Brick, Take 1

Wow, time goes so much faster when you live in a project! I feel like we've been working non-stop, but more and more we don't have photos to prove it. Our projects are either more slow moving or "behind-the-scenes," so we don't have much to share with you. But yesterday we got something!

Perfect Curtain Fabric

I've spent the last few days painting the kitchen to prepare for the brick installation (finally!). I scrapped my first couple color palettes and instead used the fabric we're using as our curtain as inspiration. It's a piece Josh's mother gave me, leftover from making curtains for a house Josh lived in as a kid! I think this makes the absolutely perfect and awesome fabric even more perfect and awesome. A bonus to building the room around it was that we didn't have to buy paint, as along with the red/ oranges in the "brick" we had coordinating colors in our stash!

Remember the paint I originally used on the ceiling and upper walls in the record room? The one that grossed me out and I hated beyond expression? Turns out it looks great on our kitchen walls!

Notice the absence of the awful wall heater?

The ceiling and door are the leftover paint from the kitchen at Old Home. I am absolutely in love with it on the door, so much that I painted both sides with it. The entry side was originally going to be white, but this is SO much prettier. It's more durable and easier to clean, too.

The trim is the oldest of the paints. It's a quart I found in the Lexington basement, which is leftover from my mom's Arch Cape house. It was probably mixed 10 years ago! I shook and shook and stirred and stirred, and it went on like new. This is a huge advantage with higher end paints: they last.

Official Kitchen Colors-- Walls: Behr "Expedition Khaki"; Ceiling/ Door: Glidden "Java Sea"; Trim: Divine "Custard" mixed in Benjamin Moore enamel paint. Eventually I will probably cover the wall and ceiling/ door with higher quality paints in the same colors.

There are still a couple final touches to be done, such as the trim on the kitchen side of the door (Martha Stewart Metallic in "Golden Pearl"), but it's pretty much there. So there, in fact, that we were able to start installing the brick!

I had 3 panels ready to be put up. They had the "grout" and base colors painted on them, and I was planning on doing the rest after all of the panels were up. The first section went up no problem, and all was going well.

Then I tried to put up the second panel.

The best way to make fake brick is with sheets of foam insulation. We opted to go with sheets of Styrofoam instead. We can get them for free, and free is good. For the most part this hasn't caused any problems, but last night I came across a huge one. The insulation foam is nice and condensed, so when you cut it it is flat and smooth. When notching the sides you get perfect puzzle pieces. This is NOT the case with normal Styrofoam. You end up with weird angles and lumps, and it's more or less impossible to get two sheets to fit together. Also, there is less flexibility and more snapping apart. So I have to start over. Again.

On the upside, I've learned a whole lot about making faux brick over the past couple months, and am VERY confident that the next attempt will be the final one, as it will work splendidly. I'm also glad that I found the 5 gallon bucket of red paint at ReStore, 'cause apparently by the time I'm done I'll have used it all.

In other news, we have a beautiful new bathroom floor! Usually you paint first and put in the flooring/ cove base after, but we're rebels here at the squat. We just couldn't handle the poorly installed vinyl "wood" anymore, and the new stuff is doubling as great insulation.

Alright then, off to sand more Styrofoam. Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll have some beautiful exposed brick pictures to share in the next couple days!