superbarista red dining room

The waves of excitement that have been coursing through my senses whenever I envision what my dining room is going to look like are taking me by surprise. And when I think about the colors for the living room too, it's almost better than sex (I hope my husband doesn't read this post). Looking at a table full of paint chips that all have intoxicating names verges on arousing. Not only are the colors themselves enjoyable, but the precision that is implied by the perfect correspondence between the exact shade of color and its descriptive name gives me hope that there is Order in the Universe. The paint chips and their names make me think that if I just describe all that I encounter with beautiful and insightful emotional honesty everything will fall into place like a giant organized kaleidoscope.

...nasturtium, flaming sword, jungle forest, sea of grass, pulsating blue, drum beat, french roast, ink, buttercup, rejuvenate, asparagus...

Looking at all of them, out on my porch table, surrounded by the morning sunlight and of course with a great cup of coffee, since you can't forget I am superbarista after all, ***NOTE: THIS POST NOW IS COFFEE RELATED*** imagining the possibilities sweeps me away into an altered state. The kind of altered state where I can't be bothered with the dishes, or making my bed, or even making breakfast. Oh, wait, that's not an altered state, that's how I am all the time. I just manage to make myself do those things anyway since I don't want my kids to grow up to be like me.

I think one reason that I am so excited by all these colors, and the possiblity of having them on my four walls is that my family and I have been living in a house-turned-sensory-deprivation-tank for ten years. Yep, we have been living in this house in Cleveland Heights for ten years. And for ten years, the walls have all been painted white. I think the woodwork is plain white and the walls are technically lemon ice white, but that's really just white. A year or so ago I painted my office cheddar yellow and the closet door orange zest. The orange zest took four coats, but it was worth it. I painted the floor tilled soil brown and the woodwork parchment. These are Martha Stewart colors, can't you tell?

That was the first taste of color that our house got; now we are pulling out all the stops. The dining room is going to be ladybug red with a french roast ceiling and buttercup woodwork. The living room is going to be frank blue with sea of grass ceiling and buttercup woodwork. No telling what we'll do in the hall and the bedrooms when we get there. The house is just going to get more colorful as you go up the stairs. The girls are pulling for turquoise and red in their room. Hmmm...