Tile progress

Master shower with bianco dolomiti:

Master bath walls:

We're gonna need more tile.

Here's where we started figuring out the tile layout for the kids' bath:

floora installa

Countdown is on!  Not to stress out my GC or anything, okay, a little stress perhaps.  We are heading to Spain tomorrow and all I can think about is the color of the kitchen floor and how it will look with the counter marble.  Whether the cabinets that are being made are white dove or if I made an error months ago and spec'd the wrong thing!  Phew.  No matter.  The house is in good hands and the floors look great so far.  Check it out:

These lovely boards are going to be painted with Farrow & Ball's Arsenic.  Nice.

Inspection passes.

And the sprint begins.  Lots to do in the house & I hope the before and after pictures will astound (me).  

Picked out the Calcutta marble for our kitchen counters yesterday.  

Love stone yards (or in this case, warehouses).  Each slab is like a work of art.  Abstract modernism, watery landscapes, and some exude a piece Pollack would have done had he taken up watercolors.  

I'm a bit of a one trick pony with stone, though. 

I like white marble.   

This looks more grey in the picture due to poor lighting.

This is bianco dolomiti which will be for the master bath vanity(honed).

I also like soap stone and very simple grey-black stone.

This would be good for my parents kitchen.

I don’t love granite. 

But man, I saw this lapis stone that was incredible! “very ‘World of Interiors’,” as we would say at C & J Katz Studio.

It's so blue in person.  It's like a pattern I've seen on a Dries dress.  Inspired!

The kitchen has new walls now!  Blue board is up and the plasterers are on the move on the top floor.  My pictures of the blueboard are less than stellar, so I will not bore you.  Trust me when I say, this is when it all takes shape.  Tiles are going in today in the master bath; and on Friday I expect to have loads of pictures to show you that progress.

Signing off ‘til then.

Oh, and maybe I will share some wedding pics too.  I can’t resist.  It was darn pretty.

xx

the importance of lighting..

...should never be overlooked.  I realize that I will be getting married in four days, but I want to make sure that an outdoor light is ordered for the most fabulous courtyard that will be created at the new abode.
Getting ahead of myself.

Lighting is key.  Anyone (who has walked into a restaurant with expectations of mastery from the kitchen after reading rave reviews in the Wednesday NYTs to find poor garish lighting and has turned on their heel to walk out), knows this.


So you can understand why the choice of each light fixture in one's home has it's own arc in the decision-making process.  Yes, I have personified the light fixture.  geeesh.


The outdoor lighting is key.  There shall be fixtures that subtly uplight the minimal foliage and the fencing around the perimeter.  A glow.  There shall also be the light above the door.  This fixture needs to be in keeping with the aesthetic of the house, vaguely industrial, not too precious and not too modern.  Thus the barn light image above and below.

I am going to go with the classic barn light with classic goose neck pictured.  I am going to go with the french green, the galavanized metal OR the (surprise, surprise) black finish.  It'll look great either way.  Kevin agrees with my first choices of black or galvanized, so you know,  it will be one of the two.