after

erm. seems I accidentally deleted my "before," since it took so long to complete this project! Let me paint you a picture: denim-blue cabinets with a shabby-chic dry-brush effect over them in white. Lemon-yellow walls and door. White trim, except for the middle part of the wainscoting around this window, which was a darker yellow, and except for the trim around the ceiling which was, for some reason, also denim-blue with a shabby-chic treatment.

This is the second room that had 3- 4 different colours of paint on the walls when we moved in. We did the bathroom first (lavender walls, with trim in two colours of green, a celadon shower, and ivory fixtures, woof!). Now it is blue, with white trim, and we are still stripping the shower to paint it white as well. After working all summer to get every bit of the painting done, I finally got Cass to help me do the wallpapering today - we'd been putting it off, dreading it. Thank goodness it was only the one wall - it only took a few hours to do. I still have to re-upholster the chairs, which are badly stained after years of use, and put up the steel curtain rod we purchased at ikea and hang privacy sheers (won't our neighbours be glad!), but mostly, this room is DONE. Whew!

Now, the walls are a muted off-white, as close a match to the background of the wallpaper as we could find. All trim is bright white, the cabinets are a pale green. Wallpaper is "forest" by Cole and Sons. It retails for $180/roll at anthropologie, but it's quite a bit less if you have friends in Britain, as wholesalers there offer it for about 55 GBP/roll.

I absolutely love the way this wall looks now. We'll be packing a few more plants into that window for winter - all the lemon-scented things that need to overwinter indoors, plus a few plants that I am taking care of for the neighbours while they are visiting family overseas. We bought little bathroom benches from Ikea to set them on, which can double as additional seating at the table when we have guests - we'll just move the plants to another room and set some cushions on the bench and voila! Seating.

So there it is, my little "swedish forest," as I am calling it, of a kitchen. Can't get over how elegant that paper is!