Capiz Shell Floral Pendant Lamp from Target

I think this pendant lamp from Target is absolutely gorgeous. And I don't think it'd be bad to mix and match modern with traditional in my home—I do it all the time and I don't care. I definitely want to get a chandelier someday for our dining room if we buy this house, so I'm keeping my options open. So very lovely!

Painted floors

Now that the dining room floor is 99% done (happy dance), Pete and I are talking paint colors. I mentioned that I thought a robin's egg-type blue floor would be pretty and very cottagey, which is exactly the style of house we live in (it's the Skywater Cottage from the 1928 Sears Catalog).

So when I brought paint chips home yesterday and had them fanned out on our floor, he seemed startled by the colors. He said, "Wow, those are blue. I thought you meant aqua or green." Huh? Robin's egg blue is pretty much just that—a very vivid, pretty blue.



I've mentioned this to a few people, and not many give me the kind of reaction I'm hoping for. It ranges from "Huh, really?" to "Okaaay...". Maybe I'm making a big mistake, but when I googled "blue painted floor," I got lots of pretty and fairly numerous results.






I would love a pretty white floor, but it would get dirty and dingy pretty fast in my house. At least the blue would "age" well.



And I like the idea of patterns painted on the floor, too, but Pete doesn't seem so crazy about it. Maybe if I show him these pix?









Sometimes I think it's because I'm an artist and people just don't "get me." But other times I think I've got really weird or bad taste. Maybe it's a mix of the two. But the blue color I'm thinking of is so happy and lively and bright, that I'd hate to use anything else in that room and darken its cheerful and sunny aura.

Bead board for the dining room

Pete and I would love to add some bead (or beaded) board to our dining room walls, once the floors are sanded, painted (a pretty blue), and sealed. It would add that extra cottage flavor to our little cottage-style home, and hide some ugly, ugly walls.

(from myhomeideas.com)