Austria: 50 Shades of Green, Part 1

So one of the reasons for my delay in posting (among many other, less exciting excuses reasons) for the past few months was my first trip to Europe, specifically, Austria. Phil's cousin was studying abroad in Vienna (or Wien) and so I went for a week to visit her and see the country I've wanted to visit since I was a child. Instead of taking you through a boring day-by-day trip recap, I'm gonna do things a little differently: by aesthetic themes.

Green is my favorite color and green was EVERYWHERE. It was wonderful. About 3 days in, I knew I had to document as many shades and uses of green as I could.  So here are some of the thousands of shades of green I saw. We'll limit it to 50...just to be punny.

On my way to Vienna, I had a layover in London. They had a lovely little Smythson shop in the airport, which I knew about from my love of engraved stationery. They all these fantastic and expensive leather goods. I bought this little journal to keep track of all my adventures during the trip. I chose this adorable kelly green and it was the perfect choice, foreshadowing of the Austrian scenery, if you will.

Given my love of design and interiors and architecture, the majority of my photos are kind of bizarre angles of small parts of buildings or interiors. I'm not the most patient photographer and sometimes I was not obeying the rules by taking pictures....so I apologize for the poor photo quality in some shots. Also, these are a collection of iPhone photos and my lovely fancy DSLR photos, so it's kind of a hodgepodge of quality.

It was the first week of December and it was...magical. Austria is apparently the "buckle" of the European "Catholic Belt" or so I'm told and Advent was EVERYWHERE. It was just Advent this, Christmas that. There were little Advent Markets everywhere throughout Vienna and in every town I visited. They pretty much all look the same. Little huts filled with vendors and their respective goods: ornaments, soaps, wood tows, Christmas decorations, Gluwein (kind of like mulled wine), PRETZELS, PASTRIES, artisan jarred foods, blown glass, etc. My personal favorite was all the felted ornaments. I am now the proud owner of a great felted wool ornament collection....maybe 30 pieces in total.

Yes, that is a marionette of an ostrich, which also happens to be my spirit animal. It's just too perfect.

Perhaps the most magical part of the Advent markets was the live music. It was just.....so magical. I apologize for the repetition, but I just can't think of a better word to describe wandering about quaint huts selling lovely Christmas things while listening to a brass quartet play Christmas carols in front of palaces, fortresses, baroque churches, etc. I probably went to 10 advent markets in the 7 days I was there. They were just everywhere. Maybe I'll post a picture of the Advent musicians in another post, but they aren't green so they didn't make the cut.

One could argue that any town/city/metropolis in Western culture would be covered in green at Advent, but the Metro system is Exhibit A that it is not just Christmas-specific. Station after station was decked out in the most beautiful mossy green. These are just a selection of the way too many photos I took in subway stations. I often got strange looks as confused people would try to figure out what I was photographing. They must have been colorblind, because it's quite obvious to me what was worth documentation.

 These two pictures (above and below) are from this weird little hallway/foyer/stair landing at the Karlsplatz station. You have to walk through this random (VERY smoky) bar to get to the metro...if you go through this entrance. There are plenty of other ways to get to the station, this is just one of the more quirky and scenic routes.

Whether you recognize green as the greatest color ever or not, I believe most people can appreciate the design details tucked into these hubs of mass transit. It really made daily travel so much more magical enjoyable.

A significant amount of the buildings I saw throughout the country were painted various shades of yellow with green accents in the doors, windows and architectural accents.

 2 shades of green right next to each other!

 If you look closely abover, you can see the scalloped top of the doors' kickplates. Love that detail.

 3 shades of green, one building.

I love laurel wreaths, so I was particularly happy to see this exterior detail at the Hofburg Complex.

The sun was setting and so it's hard to tell, but the facade of this part of the Hofburg complex is a pale yellow and a pale green. And of course one source of never-ending green are the oxidized copper roofs.

 Interiors were filled with green too.

I stayed in at Pension Neuer Markt the first night. On the landing outside the pension, the doors and windows were painted in this vibrant green lacquer. None of my photos do it justice. I know because I took sooooo many that first morning trying to capture it. This photo is the best I got.

Um this is the WC at the Secession. I just couldn't believe that even the bathroom had 3 (beautiful) shades of green.

Wallpaper at some palace...I can't remember which one.

Vienna is the home of the coffeehouse concept and the original coffeehouses were outfitted with the iconic bent wood chairs. They have a huge selection of these chairs at the MAK museum, but this was the only one painted green.

A diorama of the city of Vienna as it looked 500ish years ago. Dioramas are so wonderful and the Wien Museum had several. The Wien Museum was right down my alley because it tells the history of the city through art, applied and decorative arts and architecture. It brought my love of art and city planning together. It's free on Sundays, so that's nice.

 Painted floor in a museum exhibit.

Wallpaper reproduction at the Imperial Furniture Museum aka Hofmobiliendepot. Look closely and note the softer green used on that chair. So beautiful.

I joined in on the fun as well by sporting some green while at lunch at Neni....perhaps the tastiest place in the world. That's all for now. I'll do the remaining 50 shades....tomorrow.....later.

Kitchen Windows

This morning, I got out of bed, walked directly to the kitchen and took one last picture of our kitchen curtains.

Then, while still in my PJs, I started to take down the curtains and the window hardware. I did decide to take a break halfway through this 30 minute endeavor to eat some breakfast, but I then got back to work.

And now, the curtains are gone!!!!! Please ignore the dirty dishes. I couldn't be bothered to clean them just for the photo.

I've been trying to figure out as I slowly take these down in each room how long they've been up. After taking these down, my best guess is that they are in fact as old as the house itself, installed right when the first owners moved in. My biggest clue is that beneath the hardware was the original wallpaper. The hardware was painted around, so I assume that this is all pretty original. Here's one of the teeny glimpses of the original wallpaper.

I think it's kinda cute! I'm so excited to have the curtains down. Yesterday, I had them pulled back and had a little group of house swallow (or so I'm told) gathering on the holly bushes outside the kitchen window, which is really only a few inches away from the glass. They were singing and chirping and it was delightful.

Yes, I'm aware the bushes need to be trimmed. They are kind of treacherous to trim, because the tall one on the end is at the edge of a retaining wall, so it's almost impossible to get to the top, even with a 20 foot ladder....which is scary when you are also holding an electric trimmer. We've done it once and it was so scary.....but we need to do it again soon. I wish the windows in our kitchen opened. If they did, we could just trim them from inside....which would be funny.

So I took the curtains down to prepare to paint the kitchen. I'm going to put up temporary paper shades while the painting is going on, but once that is all done, I'm going to make some Roman Shades for the three windows. I'm currently trying to decide between two different fabrics for the Roman shades.  I used my fancy photoshop skills to mimic what the shades would look like in our kitchen.

OPTION 1. "Treeline" in Shade by Richloom Fabrics. So far, most of the people I've showed prefer this one. It's definitely fitting with the "in town mountain home" thing.

OPTION 2. "Singing Tree" in White & Bright by Fabricut.  This is a little more cutesy. The vines of the pattern mimic the patterns from the rug in the adjacent den.

I'd love your opinions on which one you like. The seats of the kitchen counterstools are this fabric, if that helps:

Ok, time to vote! Let me know which fabric you prefer.

Built-in Bookcase turned Bar...finally

Our “bar” is almost done! Over the weekend I FINALLY finished the last steps with the doors: sanding the wood filler in from the holes of the previous handles; doing one last layer of paint; the dreaded waxing; installing the new hardware, and putting the doors back on.

Phil deserves all the credit for the last two steps. He did all the measuring and drilling and installing of the hinges and the new handles. Here's a pic of him working in a button down and khaki pants. Our home's dress code is business casual. Kidding. You know that's not the truth for me. 

I used Annie Sloane’s Chalk Paint for this project because sooooo many people are a fan. I've decided chalk paint is not for me. I’d love to redo it if it was as easy as said as done. I think the reason I was not converted to the chalk paint is because I wanted a crisp, even finish. Almost every piece I've ever seen done with chalk paint has that “antiqued” look. I can definitely see how this paint would be great  if you are going for a polished shabby look. But I wasn't and so I had to do like 4-5 coats on every part, and the waxing was absolutely miserable. I watched about 2000 tutorial videos on how to do it, and I feel like I followed the directions and yet, my wax finish looks sooooo uneven. The other issue with chalk paint is that the wax is what seals it in and protects it from fingerprints, etc., so it wasn’t like I could just skip the wax step.

I did notice at the store that Annie Sloane offers a Lacquer. In hindsight, I wish I just done that. I’m sure it’s not the easiest, but it would be more the outcome of what I wanted. As a result, don't look too closely at the finish on the doors.

That being said, I AM SO GLAD THIS IS DONE. I should have been embarrassed that this built-in has been in various stages of priming and painting and unfinished-ness for …7 months. It would be one thing if we were anti-social, but we have guests over at least 2 times a week, so it’s a little shameful that I let this project linger unfinished for so long. I mean, the past 3 months all that needed to be done was finish up the doors, but I just kept forgetting about it/putting it off.

So at the end of November I decided to fancy-up the back of the shelving area and installed this marbled paper from Paper Source. I got the idea when I saw these boxes online from FurbishStudio. 

At first I thought “Oh! What a cute box to put the remotes in!” (Currently we have 5 remotes/Xbox controllers that are in regular use, so this was a valid “need”). But THEN I remembered that they sold this paper at Paper Source and I knew it was the perfect (and cheapest) solution for the shelving area. I installed it with these removable adhesive glue dots and it’s held up great over the past 3 months.

Another fun thing is that I have some stationery I had done recently and the liner is the same paper. I think it’s super cute. Each envelope liner is different, which is so fun.

The bar area needs a little styling and in a few months, we will have some lighting installed. I’m thinking that once I get the couches upholstered, that will give me the necessary momentum to make it look super cute.

We’ll end this post with my favorite part of the bar right now: A teeny little painting that I bought in Athens, Georgia when I was there in October. The artist is Erin McIntosh. Her body of work is definitely worth exploring.