OT - Granite Counter tops -

[soccerchick]

I have to check out those colors you listed. I just found this one and need to see it a real live piece of it, if you know what I mean.

Baltic Brown

I have this one, which I love.It goes well w/my maple cabinets. My parents re-did their kitchen and they have white cabinets. Now if I could get them to repaint their walls it would look great.

The only problem with the Baltic brown is that I want to do tile backsplash and three years later still haven't picked out tile I like to go with it.

Meanwhile, DH keeps getting to do all the other projects on my list and this one keeps getting skipped.

 

[hogue123]

Tara, I LOVE the campbells soup room! I was actually looking for more of a orangy copper brownish color. I couldn't find one I liked so I went with the redder color.

I love the color by your stairs. Is that a green? We are in the process of updating and repainting the first floor of our house (that's why the kitchen and 1/2 bath were re-done). I am doing a tan color in the great room with a chocolate brown wall as an accent wall (I am using some Ralph Lauren colors- I love their neutrals. They are such nice colors). We have a 2 story great room and lots of windows so I don't think the chocolate brown will be too dark.... or at least I hope it isn't! The entry I want to be a different color but can't decide on one. The color will have to go with the browish/greenish/gold color in the kitchen and the brown and tan color in the great room, as the house is an open floor plan. The entry is 2 story and we are going to have that panel moulding put on the bottom half of the wall and crown moulding at the ceiling. So there will be a lot of light and trim (2 story entry with a big window and open to the upstairs and you get the light from the great room windows as well). I am not afraid of dark colors and with the lighting in this area, anything would work. I was leaning towards a color similar to what you have but can not find the right shade.... Do you know what it's called??

 

[TaraPA]

Your foyer/family room sounds just like mine so yes you can handle a chocolate brown wall for sure. You will be amazed how it makes anything white pop. I say out loud at least once a week "Boy I'm so glad we painted these rooms!" My foyer color is a medium brown/chocolate from Sherwin Williams called Hopsack. The family room is Sherwin Willams Latte. They were on the same color card, 2 shades apart. It was so hard to pick. I now wish I would have gone even darker. My 2nd choice for the foyer was a dark Ralph Lauren forest green, but I was scared it would be too dark. I don't think it would have been. Here's a pic showing the 2 brown colors side by side. Our house is open concept like yours so it's difficult to find a place to stop one color & start the next. The only place it's noticeable is in the hallway upstairs - looking left & down the back stairs is latte, looking right & down the front stairs is hopsack.

 

[kathi29]

Okay. I am moving in with you. Your house rocks!

 

[hogue123]

Your foyer/family room sounds just like mine so yes you can handle a chocolate brown wall for sure. You will be amazed how it makes anything white pop. I say out loud at least once a week "Boy I'm so glad we painted these rooms!" My foyer color is a medium brown/chocolate from Sherwin Williams called Hopsack. The family room is Sherwin Willams Latte. They were on the same color card, 2 shades apart. It was so hard to pick. I now wish I would have gone even darker. My 2nd choice for the foyer was a dark Ralph Lauren forest green, but I was scared it would be too dark. I don't think it would have been. Here's a pic showing the 2 brown colors side by side. Our house is open concept like yours so it's difficult to find a place to stop one color & start the next. The only place it's noticeable is in the hallway upstairs - looking left & down the back stairs is latte, looking right & down the front stairs is hopsack.

Thanks for the pictures Tara. I love the colors. Time to get out the Sherwin Williams paint samples! I have quite a collection from Lowes, Home Depot and I have the Concepts in Color book from Sherwin Williams. I love all the colors in your house. They are very much my taste. I am really trying to mix things up a bit. We've had the same wall color in the kitchen, great room, entry and upstairs hallway for 7 years! I am tired of it all being the same color. It's kinda depressing. I love how your house is all different colors but they all flow so well together. That is the idea I had in mind for my house. The guys are coming to do the trim this weekend and paint for us. Luckily, my husband's brother is a carpenter and his employee is a painter I will have to take some pictures when it's all done. We're going to get the paint tomorrow so I will have to let you know what we ended up going with.

Maybe you should create a thread for home decorating advice? You're great at it and your house shows that!

 

[iwannago!!]

Hey Ohio's not that far....LOL...the best thing we did in the bathroom is to install radiant heat under the tile floor. OMG, I wish we would have done that in every room. There is nothing like stepping out of the shower onto a hot floor (I lay my towel there too while I'm showering so it's nice & toasty when I get out), or getting up in the middle of the night (especially lately around here, it's been freezing cold) and walking on a warm floor. The other thing I love is the shower jets - we installed 3 body jets, a rainhead & a hand held jet - nothing like it! So keep those in mind when you do your re-model. Worth every penny. I didn't paint the bathroom, it's contractor grade off white. I like simple colors - very earthy, I have a little sage green in the towels & accents in there, that's it. One day I might paint the walls a deeper ivory, not sure. I'm taking a paint break for a few months. In the last 2 years I did almost every room in the house & I'm DONE. Sick of it. The most daring room I did was terra cotta - LOVE IT when it's dim outside, but when it's very bright & sunny it's a basketball color. Blech. I keep putting dark wood & dark furniture in there to calm it down but nothing works. I call it the Campbells Tomato Soup room!

Tara, I think that we could be living parallel lives! Well, except you got the castle! We just redid our bathroom and have the SAME shower! except ours has 4 body sprays and our rain head is a bit different. We got the Moen, but I cannot recall which... our tile looks a LOT alike too ,and I got the orange thing going in the bathroom too. Then we have the same kitchen faucet. How ironic is that? Your home is really beautiful!!!!!

Ok - how do I get these pics to post? I just gotta show you now! HELP, I need tutoring!

BTW, my trip with just me and dd when she was 10 was my most memorable! It was really nice! Beside, we escaped the babies for a couple days and we both needed that!

 

[TaraPA]

iwannago - I can't take credit for the nice orange bathroom - that belongs to hogue123....I had the Campbell's Tomato Soup room! I MUST see pics of your bathroom now. I download my pics to photobucket.com, then there is a share link for message boards (the link starts [IMG.....) - I just highlight that link, copy it, and paste it in my DISBoard response. Make sense? If I can figure it out, so can you, I know nothing about computers. I don't really know anything about painting either, I just got lucky that my colors worked. I did a neat tone-on-tone stripe thing in my bedroom, maybe I'll save those to post tomorrow - I'm off work then too & will need something to do!

 

[720L]

OK everyone with the glass showers......I have one also--what do you do to keep the glass clean? How do you remove the buildup and streaks? I always think I have mine cleaned then the sun comes out and its not clean! Oh and what do you clean your tile shower with? I haven't found anything I love yet.

 

[TaraPA]

Okay. I am moving in with you. Your house rocks!

Come on over, my door is always open. And now that I see it from the inside on that pic it might be time to think about painting it dark chocolate....

 

[TaraPA]

OK everyone with the glass showers......I have one also--what do you do to keep the glass clean? How do you remove the buildup and streaks? I always think I have mine cleaned then the sun comes out and its not clean! Oh and what do you clean your tile shower with? I haven't found anything I love yet.

ME NEITHER!! It's an all-day project to clean it. We use a squeegie after every shower which helps, but as you can see on my pics we have hard water & the tile & glass get white build-up. My cleaning routine (which unfortunately is not nearly enough) is to spray the tile AND glass with Scrub Free cleaner (works on the soap scum) and Lime Away (for the lime build up). I know I know, don't mix cleaners. It's the only thing that works, and I'm still here after 2 years of doing it...I scrub by hand with a hard bristle scrub brush. Rinse with water. When dry, use Windex on the glass with newspaper. Not paper towels, newspaper works much better. And then it looks great until like you said, the sun comes out the next day & it's all streaky....

Anyone else have the magic trick???

 

[iwannago!!]

I have this one, which I love.It goes well w/my maple cabinets. My parents re-did their kitchen and they have white cabinets. Now if I could get them to repaint their walls it would look great.

The only problem with the Baltic brown is that I want to do tile backsplash and three years later still haven't picked out tile I like to go with it.

Meanwhile, DH keeps getting to do all the other projects on my list and this one keeps getting skipped.

We did a full backsplash in granite vs the 4" backsplash that they wanted to put up. It wasn't that much more of an upgrade. it looks great, something to consider instead of tile.

 

[720L]

Thanks so much for posting that site, I saw a kitchen and asked about their granite color. I'll be checking out the colors you listed. Thanks you.

You should check out the site http://ratemyspace.hgtv.com/SNC/Main...1-999042c09b6b Love this site.

Thanks a lot! Now I have another web site to be obsessed with besides the DIS!!!

 

[iwannago!!]

We squeegy our shower tile after every shower too, and that makes a big difference. I have used a little vinegar diluted with water to clean with. We don't have a shower door yet, it is orderd, but I heard that the vinegar & water worked... no?

 

[720L]

We squeegy our shower tile after every shower too, and that makes a big difference. I have used a little vinegar diluted with water to clean with. We don't have a shower door yet, it is orderd, but I heard that the vinegar & water worked... no?

It works ok--I think if you did it at least once a week maybe it would. I'm too lazy--I clean it every couple weeks, but I wipe it and the shower down every day with a towel. I use BonAmi and make it into a very wet paste- and gently wipe the glass. I was told to do this by the people we bought the shower door from. We've been here 2 years now and it hasn't scratched it. It takes the buildup off, but the door still isn't streak free.

 

[Hixski]

I caught this thread because I am thinking about granite for our kitchen too. There is a remodeling thread on the CB that has lots of great pictures of everyones paint, kitchens, baths, everything really. Here it is for anyone who wants to subscribe. Fair warning though, it is a looonng thread.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1379800

Everyones pictures here are beautiful!!! I am starting to get the warm fuzzies for that New Venetian Gold.

 

[TaraPA]

Wake up wake up! Ok I wil post another pic to get everyone moving here today......this is a way cool piece of granite - it had no veins in it when I picked it - and I didn't like it at 1st when I saw it, but now I think it's really unique that it actually looks like water flowing from one sink to the next! It's my boys' bathroom. Walls are now a pale grey/blue and the floor is a dark grey tile.

 

[hogue123]

Tara,

I love that granite! What is it called? I like the movement in it. Another great job! Post all the pics you want. I enjoy looking at them.

Amy

 

[TaraPA]

Amy - glad to finally realize your name! Anyway I have NO idea what this granite is called & have never seen it anywhere else, or on a website. I also don't have a sample with the others I got, no idea why. If someone knows what it is please let me know! I do remember it was the most expensive per sq foot that we got, but we just needed this one slab for the vanity top & backsplash, so it wasn't too bad. There wasn't another white/grey that I saw that I liked, so we went for it.

This thread has inspired me to paint. DS10 want a Philadelphia Eagles room. I have the Eagles green paint picked out, but it's more a teal blue/green, which is SO not me. Sherwin Williams said they get the request for Eagles green all the time, so they have one just for that. I said I'd do a half wall in it & then slap an Eagles border in the middle, and leave the top half of the walls white or light grey.

I do have another painting dilema maybe you all can help me with. I have no idea what to do with the tray ceilings in my master BR or sitting room. I will post pics & then everyone needs to give me ideas...

 

[TaraPA]

Ok this is the neatest painting I've done - tone-on-tone stripes - very subtle yet formal looking...anyway....look up in the pics - both rooms have a tray ceiling. In the BR I've painted the sides of the tray the same gold as the walls, but not the ceilling of the tray. I originally had Sherwin Williams match the spa blue from my bedding to paint the ceiling of the tray, but then chickened out, I'm not a fan of blue. My other thought is to use the dark brown/gold from my foyer (Sherwin Williams Haycock) for the ceiling, and then go over it with a metallic bronze faux finish. I thought this would look deep & rich. Or like someone threw up on the ceiling....

stripes in progress

I didn't carry the stripes into the sitting room, I thought it was too much, so this is just flat Victorian Gold paint - and an empty tray ceilling! I do have wallpaper border from Waverly to match the bedding - I could use that in the tray or on the walls someplace....

this is the Haycock deep brown/gold color I was thinking of doing the tray ceiling in, for the bedroom side

 

[kathi29]

I don't have any decorating advice for you. I just wanted to say you are very talented! If you don't do interior design, you really should think about getting into it.