Kitchen Paint and Flowers

The on-going painting campaign at the Nest resumed shortly after the sun had set on Sunday evening, as I turned my attention to the terribly-pink kitchen walls, which are being covered with a brick red called Mexicana.

I'll admit I was a shade non-plussed to open it in the artificial light of evening, where it seemed a little browner than I thought I liked. And I still see a little of that in proper daylight, but it's a sort of terra cotta note, which I quite like.

And I'm very fond of the way the peachy-orange dining room walls are playing with the red of the kitchen.

I'm not brushing/rolling the Mexicana, though. I'm applying with a sea sponge, which is creating a sort of mottled texture to the painting. Plus, the more you work the paint with the sponge, the more you can get the over and under tones of the color to come out a little to build on that texture.

The cutting in's actually the worst with this treatment, since you need a wee bit of sponge to get into the cracks and corners...and I've had some bad luck with masking tape adhesives failing just as I start laying paint along the edge.

Ah, well...all the trim in the place will get a nice fresh coat of white once all else is finished, so no real worries there.


There's just the west wall of the kitchen left to get the Mexicana, though that will be a project for tomorrow night after work.

The bricky-red should butch up the pink walls that will remain in the pantry.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share with you a few snapshots from the garden at work.

I just love these yellow David Austin roses. I can't recall the name of this variety, but the scent is just lovely, even muted a little by the recent cool temperatures.

These single pink roses are also nicely scented. You can see that the rose plants are looking a little scraggly at this end of the season, even though they are continuing to bloom. They'll do so on and off til around November, weather allowing, which it often does. That's always nice.

Just a bit of blush from cool evenings on the flowers of this PeeGee hydrangea. You can also see the wear of this part of the season here, as well.

This first evening of autumn (sob...) brings us temperatures teetering between 58 and 59 the last couple of hours. It's mostly comfortable, but every once in a while there seems a bit of chilled air current (not really a breeze, per se...) that suggests I ought to have all the windows closed. I've shut a few, but not all of them.

I like the fresh air as much as I enjoy a comfy flannel shirt.