I decided to paint a little French mural (the writing on the wallpaper is French and English) to tie the colors of the wallpaper and the painted wall in the kitchen together and give us a fun backdrop for the coffee bar.
The wall and counters are fully painted and ready for some decoration.
I knew I wanted the Eiffel Tower right here in the kitchen but I was not sure what color to paint it. The Eiffel Tower in Paris is 3 shades of brown (Eiffel Tower Brown) and has been for over 40 years. Turns out, the Mayor of Paris gets to pick the color. M. Eiffel had it painted red and over the years it has been many colors as you can see in the photo by Bret Arnett:
The color chronology of the Eiffel Tower.
I finally decided to paint it blue to go with the writing on the wallpaper.
I tested the paint color and brush strokes before painting onto the wall.
I tried sapphire paint first but actually used Minwax ”Island Water” stain which has a more translucent quality and is perhaps a little more forgiving in that drips and misswipes can be wiped off with a rag.
First I laid in a general outline of the tower.
I was not out to include every gorgeous detail of the elegant tower but a suggestion of it. I filled it some general cross-hatching to give the impression of the intricate metal work.
Detail of the Eiffel Tower
Using the base color of the wall (yellow) I spattered over the entire thing with a toothbrush dipped in paint.
Dip a toothbrush in paint and draw a thumb over the bristles to create a random spatter pattern.
Spattering is a theatrical painting technique to soften the lines of a figure.
Tiny blobs of paint spattered over the entire surface.
We installed trim around the floor (which still needs to be refinished) and screwed the table into the wall.
The kitchen table has a horizontal brace which is screwed into a wall stud.
We’re enjoying the new layout of the kitchen which seems to give us more room to operate but, of course, we now only have half of a table.
Part of the tower is obscured as it is in many Paris cafes.
Unfortunately the espresso machine was difficult to use at the lower table height so it remains on the counter.
We ‘re not quite done with this area but tired of concentrating on it.
Have you ever got an idea that requires convincing your partner that everything will be all right? Then got tired of working on it before it was all finished?
