nesting, finally

It's been awhile. Again.

We had a nice Thanksgiving in Dallas, a nice Christmas in Dallas, and an even better start to the new year with a trip to Maui, paid for by my work. Nine days. Yep. It was bliss. Too bad what tan I had is already fading.

Our dilemma with what to do with our nasty wall texture is solved. We had some guys paint our place while we were gone. And---I LOVE IT! I walked in after little sleep on our redeye from Maui, just hoping it wasn't ugly. And it is beautiful! The texture is still there, but I can ignore it thanks to the lovely paint job.

We used Behr's Polar White on all the walls (we wanted Ben Moore's chantilly lace, but those prices are just too much). We used SW Passive on the ceilings in all the white rooms. I LOVE having grey on the ceilings. It's so calming and brings our high ceilings down visually to create warmth (even though we chose really cool colors). The dining room, adjacent to the family room, has Passive on the ceiling and Grey Matters (two shades darker than Passive) on the walls. This is my favorite room in the house, by far.

The kitchen and bathroom are Sea Salt, a greyish blue, also Sherwin Williams. Incredibly, these rooms look like they're painted different colors because of the difference in lighting in the two rooms. The kitchen has halogen bulbs; the bathroom has regular incandescent (for now). I love all the colors we chose so much! All the doors and trim are Polar Bear in Satin, I think. The rest of the paint is flat. It looks awesome!

Next we are trying to figure out what furniture to get.

Tell me, few friends who read this blog. Our living room is 18' x 13'--long and skinny. How would you decorate that space? We will hang our flat screen on one of the 18'-long walls; the cable box/DVD/AppleTV will be hidden in the closet in the 2nd bedroom, with all the cords routed through the walls. I want this Beauty underneath (custom made since this thing is 6k) with the receiver and turntable on top. Other than that, I can't figure out the best layout. Sofa? Chair and a half? Just a tough call, and I am so afraid to buy something that won't fit in the space.

We also need to redo our fireplace file. Wowee, is it ever ugly. Here's what I'm thinking needs to go on instead. I just love stone and wood and I want our whole house filled with greys and olive greens and wood and stone. And yes, we could do cement floors as our condo has a cement sub-floor. For rentability however, we will most likely put down laminate.

Let me know what you think!