Home Decorating, start with new paint!

Do you remember I finally chose Behr Paints Cheyenne Rock for my dining room walls? In no time, my husband had it up on the walls! It is gorgeous! I need to take more photos...he has since painted the chair rail a creamy white called Pearl Drop, and it really pops. I forced a vase of forsythia, and you should see how awesome screaming yellow looks against it.Okay, you will see it. I'll cut some more and when they're open I'll take daylight pictures. With the fresh and clean chair rail in the pics. The next picture shows you my lame valances--too small, too shallow, too blah, and cheap brass-tone hardware too boot...Has anyone painted over cheap metal hardware? I wanted to put up robin's egg blue/aqua sheers and top them with a bigger valance, maybe in a red toile de Juoy (sp.? ) on an aqua/pale green ground...already have the fabric, pics to come... Would love to paint all the wood trim white, but hubby cringes when I say things like that, so I'll be content with the white chair rail for now. I think I'll install the curtain rods higher and wider over the window, too, for a more expansive look. (No, I didn't mean more expensive.) Anyway, I'd like to get some touches of red into the dining room, as accents, and to make it more cohesive with my red kitchen and sitting room. Yes, that's right, my husband also painted alotta walls alotta red for me! Imagine the shock for us, after 12 years of white walls, and I ain't talkin' tires here! Okay, this is a tiny bit redder than what I wanted (and what the swatch looked like). I should have seen it coming, since it's called: Behr Paint Daredevil Red!

When we moved in, my husband, who is more partial to beige, and brown, and beige and white, accented with beige, said that the first thing that would have to go were the red countertops in the kitchen. I said "Over my dead body! If anything goes it's the heavy '80's oak cabinets!", a statement which he found equally as shocking, feeling as he does about wood and beige tones. I wanted (and still want) to paint the cabinets white, or at least one of those lighter "pickle" finishes. Well, having the inertia of glacial movement (hey, well, ya' know, it's cold up here in Maine), our kitchen counters are still red, and the cabinets still that dated (now, more so), honey oak. And now everything's 12 years' worth more worn and dingy. But I still love my red counters. And I still envision white cabinets. Since that time, we've put up a tiny apple print wallpaper (a little dated and trite, but I still like it okay), but nothing else has changed, and it needs a good sprucing up. I really should take pictures, but gee, there're dirty dishes in the sink, and the counters look cluttered and the windows aren't clean , and, and --well, we'll see. I envision a kind of Alpine Chalet look with red gingham and eyelet curtains and kitschy vintage aprons and lace shelf-edging. Next thing you know, I'll be out milking the goats in my wooden clogs and dirndl skirt, and yodeling....

I suppose you'll want pictures of that too....don't hold your breath.