Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Kitchen as Life

Graduate school ruined me forever. Like many others, I found that I became much more analytical after passing through the socialization process of graduate school, so much so that I really have a difficult time enjoying the simple things in life any longer. I have a difficult time watching television, for example, without over-analyzing everything that passes before my eyes -- don't believe me, just ask my husband. What I used to look at casually and with humor I now closely scrutinize to the point of disdain. What does this have to do with my kitchen? Let me explain.

I have the first coat of paint on the kitchen walls. As the photo above demonstrates, it looks very nice. Yes, very nice -- that is, until you look closely. Then you see all of my errors and boo-boos. There's that spot of joint compound that was sanded well and there's a corner that isn't quite smooth. 

The moral of the story? Life is enjoyed much more when one doesn't look too closely -- and the same goes for my kitchen.

I'll get the second coat on tomorrow and then start painting the cabinet boxes, and after that, I'll paint the woodwork. We definitely need a backsplash to break up some of the monotony of color but we haven't yet decided on what this will be. I'm leaning toward slate tiles but we'll see when it's all said and done.

4 comments:

sarah said...

Holy cow! That looks awesome! Great color - it's very soothing.
And anyways, you can put artwork over any boo-boos. We call the mistakes "Making it look authentic" over here at the bungalow.
I saw a great news story about a guy in Maine building his own log home, from cutting the trees all the way to finishing touches. They asked him about making mistakes, and he said he likes to do it himself, because all the mistakes are his mistakes, and so he can live with them. That really spoke to me - owning the mistakes as well as the almost-perfect bits.
Can't wait to see it in person - it looks so great!

Unknown said...

Can I give "graduate schools ruins you" a great big hell-yeah? Not only am I jaded (and, frankly, kinda mean), but I can express it with four-syllable words. My wife hates to watch TV with me now.

But the pictures of your kitchen look great! I hope you go with a slate backsplash, mostly because I'm selfish and want to see what it looks like.

A. said...

Looking good, slate would look nice.

Tracy said...

The color looks absolutely wonderful. I love it! I know I've already used the following drawing analogy on this here blog, but it begs repeating - Juliette teaches us to do our very best and then move on. Repeated over time, this strategy leads to better and better drawings. Of course, you have to live with those less than perfect ones, but doing is the only way to learn. The same can be applied to life.

You are doing a stellar job on difficult tasks. I am impressed and applaud you!