For two years, ever since we moved in, I thought about painting the rocking chair. I just couldn't decide if it was right to cover up the beautiful, natural wood. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited. After much internal debate, I bought a small can of sun-dried tomato red paint from Paint Depot and hauled the chair outside and into the sun and lathered the wood until it was a perfect vegetable hue.
I liked the result...liked it a lot -- enough that, one week later, I used some of the leftovers and painted the top of the old treadle sewing machine. (The veneer had worn away from the surface years ago, and I figured...what could it hurt? So I painted it red. Lovely.)
And then I saw that the front door could use a make-over, so I took the paint and washed it over the wood, which gave the door a kind of stained effect. From the street it looked beautiful, but when I looked up I saw the imbalance, so I painted the balcony door the same colour. Once I saw how beautiful the chair, and the sewing machine (highlighted with several newly acquired houseplants), looked against the rest of the room, thus began the walls: wood wainscoting in the front hallway, narrowed slats riding up the stairwell and up against the wall that hides the basement stairs, and then more wood -- wide pine boards -- across the opposing wall of the room. Magnificent.
But all that wood, of course, showed up the unfinished walls to poor effect, so then those walls had to be given fair thought: how about white leaf paper painted a Victorian green?
Well, of course, that's all well and good, but now the backsplash in the kitchen seemed terrifically odd, so perhaps those glorious blue Raku tiles would cover nicely. And wouldn't they go splendidly with an off-white porcelain-tiled kitchen floor -- which in turn matches unbelievably with the light fixture I stumbled upon at the Re-Store. And those leftover floor tiles can be used in the bathroom to cover the tired linoleum, but not before we put in the claw-foot tub and use the rest of the wood for wainscoting.
And while we're at it, just look at all those marvelous lines we've created -- diagonals moving at right degree angles (I'm making this part up because I am mathematically challenged -- in fact, I think diagonals moving at right degree angles is redundant) -- and won't those wide pine boards make spectacular floors through all of the upstairs?
Funny thing is, though, what with all the changes, the red rocking chair looked out of place in all that amber pine and verdant green, so off it went to the front porch. And while I was standing out on the front porch surveying the tomato red chair and the door, I saw all too plainly that the rest of the exterior was in poor repair, so what else could I do but buy the paint and get at it? Pale hound yellow with forest green trim -- you have no idea. The peak of the house looks so much better, too, its earthy green lending a more natural effect, and the flower boxes standing out sweetly in the sun-dried tomato red. In fact, from down the street, they set off the chair to perfection. And yet, I'm still not sure that it was right to cover that beautiful, natural wood...
Old rockin' chair's got me.
<:^)
Archived Wednesday, October 3, 2007
