A White Kitchen

Here now is the White Kitchen that I spoke of earlier in the week.  I will try to let the photos speak for themselves.

The kitchen is in a house build in the 1600’s and that makes it splendid.  Fireplaces, a small hand painted church (praying room), wooden “trave” ceilings, views to die for, terracotta floors, all set in among olive groves.

I hope this post will make everyone “rethink” how easy it is to change your kitchen.  That said, it was a lot of work and a lot of paint, yet the effect if grand.

Ready for the before shots it's a shocker.  Do you like it better? I do, it makes the dark narrow space so refreshing to me.

before photo

I sanded it, two coats of base coat, three coats of off white with a grey tint, a faux effect with oil paint on the corners and then finally two coats of polyurethane.

I painted over the glass motif with metal paint in flat white.  It made the etched glass design look cool and the amber colored glass punched up to look much prettier than before.  The roses on the glass before were a pretty bad, bright red with green leaves.

metal paint on glass

I also painted all the metal handles with metal paint, about three coats.

It is a roll up your sleeves kind of job.  But I did it all on saw horses in my studio, even resting the doors on little supports of blocks of wood or even with screws poking out of the wood to let air pass under once I have flipped the door to paint the other side.

This house has an amazing room right off the kitchen with a wood stove and lots of windows, here you can see the gorgeous antique ceilings that are the same in the kitchen.  This client has a good eye, very feminine and cozy with attention to detail.

I wrote this amore because remember love wins!

back roads of Umbria

Couldn't you be happy here with a cup of tea in hand? That villa looks empty to me waiting for love.  Natalie

I'm linking with:
French Country Cottage
Miss Mustard Seed
Romantic Home
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Between Naps on the Porch

Faux Painted Italian Bricks

 Good Afternoon from Umbria

I finished a job yesterday, painting a kitchen and I had done a lot of the work in my studio and then the client put it all the cabinet doors back on, when I went into the space yesterday I actually exclaimed wow, man oh man oh man- spectaculare!  I will share the work with you later in the week because it really is a good example of what a lot of paint can do.  Now I get to come back to my diario di design for a moment.  I have my 2^nd cappuccino (cappuch) by my side like a loyal dog watching me with loving eyes.

faux brick and olive green shutters

Today I want to share painted bricks on this palazzo.  Honestly I think it is kind of silly-crazy to paint fake bricks over a centuries old palazzo.  But I want to show it as an idea actually to use in the garden.  If anyone has an ugly concrete wall, or a side of the garage (or the neighbors house?) something that needs enhancing.  I think it could be quite cool with vines and bougainvillea growing over it.  This process of painted brick adds depth and can actually make the space seem bigger and also more intimate.  Painting always makes a space feel more special.

If you look closely you can see this is done simply with charcoal grey or black lines and then on certain sides they do a parallel white line, and this gives the perspective.  Imagine it done with grey and white or shades of brown, or taupe and cream something less graphic, subtler.  If you paint the wall in a couple of colors first as a base coat, note the 2-3 shades of ochre, brown here. Then I would suggest sanding it, or maybe painting on some bleach to eat away some of the finish to distress it a bit.

Here are some examples of real brick wall, vines, flowers and all.

Roman wall and a fig tree

If say your neighbor's house just isn't up to par then you might consider a James Bond 007 move and swing cable yourself on to their roof and plant a bunch of jasmine, a few years and it will be all covered up, like this gorgeous brick wall.

jasmine and brick

What do you think, is fake painted brick silly or gorgeous?  I do like it here in Italy when they have a brick Palazzo and they cover up a window with concrete, then they just faux paint the brick right over the window space, to match the rest of the brick.  This I love.  I believe they cover the windows to heat the space better.  I would rather be cold with lots of light, then warm and dark!

faux painted brick, I love the ochre and white

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking to:

Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Between Naps on the Porch

French Style with a Modern Twist

French Style painted credenza

Happy Weekend everyone!

It is a gorgeous autumn day here in Umbria, cool in the morning and probably will get hot later.

We could call this Italian Style if we wanted to because it sure is an old piece of country Italian furniture. 

Here I took this old dark wood credenza or hutch and gave it a freshening up.  It is amazing to me how this helps to lighten up a room.  Now the piece glows!

I sanded the piece a bit, to clean it up.

here is the before shot

First I painted on some anti termite solution, because as you can see there are little pinholes in the wood.  It may not have been necessary because I did not see wood dust.  If you see wood dust in little piles then it means your furniture is being eaten by termites.  This can spread all through your house if you are unlucky.  The best idea is to then suffocate the piece of furniture in plastic for two weeks to be extra safe.  It is really easy to paint on but stinky, so do it outside if possible.

Then I painted two base coats of white.

painted with primer

Then two coats of this gorgeous light gray acrylic paint.

I painted the detailing an ice-gray-blue.

Then on the corners and edges of the detailing and moldings, I irregularly painted and rubbed on pearl acrylic paint.

painted furniture in pearl and ice blue

 What do you think?  Did it come out pretty?

Enjoy the fresh Autumn air because here we are in fall.

Cup of tea…anyone?  Makes me think I should host a little tea party with my girls.

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking with these lovely ladies and their link parties:

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Mod Vintage Life

Romantic Home

The Shabby Creek Cottage

How To Paint French Provincial Style

I love the French Provincial look because to me it is timeless and easy to do.  It is a bit time consuming but this is the game with painting furniture.  The key is to just bring it a long slowly and do other work or have fun in between.

french provincial style painted furniture 

I like this French Provincial style mixed with modern bright pieces, colorful upholstered furniture.  It also looks good with bare Swedish furniture and Shabby Chic American type furniture.  Mix it up, you can’t go wrong. 

I have also done this look with a very architectural armoire with finials and arches, in gray with black dry brush and it looked gorgeous.

admit it this was just GROSS before

Here I choose a really creamy vanilla color as the base color.

I sanded the piece some.

I painted it with a base coat of white 1 or 2 times, only because I didn’t have tons of the creamy color, you go straight to painting without the base coat if you want.

Then I painted the creamy white color another 2 times.

This piece actually has a glass cabinet that I painted too and left out of the photos because I like the piece better just a credenza.

here's what it looks like with just cream colored paint

Once all the coats had dried I went over the piece with a dry brush of raw umber oil color.  A tiny tube I bought at the art store.  I mixed this dark color with turpentine and brushed it on a separate piece of wood (or cardboard) anything to take off the excess of the oil paint to make the paint sparse.  You can also add a drying medium to this mixture to make the oil paint dry faster.  Oil paint usually takes about 4 days to dry.

oil color even over the key and hardware

I paint with the dry brush only on the moldings
and detailing and slightly over the top

If you want you can add a clear coat of polyurethane over  it all to protect it, but it does make the look a little less antique.  I would wait 4 or 5 days for the oil paint to dry.

If this was going to be mine and not going to a client I would love to save it for my future loft.  I could cut two holes in the top and turn it into a double basined bathroom sink.  Put some curved silver 

faucets.  It would be so pretty with all the fluffy towels stacked on the shelves below.

I just love what a drastic change this look can accomplish.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed
The Shabby Creek Cottage

What Color To Paint Your House

just gorgeous terra-cotta orange
the top is sponged more evidently

There is still time to paint your house.  If you just can’t muster up the money or energy to paint your house, you could paint a room or how about a jewelry box!   I know, I'm intentionally encouraging you. Paint something- make a change you will feel better, summer is almost over, at least in Italy.  The antonyms for encourage are to discourage, dispirit, depress and dishearten.  Now will you paint a jewelry box? 

cool blue gray with darker blue gray
shutters and office white trim

closer view same house

Here are some great color combinations.  I like how the Italians pick soft neutral accent colors for the trim or they choose rich dark colors.

I like pink when it is dirtied up and made more manly
soft pink with chocolate brown shutters

I've shown you this photo before dark taupe and
 classic pink and vanilla trim Man! I love this combination

brighter pink with blue gray shutters, very seaside

here taupe and sea-foam green with creamy white trim
taupe absorbs color.  I love to use it in interiors with hot color close by

It is fun to imagine these colors over a little wooden clapboard house, or a painted brick or even shingle, Spanish style stucco, just splendid.

this orange-red with cream trim, dark gray-blue shutters
this looks amazing because the color is saturated and rich

pale mint green with dark green (almost black) shutters, sophisticated

white on white classic and feels like home

and here is the classic italian ochre, bright white trim,
the shutters are the dark green (almost black) color
I described above

another shot

apricot with natural brick, the balconies are gray concrete stucco

to end with a KICK
even richer more saturated orange-red,
here with green-blue shutters,
cool note: there is sheet music painted on the tower.

If you have no muster (it's hot out there) for the above then just dream and plan.

Have a good Weekend.

Natalie

French Country Cottage
The Shabby Creek Cottage