So so pretty! Did you use the same paint color in the living area and bathrooms? Can you tell me the name please? I think it's beautiful.

Congratulations, Redroze! I all looks lovely and very calm and elegant. I love the way you've used your grays, and all the surfaces for that matter. Happy living!

It's sensational! Love the flow of the space, the beautiful materials (bianco antico is one of my favorites) and the finishing touches - the pendants, the chairs and barstools, the backsplash - everything! Actually, our rooms are configured in a similar way - my range wall, island and breakfast area leading to the family room set up pretty much identically. I REALLY like the way you did upholstered chairs in the breakfast area - not only does it bring in some pattern and texture, but it breaks up the space and provides a good transition to the family room.

Love the great bathrooms and living room sofa, too!

Kimmieb - The curtains are custom as none of the store-bought curtains would work, particularly since it's one long rod that covers the patio doors and window in the kitchen. They are a linen cotton blend.

Remodelfla - The family room is attached to the kitchen. I didn't post any photos of the family room as it's a mess right now as DH is wiring the tv and the baseboards are off. If you mean the family room, the paint colour is Natural Cream, same as the kitchen. If you mean the living room with the white sofa, it is Manchester Tan. The guest bath is Wickham Grey, the master ensuite (with dark mahogany vanity) is Horizon. All Benjamin Moore.

Eastcoastmom - I don't think I've ever seen your kitchen although I haven't visited GW that frequently, well the kitchen forum anyway. I'll run a search. I love the configuration, don't you??

Looks good redroze!! we have the same granite in our kitchen and also thinking about using marble for our bathroom. i have been wondering whether marble costs less than the bianco antico. just curious, what is the price comparison between the two stones for you?

Red: Just beautiful! The kitchen and the bathrooms are such an inspiration! Love them!

sublime! Congratulations on a wonderful job.

Redroze: Your kitchen is gorgeous: light and dreamy and so peaceful. Good job!!

Redroze, your beautiful chairs are the perfect finish to an absolutely gorgeous kitchen. Love, love, love it. And your master and guest bath.....to live for! Your paint colors are so lovely. They radiate peace and tranquility.

Your kitchen is gawk-worthy :) It's beautiful. I like the final arrangement of items on your display shelves.

I LOVE your shower!!! That is going in my inspiration file for future use.

Thanks guys!!! I love your energy and appreciation for all the hard work.

Here's a few more of the master ensuite. Cotehele, we sadly did not go with Starfire glass for the glass shower doors (didn't even know it existed until recently) so the greenish hue of the glass bothers us slightly. We may change them in a few years.

Paintpanther - I can't remember the per sq ft cost and we needed a lot less marble, so I don't know a direct comparison. I believe Bianco Antico was in the highest category/expensiveness of granite, whereas Calacatta is also in the high end for marble. So the marble was definitely more expensive - if we did it in our kitchen it would have been much more than we did for the granite.

Cotehele - thanks for the note on the open shelves. It took us forever to figure out the "right" arrangement!!

Everything looks wonderful Redroze!! I'm sure you are so happy to have things coming together so beautifully.

Your kitchen with the dark floors, white cabinets and dark stained island reminds me of mine now :) My floors are FINALLY done, so now the task is keeping them looking good - the dark stain definitely does show everything! We did the dark stain throughout the house also - how are your floors holding up? Any tips you've found for maintaining dark floors?

Enjoy the house - it's gorgeous!

Traci29 - Did you do a matte finish? We did satin which is basically matte with a teeny bit of shine. I've had light golden hardwood floors for four years and now these darker floors for 1 year. The dark floors show more dust, but I find any nicks or scractches are disguished very well. I don't have any specific tips for light vs dark floors as we do the same - vacuum weekly and especially before company comes. Wet mop them with a hardwood cleaner every once in awhile. That's it!

Magazine worthy home! It is beautiful, enjoy!

Hi Redroze - we also did satin finish (Bona Traffic). I hope it holds up well since due to all of our issues and refinishing them twice in 6 weeks, can probably never completely refinish them again (the wood is too thin). But I'm happy with the color and the second floor company seemed to have done a good job, so hopefully they will hold up long enough if we ever want to sell - I really don't want to go through putting in new hardwood throughout the entire house! I'll eventually post a photo if we ever reach the point of the house looking decent enough :)

Redroze I love your house and the color palette is so soothing. All of the photos have a cool sepia tone quality to them even though they are in color, I hope that makes sense, but it's just so striking yet calming all at the same time! The fabrics, the wood tones, everything just comes together so nicely to create such and elegant and sophisticated look!

I'm so jealous of those dark floors but know they would never have worked in my house with two crazy high energy doggies! Traci's floors are to die for too!!!

Enjoy your beautiful rooms, I can see an elegant dinner or cocktail party happening at your place very soon for some very lucky guests!

Kat :)

What is your countertop? It looks like granite, but what's the name? Thanks

So calming and beautiful. I enjoyed your blog - and the advice you give is top notch!

I think your kitchen looks great. Where is the refrigerator? Next to the wall ovens? Can you post a picture with it please?

Beautiful work.

Megpie - It's Bianco Antico granite.

Thanks Southernstitcher! It's great to hear that others benefitted from our advice and mistakes.

Wolfgang - here's a dark, early morning view of the fridge.

WOW!!!

Your place looks like a magazine! Well, even better than some I have seen. I hope you are enjoying it all!

I have a question, the paint on the walls, Natural Cream, does it bring out the gray in the BA? My slab has lots of brown, and I don't want to emphasize the small amount of gray that is in there. I really like this color--it is a nice neutral. Since you have it up on your walls, does it appear more gray in person? My house is really decorated more in the brown family, dining room (if I ever see it again) has dark chocolate walls on the top half). Living room is like a coffee with cream color.

Any thoughts would be great. Thanks!

Hey beekeeperswife! At first I thought we should do a grey in the walls to compliment the grey in the BA. But then realized it would be too matchy-matchy. The Natural Cream is a nice neutral that works with our neutral sectional in the family room, and I find it compliments the BA rather than matches it. It does NOT appear more gtrey in personn, it is more of a warm neutral. It's actually killer hard for me to get photos of the exact right colour. The below photo is probably the closest I can get to the paint colour but your monitor may show it differently than mine.

I think you should do a similar colour to Natural Cream - not a grey neutral but a "true" (for lack of a better word) warm neutral with a tiny hint of yellow in it. I think it would go with the brown tones in your home. I highly recommend buying a few of those big paint swAtches home and trying them in your home.

Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions!

It's beautiful!!!
thanks for sharing your pictures

Your kitchen is one of my favorites! When we picked out the white paint for out cabinets wouldn't you know my first two choices were chantilly lace and floral white. I had the paint store color match my pottery barn funiture. After listening to everyone else, a big no no, I went with moonlight white (a brighter neutral white with a little yellow and a little gray). Now after seeing your kitchen in the color I originally wanted I am so mad at myself for not going with my gut feeling.

This is a heads up for anyone reading this...to go with your gut feeling!

Sorry redroze, just wanted to vent and let you know again your kitchen is one of my favorite!! I love the color palette in your home as well.

Megpie - No need to apologize!! I have my lessons learned section on my blog just to vent about the decisions I wish I had gone with. Like our silgranit sink...my gut was to do white and instead we went with biscuit, and it still sticks out in my mind as a mistake. I feel better knowing that others may avoid making the same mistake.

Lynn2006 - Don't you just love all the BM paint choices? There's a shade of neutral or off-white in every family and sometimes it's so darn hard to get the "right" one, but the process is certainly fun!! I like Natural Wicker a lot...not sure I've seen Bone White but I'll have a look at my fan deck upstairs (yes I purchased one of those big fan decks =) ).

I have fallen in love with your kitchen. Everything is just gorgeous. Question about paint colors. You said you were going to be repainting the living room. Have you picked a new color? I am going to use the Natural Cream in kitchen but will most likely be painted the living first.

redroze, Natural Wicker and BM Bone White are the exact same formula since I asked three places after seeing that the paint chips matched. I also have the big fan deck. :) One place printed the computer print-out for both and it was the same. I am leaning towards the BM Natural Wicker = BM Bone White color since I think it may make me like my top down/bottom up double honey comb blinds better and not clash with the taupe design at night like my linen white walls do. I also really love it in the other room but my family room has a cathedral ceiling and 4 huge windows so gets more light. It is so neutral and warm and seems to not clash with anything in my home office and looks nice with my Akoya Bone Tile in the two foyer areas, as well as looking nice with the Brazilian Cherry Wood samples I have here also. That palace white is so nice but I guess I am afraid that the room may get too yellow and not be peaceful. I think I may repaint my spare bedroom upstairs with the BM Palace White since I do love the color (I can take chances with my spare bedroom since I am not in that room that much and it also has a putty file cabinet in it besides the white wicker bureau.. I may try to find out what can be moved to my new outside storage area to make my spare room more peaceful and then maybe I can go with a neutral color like you have) and I really dislike the BM Philadelphia Cream at night.

I have been moving the sample boards around as I work (getting a lot of work done so I work and then peak at the sample boards from my desk and see how I feel as the light changes throughout the day) and maybe I just need to call the color "Natural Wicker" to help me make up my mind since it sounds prettier and I like wicker. :)

But I really do need to paint when the wood arrives after the furniture is moved out of my home office since it will be very difficult to paint afterwards once the furniture is moved back into the room. I am also going with a prefinished Engineered 5" wide Brazilian Cherry wood floor so there will not be the refinishing mess so I can get right back to work when the file cabinets and furniture is placed back into the room. I figure that the two room office can be emptied and painted with the wood staying in the family room that may need some touch up paint but does not need a paint job since it was just painted 2.5 years ago with two coats over primer using BM Aqua Pearl Paint in a Pearl Finish.

I am thinking of going with Aura Paint in the Satin Finish with gloss trim. They do not have a gloss trim in the low VOC or no VOC line but semi-gloss with satin walls may not be enough of a shine difference.

Redroze, your kitchen pictures today reminded me of how much I love neutral colors and I love all your choices. I will have to figure out how to download pictures. Maybe I need to reinstall the Paint Shop Pro XI program and maybe it will have a way to download pictures into that? I hadn't had time to install my fun software programs onto my new hard drive.

Very nice...calm, serene, relaxing! I know, others have said the same...but that's exactly how your rooms and, I'm assuming, your hone strikes me! Great job!

Out of curiosity, what are the overall dimensions of your bathrooms?

Gosh darnit, I responded yesterday but GW was acting weird. When I clicked Preview Message it would instead take me to the home page.

Murrywoods - We haven't chosen the paint colour for the living room yet. It's on the other end of the home which is south facing, so i suspect we'll end up with a cooler colour than Natural Cream which appears in the kitchen/family room which are north facing. I'll let you know once we paint the living and dining rooms!

Lynn - Yay for neutrals!!! They are far from boring and make a room, in my opinion, feel just luxurious and peaceful and natural. I like the name Natural Wicker too...Bone White just sounds a bit zombie-ish! =) You sound like you're putting a lot of thought into your home which is wonderful. You're a woman after my own heart...I love thinking and dreaming about what we're going to do next. Not sure what you're referring to - do you want to download pictures off the Internet?

Buehl - Our bathrooms aren't very big but they feel spacious because of the layout. The guest bathroom is 95"x108"(including the shower, not including the shower it's 80"). The master ensuite is 116"x108.5". In feet, the guest bath is roughly 8'x9' (6.6' not incl shower) and master is 9.7'x9'.

Redroze I'm late to the party (was on vacation) but just want to let you know that I agree with everyone's comments about your WOWSA kitchen. I especially love your open cabinet, and your glass front cabinet to the counter. It is all so visually balanced, soothing and elegant. Love the baths also!

Absolutely gorgeous, elegant, flowing... you have beautiful taste, redroze, and I'm glad it's all coming together for you!

redroze,The neutral decor and beautiful architecture and layout of the rooms is what made me fall in love with my current home that I have owned for 12 years (lived in for less since the seller would not move out and I had to force him to which took many months). I never knew neutral was so beautiful until I saw the home I now live in. Then the painter (I didn't know he was color blind and I wanted him to paint before I moved in but he took 6 weeks so I had to live with the painting going on and I got two sinus infections... that is why I am now going very low VOC or no VOC) was supposed to match his neutral wall color (was either BM Natural Wicker or SW Antique White) and the painted painted the walls off-white that was whiter than BM Linen White with no contrast in the trim or the ceiling color. For years, I was unhappy despite loving my home and wanted to repaint. Finally I repainted and hired another bad painter. Now I have a chance to make the room color right in my two room home office and give me that peaceful feeling that I fell in love with when I bought my home.

My hard drive failed on 06-15-09 so I had to restore all my programs and restore all the data on a new bigger hard drive. I can't seem to find the software to my Sony Camera so I don't know how to download pictures I take. I am wondering if I take the time out to install Paint Shop Pro X2, if it would recognize the camera and download the pictures. I have the Sony camera dock attached to my computer via the USB port which used to download automatically when I turned the camera on.

Awesome home! So very elegant and well-planned. You must be on Cloud Nine! Now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Congratulations! for a job well done redroze. I like the color of your bathroom and also your fridge.

There are so many responses and I sort of skimmed through them because I was sure I had already responded...but maybe not! Anyway I LOVE your kitchen....your whole house is so soothing actually. My first inclination when decorating is to do exactly what you've done with color and flow, but DH always foils my plans ;-) - anyway I love everything. The dark stain with the white is stunning and I love the marble! Everything is just perfect. :-)

Nice detail and love the neutral colors!!!

Thanks for all the sweet comments!!!

Nicole - That "wow" graphic is the coolest - I'm touched!!!

Lynn - There is no worse feeling than hiring someone to do work on your house and having it not come out as planned. I'm so sorry you've had to go through that. It sounds like you need to install the camera driver for your Sony camera. If you lost the cd I'm sure you can find it online - try this Sony site as you only need the model number to find the driver.

I love your rooms! Congrats on such a fine job. My kitchen is finished (somewhat similar to yours) but I just spoke to the contractor Saturday about the bathroom. I'm so dreading this :)

I have been thinking about the bathroom for a year and can't make up my mind. Yours has some of the elements I want so it's wonderful to see it all put together. Don't be surprised if I post pictures of my remodeled bathroom and it looks like yours.

One question, did you remove a bathtub in the guest bathroom? That's one of the things I just can't decide.

Sundownr - Both our guest bathroom and master bathroom had those dreaded shower/tub combos. We never used them as tubs. So with our guest, we removed it and just made a walk-in shower. Our master had both a stand-up shower (that was thin like a coffin) and the shower/tub combo. So we kept the walk-in shower and put a clawfoot tub.

Hope that helps! Good luck with your bathroom reno. Did you post pics of your kitchen?

redroze, I also have that dreaded shower (too small)/tub (nice Jacuzzi) combo and wish my shower was bigger and I would be willing to do without the Jacuzzi to have a walk-in bigger shower that has a foot rest for me to shave my legs.

I will go to the Sony site tomorrow (in case I need to call them, I want to do it during working hours) and see if I download the driver if my camera dock would work. Thank you redroze!

You're welcome Lynn!

For those of you who like the marble, here are some shots of the Calacatta in our master. DH's "side" is the left since he's left-handed, and he favoured the whiter marbles such as Thassos. Mine is the right side since I'm right-handed and I loved the busier veining.

Love, love, LOVE, the marble. Thanks for posting the extra pictures. I have a little marble in my kitchen and desk area but I really like yours. Our bathrooms are very small (1930's small house) so I only have a tub/shower in the hall bath. The master is a small shower only. That's why I hesitate to take out the only tub in the house. I've just about decided to do it. If it's really wrong I guess I can always have a tub installed when we decide it's wrong.

Here are pictures of my kitchen. After seeing your island a different color than the perimeter cabinets I may have to paint mine. I really like yours. I am not really happy with the wall colors in these rooms but haven't fallen in love with a different color so I haven't changed it yet. http://www.pbase.com/cjw/my_finished_kitchen

Sundownr - What a beautiful, airy kitchen you have!! Can I be so bold to say that I don't think you should paint your island?? I think your all-white kitchen is absolutely perfect jus the way it is. The soapstone is gorgeous. It's totally like the Something's Gotta Give style of kitchen and I don't think a darker island would work, especially with your layout and the colour of your kitchen flooring.

As for paint, I think you need to connect the two rooms with a unifying paint colour or at least make the paint change more subtle. I'm not a fan of yellow and yet the yellow works in our kitchen/sitting room (which is humongous by the way, I love that rocking chair/settee). I would almost dare to say that you should do either a soft yellow or a soft blue amongst both rooms.

Hi redroze,

Your kitchen and bathrooms are so beautiful. I don't know how you managed a whole house renovation like that because after a month with my kitchen remodel, I'm so exhausted.

The bianco antiquo granite is beautiful. Are the kitchen cabinets more of a stark white?

Karena - Thank you! I don't know if I'd describe the cabinets as stark, but they are a crisp white with a hint of warmth. They read more white than cream for sure. The kitchen renovation took a year and was tolling in that we couldn't properly use our kitchen for a long time, which was frustrating. The bathrooms were reno'd in 3 months so the time period was shorter, but it felt much more hectic as we were trying to finish them before out of town guests came over. So I would never recommend setting a crazy deadline like that - or we should have descoped and only did the guest bathroom. Trust me, it was not easy at all and I can completely relate to you that it is EXHAUSTING. But when it's done, it's like a huge sigh of relief...

Thank you so much for sharing! I, too, learned a lot from your blog. I just might get inspired to do one, too! I like the way you organized the topics.

I looked at bianco antico today and more bianco romano slabs, too. I'll have to go back on a week day to have them move some slabs for me because the bianco romano was covered up entirely and the antico that we all liked was also partially covered by a remnant.

Enjoy your house! Congratulations on finishing everything! That's quite an accomplishment!

I hope you find a granite or stone that you love Karena. You're too sweet - thank you!! I was thinking of reorganizing my bathrooms sections so they're similar to the kitchen (i.e. Photos and descriptions of every detail) so I really do appreciate any feedback on my blog!