A Whole New Upstairs

Well, the new carpeting was put in yesterday. It's like moving in, AGAIN, second time in as many months, since we had to do much of the same stuff the painting required, moving furniture around, removing drawers to make the furniture easier to move around... We are very tired.

Hint from Helen: If accuracy of color is important to you, do NOT buy carpet on the basis of a tiny sample.

The sample we had was about 3x5 inches. You cannot get a proper idea of the color from such a small swatch.

So how did our colors turn out? Well, the color called "Chateau White," which in the store looked creamy, almost white, looks beige in our house. I'm so glad we didn't get one of the slightly darker shades I had preferred! I didn't want a beige carpet, but if I must have one, this is about the prettiest, being relatively light. And of course it's a huge improvement over the dark, pine green we used to have. So I'm content. Demetrios loves it.

As for the red, it turned out not to be that Chinese color at all, when installed in our house. Neither is it one of those dark, rose reds or wine reds. Nothing subtle or muted about this; it's pure, bright, cherry red. And it's smashing! It looks even better than I had hoped it would; in fact, much better. It's as deep a color as the old, pine green, but unlike that, this one isn't gloomy; this one glows. So even though it's by no means a pale color, it lights up the dark hallway. In fact, it makes the white walls look pink at the bottom, an interesting effect. It looks great on the stairs, too, adding spark to the downstairs hallway, with its white walls and white, tiled floor.

We feel we have a whole new upstairs, all freshly painted and carpeted and tidied, all clean and bright.

Now all we need is curtains in one room and bedspreads (counterpanes) in each room; we don't have a single one. I think I'll crochet or knit lacy ones!