never be able to find a single slab big enough to cover it. This is true, Mr. Practical, further known to be Mr. Dream Killer in this post.
This is where we stand on the island. We will not use soapstone, sadly. We are not sure what we will use. Jean Stoffer, an extremely talented and brilliant, self proclaimed kitchen-centric designer, has a very large island in her own home and she broke up the natural stone with strips of brass for the two ends so that the slabs didn't have to exactly match and it looks fantastic. I cannot find a picture showing the brass detail, here is a picture of the island though. The brass strips divide the center part of the island from the two areas for stools on either end. So clever and attractive!
So, we are considering a manmade countertop material as choice number one. A new dream has formed in my mind though to honor Mr. Dream Killer's wish of marble. And that dream is honed black marble. Just the words sound out of our price range though. We will also look at honed granite. If we went with marble or granite I will have to explore options to make the seams seem intentional, maybe this is where the reclaimed wood from Kitchen Option Four comes in! A few details to iron out, the basics are decided though. Yay.
Now, let's look at the flow of the first floor with furniture, color and fabrics. This is the furniture layout that we have been looking at room by room all put together. It looks like there is a sunny-side up egg in the circle room.
individual rooms: entry, library, circle room, great room, mudroom/powder room, dining room
Drumroll, please. I know I do not have the most sophisticated graphics and images, I think this next one turned out pretty well though. I present you with the color and fabric view:
Tying up the loose ends on the first floor:
The Entry - No changes from decor post
The Library - The color was undecided
We have chosen Brewster Gray by Benjamin Moore for the library. We will paint the walls and trim with a glossy finish all in this same color. This color was in Mr. Dream Killers favorite kitchen option so we are going to use it in the library to show that some part of your dreams can come true! This color will look great with the sofa fabric as well as the darker blues and reds in the furniture and my Nana's rug.
The Circle Room - No changes from decor post
The Great Room - No changes from decor post
The Kitchen - The Countertops
We will need to determine based on budget, potential slab sizes and practicality what to use so this will remain an open item for the foreseeable future.
The Dining Room - Fabrics and wall coverings were undecided
I have decided that I would love to use a navy grass cloth wallpaper above the wainscoting, which will be painted white to match the trim in the majority of the first floor. The wallpaper will provide texture and a great slight line from the kitchen.
I found this fabric on Etsy as a possibility for the drapes. It is subtle and offers the exact relaxed look I am going for:
I want to explore having four white slipcovered Parsons chairs made to match our existing two for the dining room table. For the two consignment store chairs that will be tucked under the table at the heads, as well as for the cushion on my mom's wicker chair in the corner, I would like to use this fabric that I used as inspiration for the bench in Kitchen Option Five. It will be a nod to the red on the kitchen bench, the red on the library rug, and the blue will tie in the dining room rug and drapes.
The Mudroom/Powder Room - Wall coverings
As we work through the process of the actual renovation and materials choices, I will have to really look at wallpaper options for the powder room and possibly mudroom. I know I want wallpaper in the powder room at a minimum. That is a hunt for another day though.
Save for a few details, that's a wrap on the first floor! Next time we'll look at the basement decor scheme and next week, we'll head to the second floor. See you then!
Thank you for stopping by today,
Kerry
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