Need Your Opinion

Here's a question, please help!

I really need some advice quick...

I spent a year trying to decide if the Restoration Hardware's Toledo vintage bar stools in distressed black would look good with our aged kitchen cabinets.

There's a little black in the granite counter, and there's a black tone in the stain used to age down the cabinets.

But...the stools don't look distressed to me like the catalog shows.

Also, they have silver caps on the legs, which isn't what the advertisements show. I think it makes them look too new.

 Here's a close up of the stool. The seat is supposed to look like wood with a black stain. This seat is so black you can't see the wood.

Since none of the stores carry this color for display, I could only see the finish in the catalog and on the Internet. This is not what I expected.

We ordered 3 stools when they went on sale last week. They arrived by UPS on Wednesday night. We opened 1 box, but left the other 2 unopened in case we decide to return them.

What do you think ladies?

Return or keep?

Please leave a comment with your opinion.

Here's the catalog picture. The distressed black is on the bottom left:

http://catalogs.restorationhardware.com/spring/WebProject.asp?CodeId=7.7.1.5&BookCode=spr13flx&SectionIndex=0&PageIndex=276



sharing at:
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

Let Freedom Ring

 

 

I come from a family of veterans. I don't think I've ever shared on this blog the fact that I am one.

Being a very patriotic bunch, we all served during periods of war.

My great-grandfather, Ami, served in the Calvary on the Union side in the civil war and lost a finger from bayonet wounds.

My uncle Sperry was a POW in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during WWII. His little brother (my father) lied about his age (16) to go to war to find and save him.

My two older brothers and I all volunteered for service during the Viet Nam War. Both brothers served in the war zone while I served in the Philippines at an Air Force base that provided support to the war effort.

Luckily for me, I joined the Air Force in 1969, just when they decided to let women attend Air Traffic Control School. There were just a few of us at first. Nobody expected us to make it, but we did.

When I look back, it's really surprising how shocked men were that women could handle the job!

I was the first female Air Traffic Controller to be stationed in Southeast Asia during the war, and the first female to work in a Radar Approach Control.

As an Air Traffic Controller, I was able to talk my way into many exciting adventures to familiarize myself with what the pilot was experiencing.

So, though I love to decorate with whimsy using the red, white and blue... and chickens and other barnyard friends... I do not take our liberty and independence for granted.

On this July 4th, I give thanks to those who gave their lives to protect our freedom. God bless America and the current men and women who serve.


Join me at these parties and celebrate July:

http://thepolohouse.blogspot.com  (Favorites On The First)

http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com

http://astrollthrulife.net

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

http://frommyporchtoyours.com

http://savvysouthernstyle.net

http://alderberryhill.com

http://betweennapsontheporch.net

http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com

In The Kitchen

Here's the new island in the kitchen. I plan to put big chunky wheels on the bottom so I can move it when I steam mop the floor.

For now it's temporarily sitting on a rug. I haven't filled it up yet because I'd just have to take everything out when I turn it upside down to attach the wheels.

Middle daughter gave me a chalk pen when I was visiting her a few weeks ago. It's so much easier to write crap on chalkboards with these pens!

The bottle rack from World Market found a home on the new island. No doubt it will move to a new location once I get the counters cleaned off when I put the appliances in the new island. It's so much easier moving these smaller things than couches and such...

Thanks for dropping by!

 

 

 

Partying this week at...

 

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

http://missmustardseed.com

 

 

Getting Ready For The 4th

I bought one too many "old pieces of junk" as Wild Bill calls my garage sale treasures. My car sure was loaded down on my way home from Illinois.

I had to take my clothes out of my rolling duffel, put them in garbage bags, and fit them all around the new kitchen island and other stuff I bought.

Here's what I'm doing with the old kitchen island...

 

I put it in the breakfast room, which has pretty much been empty until now.

 

 

The pot rack hooks at the top make great cup holders. When colder weather comes I plan to make it a coffee/hot chocolate station like I've seen other bloggers do. Love those!

For now I put some little blue and white cups at top in honor of July 4th, and I'm on the lookout for all things red, white and blue in the house.

Wild Bill offered to list it on Craig's for me. Silly guy. I can use it in so many areas of the house!

 

I think he was really disappointed to know it was staying!

 

Come join these parties:

http://cityfarmhouse.com

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net

http://astrollthrulife.net

Pottery Barn 3-Tier Tray

A while back I finally bought Pottery Barn's 3-tier tray. I had been slobbering over that PB page for quite a while. It looked so good in the catalog.

Not sure I really like it in person. It maybe seems too new? I'm thinking of using some stain to make it look a little older.

I've since seen a lot better looking tiered trays made by various bloggers using old trays or plates, wooden posts or parts of lamps, and various screws.

Next time I think I would make one instead of buy one. How about you?

My Last Island, Honest

I've been on an eternal quest for an island for the center of our kitchen for over 2 years.

I think I finally found "The One"

Please overlook the background. We're in the middle of trying to pick the perfect gray paint color for middle daughter's kitchen.

The back looks just like the front and the doors open from both sides. yay! I'm thinking storage for all the counter-top appliances.
 


 

Here's our kitchen and the island we have now. No windows in the kitchen so getting pictures is a problem. sorry.

 

The kitchen's cabinets are kind of busy, so the pots hanging in the middle of the kitchen just add to the messy look. It doesn't help that I love clutter!

 

The only picture I have of the kitchen without an island is from Christmas. It just seems like there should be an island in the middle doesn't it?

 

 

Wild Bill was relieved to hear the new island is a reproduction and not an old relic dug out of a pile in a dusty shop!

 

He's not with me on this trip to Illinois, and I think he's worried about what I might drag home.

 

He probably has a right to worry since I bought the island at the Kane County Flea Market last weekend. So many old things, so little time!

My daughter lives right near it, but she had never heard of the Kane County Flea Market. Luckily I had read about it on Rosemary's blog:

http://www.villabarnes.com

Rosemary often talks about selling at the Kane County Flea Market, but we didn't see her there.

Maybe we'll have to go back again this Saturday?


Join me at these parties:

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com

http://www.timewashed.com

http://missmustardseed.com

Talkin' Bears

Sometimes you get the bear...

 

Sometimes the bear gets you...



 

Only 3 months old on the 7th of June and she already knows Grammy can't resist her smile.

Happy Monday!

Many Lives Of A China Hutch

This is my china hutch in its current state. I painted it white, Swiss Coffee to be exact. But you saw that coming, right?

It's not finished because I just got the second coat on when I left home to drive to Illinois to spend 3 weeks with the newest grand baby.

When I return home, the china hutch will get some distressing and "aged down" with a coat of Annie Sloan's (AS's) clear and dark wax...At least I hope she will!

I'm a coward when it comes to adding the aging-wax-finish to furniture.

I had to get that off my chest.

I've had the two cans of AS's clear and dark wax for about 9 months now and haven't even opened them. fail!

I bought the wooden china hutch back in 2003. I loved it for a few years.

...then I couldn't stand the raw wood any more.

She got a few coats of AS's "Old White" chalk paint about 3 years ago. I never finished it, probably because I would have had to age it. And, I already told you about my fear of failure.

A year ago, I fell for a two-tone look I saw on a piece of furniture in an antique mall -- AS's Coco with Old White. Seemed easy since it was already Old White...

I gave up. I was almost finished, and I gave up! I even painted two of the glass doors coco, but I didn't do the drawers!

I love how I was obsessed enough to decorate it anyway, even though it wasn't finished!

I wonder why I quit so close to the end? Could it be because the piece I saw in the shop was aged with clear and dark wax? I'm starting to sense a pattern here.

 

Even though I still need to age the new paint job, I started decorating it the night before I left on the trip. 



 

Some vintage glasses, tarnished silver and cloth napkins. It might seem like I'm not really planning on breaking out that dark wax...

 

 

But, this time for sure!

 

I'll age it down like crazy. Maybe I'll re-paint the glass doors with blackboard paint, add some stenciled numbers, change out the knobs, beat it up a little, then break out that dark wax baby!

 

I might need to take a waxing class, then I'll do it for sure...

 

 

Partying this week at:
 

http://debbie-debbiedoos.com
 

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

 

http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com