For long time readers you will have seen our Kitchen Bench project that we did out of Ikea Cabinets. I love our Bench. If you recall, the fabric we chose was inspired by my parents kitchen bench (shown below.)
(Above, my parents kitchen bench)
First, a little background - I love my parents house, and I love my parents taste. They house is comfortable, welcoming, inspired, and is absolutely gorgeous. 90% of the the projects in our house happened after we consulted Mom and Dad. You see, from the flooring in our house, to how tile is laid, and even projects yet to be seen, 99% of our projects have been run by the Parental units before we jump in. We love their taste, and trust their opinions.
Now that you understand my love of their house, you can now understand that it was an natural choice to pick a fabric for our kitchen bench that was almost identical to theirs. So, what's the problem?
(Above, our kitchen bench)
It isn't me. :( Ok. I actually hate how it looks in our house. I know that sounds a bit harsh, but it's the colours in my house that just don't work. And it pains me to write this because I love the fabric in their house. And add salt to the wound, Mom took the time to sew me the bench cushions. So double pangs of guilt over here.
Tonight (even though I'm posting this early in the morning on Monday) at our Sunday night dinner, I finally confessed to my Mom that the fabric just wasn't working. And let me tell you, it's taken me months to get the courage to tell her I made a mistake. Thankfully everyone laughed hysterically when I confessed I wanted a neutral. (My love of white, and linen tones is a butt of many jokes) So, the outcome was that she thankfully wasn't offended, but in all likely hood she thinks I'm nuts. She kindly offered to make me a new bench cushion cover (as long as I don't pick white).
Now that the confession is out of the way, and I've gotten her blessing to pick a new fabric, I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders. Part of this process of me confessing my sins to my Mom was trying to grasp what went wrong. Here's what I concluded.
(1) First; I assumed that since the fabric worked for their house, I thought it would instantly work in our house. I thought it would transform our kitchen. Mistake. We have two different houses. I essentially forgot about how the rest of our house doesn't match this one particular look.
(2) Second; I was desperate to get colour into the room and I put too much faith in the kitchen bench fabric being THE solution to the kitchen.
(3) Third, and the most important mistake was that I failed to do was look at my inspirational photos and see a common denominator in the pictures I've loved. You see, none of my inspirational photos have the colours of red/pinks in them. *banging head on desk*
Here are some general pictures of colours in rooms that I adore. And if you notice, most of the colours are on the cooler side of things. Blue. Greens. Linen. White. With maybe some hits of oranges/reds. But the overall base of the rooms are definitely neutrals.
Love those pillows. Mixing & matching different patterns + colours on the bench would likely be more my style.
This is one of my favourite living rooms for the neutral base, but the punches of colour in the lilac and oranges in the pillows.
Again, neutral base to the room, but the soft palette of the blues and greys. LOVE.
Linen couch. Not child friendly, but oh so beautiful with the hits of colour in the pillows.
This one is slightly different, but I'm always attracted to this look. I feel it's mature, comfortable and classic.
So...what's next?
This week, we're going to go look for new fabrics for the bench. Fabric adds up financially, especially when you're making an 8 foot bench. But thankfully I have a husband that realizes that I would go nutty if I didn't fix my mistake.
I'm pretty thankful to have an understanding Mom that can roll her eyes at me, think I'm nuts, but still offer to sew a new bench cusion cover.
You probably think I'm nuts. And I tend to agree with you. But life would be boring if we didn't have some crazies like me to spice it up. :)
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