When we bought our (first ever) house in the spring of 2009, there were lots of things we planned to do to it. After all, we now would have walls we would be allowed to paint, knock down, put a door through, or whatever we wished without asking permission.
Now, combine that first paragraph with the second paragraph, and what do you have? An ORANGE WALL, of course! And not just any old orange wall. An artistic, "faux parchment" wall that they would call on HGTV, an accent wall. One that stands out. Different. Like orange.
See, we didn't buy our house with the idea of how we could make it appeal to people who might live in it years after we're dead and gone. Huh? It's our house. If I want an orange wall to look at, I don't care if the HGVT crew comes in thirty years down the road and some little snip remarks about "Oh, that's dated, and ugly!" Ok, don't get me started on the HGTV snips. That used to be my favorite channel, but boy, that wore thin REALLY quick. Even watching it to get some ideas got to be too much to stomach. Digressing. Again???
Well, I knew I wanted white cabinets, and one orange "accent wall", and since I'm married to a virtual woodworking wizard, I decided I also wanted to replace the dark panel wainscot in the "dining nook" with something that would stand out. Something. Wasn't sure what yet. When I told Melissa about it, she said, "Mom, that sounds Tuscan." So that's it! I wanted a Tuscan kitchen! Now I had some other stuff I could look at to get ideas!
It didn't take much Googling to find a photo of almost exactly what I wanted. But I knew I didn't have the ability to do that "faux parchment" (their name for it) wall myself. A co-worker told me about a friend of hers named Susie Theroff who was a super talented artist, and she did that kind of stuff for people. And she also does full-blown wall murals! Long story short, Susie came in and looked at my wall, gave me a VERY reasonable cost estimate, then we scheduled an appointment. I wondered if she'd ever done an orange wall for anyone else. It turned out exactly like I had imagined and hoped! And Harold made new wainscot from scratch for me, I painted it white, and voila! Tuscan kitchen. Well, almost. Harold still has to build my white cabinets, but that's another whole project. He has his priorities...we both do. Next spring it's time to build a playhouse in our back yard for a certain little girl we know who is growing up way too fast. I told him the cabinets will still be here. But she won't always want to play in a playhouse.
Anyway, if you need any kind of artwork done in your house, give Susie a call. Or email her. She said it would be fine to recommend her in my blog. Here's how to reach her:
Designs by Susie
kentonsus@gmail.com
(573) 619-4361
Some "before" and "after" photos. I love before and after photos!!!
BEFORE: You'll notice the wall we knocked down and put a door through. FUN!
AFTER...so far. Still need some kind of window dressing:
so pretty!
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