From Closet to Kitchen

One of my fab friends recently got me a subscription to REAL SIMPLE magazine as a house-warming gift. The pages are oozing with classic ideas for fashion, food AND home decor.

If you're anything like me, you will look through a magazine about twenty times before retiring it to that perfectly balanced stack resting on your coffee table. First, I will look at the pictures, only--No reading of the lengthy article or captions. Then, I will go back and read the articles. This process takes a few days, as I like to dissect and analyze each piece of advice from the professionals, and rarely have time to do it all in one sitting. DP always teases me about how many times I can read the same magazine. (I'm the same way with movies. I've seen Wedding Crashers at least thirty times on record.)

After thumbing through the September issue for the tenth time, I paused to reread an article about pairing the color red with teal in my fall wardrobe.



Pair Red With…Teal: This high-energy duo takes advantage of two of the season’s most popular colors, but it can become garish if you’re not careful. Keep the outfit predominantly in one shade and add only one element—maybe two—of the other. Tone it down more by mixing in jeans or a gray cardigan.

Red? Teal? Gray? Sure, this would look great in my closet. But what about in my kitchen?

Against my better judgment, and the gods of real estate resale, last winter we painted our kitchen red. I'm talking RED-red. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, and we may have to repaint it when we decide to sell, but for now it kicks any measly, old accent-wall's butt!

This fashion suggestion really got me thinking. Was my kitchen over-garnished? Was I not accessorizing correctly?

Exhibit A: Red canisters against a red wall. What was I thinking?

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I hurried to ACMOORE for some emergency teal spray paint and got busy.



Here they are, freshly painted and fashion forward. What do you think?

Oh, and that subtle gray cardigan they wanted me to tone things down with?



Check.