First, the winner of the shimmer Chapstick is: Kathryn
Winner of the Q-tips is: Kathy T.
both of you should just click on Contact Us on the left, remind me what you’ve won and send me your address.
I do have another giveaway today courtesy of Perricone MD, they offer cosmeceuticals, and you can click through to their website to see the giveaway item. They are giving a full sized Advanced Face Firming Activator, which is a $120 value, to one of the commenters on today’s post. Now, they can only ship in the U.S., so apologies to our international friends, you’re not eligible for this! Just drop a comment to be entered.
Okay, moving on to paint and kitchens for a sec. 
This is a slice of my kitchen. I’ve got one color swatched by the window that I’m considering. I have a larger picture of it next to another color I’m considering. The cabinets stay for now, even though they are old and need to be overhauled one day. The tile is going now to be replaced with something complimentary. I was thinking ruby/gold’ish glass tiles, but I’m thinking that may be too much, and it may need another color instead that won’t compete with the adobe’ish color I’m planning for the walls. I think this color by the windows is just a little too much.
The picture to the right shows the color by the windows on the left side of the picture, which is Rust and the color on the right, which I think will work better, which is Benjamin Moore Firenze. The picture really doesn’t pick up the color as closely as it should. It’s a little more brown and a little less Salmon. I’m now thinking maybe a coffee colored with gold accent glass tile may work better for the backsplash. Thoughts? And should I repaint the cabinets or leave them and all the trim that same bright white for now since I intend to replace them in a year or so?
Perfume? Listen, I got no perfume for you today. I’m waiting for those new Guerlain thingies to show up, and nothing else do I want to talk about. But I do have a new eyeliner that’s great. I love soft colors in eyeliners. I just can’t wear dark, harsh colors at all, so I tend to like wheat, gold, blue, purple, green around my eyes, it just softens age. The main problem with eyeliners, though, is they smudge. I workout a couple of times a day usually, and I sweat. If I’m not sweating, I haven’t been working out. Keeping eyeliner on my eyes, even if I’m not working out, especially in summer, is a challenge, so it needs to be waterproof. Makeup Forever has some great waterproof eyeliners too. Shu Uemura has a new painting liner that is just gorgeous AND waterproof. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!! These, unlike the MUFE pencils, are in little pots. So you use an eyeliner brush to swish them on, which gives a nicer line, I think, than pencils, and this goes on like a dream and stays put. They have a bunch of gorgeous colors. I went fo the gold, silver, green, purple, but I also want that white one, which is great for giving an inner line on the lower lid to make you look more awake.
One last thing. I’ve got plans to meet up with some Londoners while I’m at Sniffa in July, but would love to meet others. So if you’re gonna be at Sniffa, even if you’re not from London, or if you’re gonna be in London then, give me a shout, I’d love to get together for a cup of tea, a pint of beer or a glass of wine.
All of my decorating ideas have been taken, haha! But good luck! And thanks for the chance to win Perricone!
Benjamin Moore is quite expensive paint! Have you seen Consumer Reports guide/ratings on “all-things-paint”? Please enter me into the giveaway draw as well.
I agree with Musette; the tile will ultimately call the shots in the long run, and since it is also the priciest item, make sure you reallyreallyreally love whatever you choose. I like those tumbled marble tiles that are so popular now. And I’d probably choose the tiles before I chose the paint.
I prefer the Rust, but I’d probably go with whatever color is one shade above that on the 3 or 5 color swatch card if the kitchen is small, because the color WILL be more intense on the wall.
In a perfect world, I’d choose ivory or cream over stark white for the cabinets, but they look fine, and it’s probably not worth the effort if you’re replacing them that quickly. And they’ll pick up a bit of the color from the walls anyway, which will warm then up a tad, too.
A final paint tip…..try several samples with the violet. Purple has a tendency to go flat at night, or in low light….it can look really blah, so sample, sample, sample!
Oh, and I most assuredly do not need another spendy item to become addicted to, so no need to enter me in the drawing, but thank you anyway.
You know, I love a lot of different colors/styls of glass tile or pebbles or rock, so i’m pretty sure I can be happy with probably 20 things in that department. Paint? Different matter.
Cream would be better, but I agree, not worth the effort for that minor or a change when I’m going to replace them one day anyway.
Yup, figured that out with violet. I wanted to do that color for the foyer, but it just was so flat and dark, it was impossible to get the purple to show up, it just turned to mud in the dark.
I am secretly afraid of tile, which is probably why I can never choose any. I think it’s the grout lines; I’m a-skeert of what’s in ’em!
Pratt & Lambert is also a nice brand of paint. Sad about the purple, no?? I love purple, but can’t find a good one. My next effort is going to include a glaze on top, to see if that helps.
Patty,
I really like the lighter terracotta color you’ve swatched. I painted my entire basement level (family room and long hallway) this color back in the mid-90s and we have never tired of it. I think I used a Home Depot Behr paint tinted Rose Adobe or something like that(not affiliated). I used antique white for the baseboards and trim around the fireplace, and that really set it off nicely. That’s why I think your white cabinets would work really well with the terracotta. While I love a dark, rich rust color (I use it as an accent in my family room), dark colors can make a room look smaller, so I’d stick with the lighter tint for the kitchen. Maybe choose an eggshell finish for easy cleaning, too.
I’d love to be entered for the Perricone giveaway. Thanks.
This is my first time posting. I’ve been a faithful reader for about eight months now. 🙂
well heck!
here’s a great big ol’ >-) welcome!
Well, welcome, Dina, and thanks so much for your opinion! This is always one of those times when I really want my sister or mom to come out and help me pick the colors out, but they can’t, so it’s great to have ya’ll to rely on!
Please enter me in the drawing! I’m starting to look like I need a companion ventriloquist, something must be done.
I think I prefer the cabinets white. White kitches are just so fresh and crisp.
Thanks, and will do!
Please enter me in the drawing! At age 48, it sounds heaven-sent. I, too, have a painfully difficult time keeping eyeliner in place down here in the sweltering deep South, not to mention the eye allergy that creates itchy havoc every summer since Hurricane Katrina stirred up some troubling dust, pollen, and who knows what else.
I do indeed concur with the majority of commenters that the white cabinets are the best foil for the other colors in the area, and after re-doing the house after the storm in 2005, I can attest to the superior quality of Benjamin Moore paint products. *.*
Thanks, and today’s posting offers yet more proof that we here on Perfume Posse can occasionally enjoy a diversion of interest!
I adore BM paints. Ever since I started using them, I’ve been delighted with how great the paint goes on!
I love Benjamin Moore. I would do commercials for Benjamin Moore, enthusiastically and free of charge.
I like the rust one best. I think glass tiles would be great, and you get them here: http://www.modwalls.com/
I’d love to be included in the draw
Great site! Thanks, Tom!
Love the makeup tip on eyeliner-who has time to redo makeup anyway. And thanks for the giveaway!
You’re welcome!
please enter me as well. i love the pinkish brown color for the kitchen, and you can buy some italian themed decorations too to make the look come together
Thanks for the suggestion!
Pl Please enter me in the drawing.
ok!
I love the Firenze, and although I usually am not partial to white cabinets, I definitely agree in this case. You’ve got some strong colors to choose from, and the white is a nice contrast. For the tiles, the coffee/gold combination sounds gorgeous.
And please enter me in the drawing!
thanks, Bethany!
Perricone is so great for your skin. Great giveaway!!
I don’t think I’ve ever used it, but I’ve always heard good things about it.!
I would consider the coffee brown with the gold accents, any color of red unless drastically toned down with neutral tones tends to be a bit drastic and loud. The cabinets, just leave them until you get something new!
thanks, Adam! I think I’ll avoid clashing if I go with a coffee or cocoa color/gold, too.
I have an terra cotta/adobe colored kitchen. Take my advice and choose the lighter one. We originally painted the walls Sherwin Williams “Spice” and it dried to the exact color on a Campbell’s Tomato Soup” can. Way too much drama for the rest of my abode which is not adobe. Hey an anagram.
The next day, we went one or two shades lighter to “Clay Pot” and it was perfect. Just modern, edgy, one world, warm, pretty enough without being jarring.
Please enter me in the drawing. I’d hate to see the Perricone go to some flibbity-gibbit thirty something.Lol.
Man, you painted twice? I hate painting the kitchen to begin with, so I don’t undertake it lightly. But twice?!?!? yowsah.
In my painting experience, whatever you choose will look darker once it’s all over the walls, thus I would choose the Firenze. I’m with sybil up there, painting cabinets is a chore to end all chores, if you’re going to replace them anyway don’t have that headache. I think that better skincare is going to be my new year’s resolution one of these years…
I agree with that, that was my thinking all along. I don’t want to be timid with color, but too dark in the kitchen can be,well, just too dark, unless you have tons of light, which my light is only medium there.
Enter me for the drawing please! Thanks 🙂
Sure thing, Deanna
Firenze and white cabinets with copper pulls. The MUFE pencils are great, and I need that Perricone, I’m older than god.
Excellent advice, thanks!
The eyeliner that will stay on my oily lids for more than 2 minutes is Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner. I kind of push it into the lash base from underneath for a more natural look.
For the kitchen: I vote for Firenze..
thanks for the vote, that looks to be the one, yeah!
I really like both colors so I am no help at all. Please enter me in the drawing.
Okay, Mindy!
Oooh – please enter me in the draw! I’m no help with the decorating – sorry!
Yes,Ma’am!
Patty!
You work out THREE TIMES A DAY? Day-am! I’m in awe… I’m lucky if I can get away from this desk long enough to take a walk into town (of course, if I stayed off the blog and other ether-pleasures I’d have more time;-)
But! on to your kitchen. Looking at everything already extant, I have to say I cannot imagine what you would paint your kitchen UNTIL you decide upon the tiles – unless you are planning to repaint once you get the tiles in? Tiles cost way more than paint so make sure you choose a tile you will be so in love with it will make your teeth hurt. Given the direction you’re going, though, you might consider a greyish-color glass with hints of gold and brick therein…it is neutral enough to not get ‘old’ within 32 minutes of installation and compliments a wide range of cabinetry – which brings me to another thing: don’t forget that you’re going to have to match cabs/tile to one another – and it’s way easier (and way cheaper) to match paint to cabs/tile than the other way around. Just sayin’
Perrrrricoooooone. Love him. Love his stuff. Wish I were rich enough to have him redo my blah face. In lieu of that, would love to be entered in the draw!
ps. I just love the bell jars in the kitchen!
xoxoxo>-)
Naw, not THREE. one or two, dpending on schedules.
I’m flexible on the backsplash, but I really need to have the paint correct. Weird, I know!
Please enter me in the draw!
As for the cabinets– definitely leave them white. I work for a real estate company that has many similar cabinets. Once painted, the cabinets generally date the kitchen (while white is easier to clean, doesn’t flake and keeps a clean freshness that is timeless).
And really– Bell Jars in the kitchen! Who cares about paint colors! Just kidding.
I was thinking that about white cabinets. They really never go out of style, do they?
Yeah, bell jars in the kitchen, it’s a new trend!
I could go with either color…different effects, but that’s what’s great about paint. And the backsplash…whatever you pick, think about what will work best when you want to change out the paint in the future…I’d go with the ruby/gold because I think it has more options for paint colors. And the cabinets–DON’T BOTHER! If you do, keep a bottle of touch-up handy, because no doubt your kids/pets/you will ding them pretty regularly. Painting cabinets is a big honking chore, and I speak from experience. Save your time and money and put it toward those new cabinets!
Yeah, I’ve painted cabinets like 2-3 times, and I hate it with a burning hot passion, but I would undertake it if I had to.
I didn’t know there was a Sniffa in London either. I might be around though. I like the Firenze. It’s actually very similar to my kitchen which is about the only room in my flat I’m pleased with. If you don’t have much wall it’s nice to go with a rich colour.
Hey, just click the contact us button over there on the left, and let’s see if there’s a good time to meet!
Hey Patty:
You’re working out a couple of times a day?? Girl, you rock! Just make sure you don’t work the same muscle groups every day.
Ooooh kitchens!!!! Even though I have a more minimalist proclivity I like the Firenze color for your kitchen and I would leave your cabinets white. I agree with others above about maybe the new tiles being too much with the rich color you are choosing. What color is your countertop, is it grey?
Would love to see a pic of the tiles you are thinking of getting.
It’s just scheduling. Yoga classes and spin don’t always coincide timewise if I’m doing them the same day, or I need a break between running and something else.
the countertops right now are a green color, which works okay’ish for now, but they’ll get changed when the I do the cabinets
I am a decorating dolt…but I like the deeper shade, keeping the cabinets white for now, but with new handles…something brass and brushed, maybe.
I do know a thing or so about eyeliners, and use the BB creams and the MUA forever one, too, but almost always reach for my MAC waterproof pencils-wide color range, great texture, good price.
Heya! I’m no Londoner, but will be at Sniffa in London for the start…yipee! See you, fer real 😉
I hadn’t thought about changing the hardward, but doing like an antiqued bronze could really work better than what’s there and update them enough.
I’m so excited you’re going to Sniffa, that will make it a blast!
Wait – there’s a London Sniffa? I really need to pay more attention to stuff like that. I know about the Basenotes one in August, but July?
I’m in London, so if peeps are getting together, let me know, I might be able to go.
I like the Firenze, too. I also like that sage green. I agree, white cabinets stay white.
One of these days I need to repaint my kitchen. But it’s so damn tiny and dark, anything but white or magnolia makes it claustrophobic! I saw an old ‘Only Fools and Horses’ episode the other night, where they accidentally painted their kitchen with glow-in-the-dark paint. I actually thought, ‘hmmmm’…… 😉
Oooh, add me in for the out-to-drink crowd! Love to meet you…
Would love to meet you! Sniffa is there July 4 through July 11. so if you have any time, that would be great. Just click on the Contact Us button over there, and we can figure it out!
Hi, I like that lighter shade of terracotta and what I like best in that green shade… Tiles with such outspoken colored walls could be best in the same shade as the walls in my opinion.
I really liked the green to, but my walls have been green in there since I moved in, and I just need a change!
Patty, I am partial to the Firenze myself. I think you and my man are paint buddies; we are redoing our kitchen as well and all he can say is: Terracotta! We have decided to do Farrow & Ball’s Red Earth (which is vastly different in real life than on their website). With the coffee tiles, I think your kitchen will be smashing!
Oh, thanks! I really want an Italian feel throughout the house, just all warm colors, reds, oranges, golds, in mixes so the house feels like it hugs you all the way through. That just makes me happy. Though I do go completely outside of that in the bedrooms. Anything goes there! I’m thinking of a beautiful violet or green for one, and my upstairs I did lasts year in this spa-like green-blue, which is a perfect neutral, but now I want to do walls in different, bright colors that match the huge stained glass window in the master bedroom.
Decorating IS fun! But the choosing is so hard.
Patty, your colors make me think of Italy, or the Southwest – wonderful!
I second keeping the cabinets white, and I like both wall colors.
It’s hard to tell what they actually look like in the photo.
It seems that Firenze works as a neutral, terracotta shade, and so many warm accents compliment it – pottery colors like blue, green, yellow and red, and dark and/or rustic wood.
But I also like the Rust -it would make for a darker room, but it could be gorgeous.
I actually like the idea of picking up the same adobe/terracotta color in the tiles – the shine of the glass, and the texture and pattern of the tiles will create the contast – no need to switch colors.
thanks! I’m leaning towards the Firenze as just something that will work better with more things.
Glass tile, I think I’ll just need to experiment!
I’m having trouble focusing on the color due to the highly distracting empty bell jars up there on the ledge above the window. I mean, that IS what I’m seeing, right? Or have I reached the point in my perfume madness where I’m actually hallucinating Exclusifs?
Okay, now that I’ve collected myself a bit I’ve gotta say that I’m partial to the deeper color in the top photo, which is really a leap for me ’cause I’m usually all about the pales, and I think it looks great with the white cabinets and trim. But you’re probably right that the tiles you’re wanting would be too much. Still, it’s a terrific, very rich color.
Those MUF liners always get great reviews, but I don’t want all that sparkle and glitter so I’m definitely going to check out the Shu. Thanks for the tip! And please, please, please enter me for the Perricone — I use his Vit C Concentrate every day and love his products in general. What a cool little giveaway prize!
Sorry about the distraction!!!! Those are bell jars. i do have some Guerlain bottles on another side of the kitchen. I really need to get rid of them, but they multiply like fruit flies!
I suspect I’m going to need to get a lot of glass tile samples and rock samples and pebble samples, and one of them will just hit.
I love the Benjamin Moore Firenze! I’d say leave the white cabinets for the time being, they lend a complementary crispness to all those warm tones. I’d like to see the accent tile you have in mind, gold and coffee hues sound lovely.
I have a couple in mind, and I’m thinking even pebbles or stone for the backsplash too. I’m flexible. 🙂
I would leave the cabinets white – I think it would be a nice contrast, whichever color you use on the walls. From the photo, I would choose the one on the left, because it appears to have a more mellow, brown tone. I agree that the other swatch looks more salmon.
Coffee glass tiles with gold accents should go really well with either color.
Thanks, Sara! I was pretty sure to leave the cabinets alone, but it’s really good to get a second opinion or 40. 🙂