Like Paolo from mirrormirror...whose photo of her new coffee table and Emma Gardner rug reminds me that I still have no rugs...

And Leah from More Ways to Waste Time...whose post about Jonathan Adler's Gray Garland wallpaper reminds me that I still have those rolls of Ferm feather wallpaper sitting in my closet.

I'm sort of thrilled at the idea of a tearing up the kitchen tiles this weekend and discovering a less than pristine wooden floor. Because if I don't do cork or rubber--more on that anon--or Marmoleum, I'd get to stencil!!!! Weeeee! I love this stencil story we did a few years ago.

And I love Chloe Warner's stenciled front hall. More of her on this Chloe Warner House Tour video!

Another idea for the kitchen floor--cork--seen here in our green interiors slide show. I bet it's totally soft and bouncy. But how does one keep cork clean? Is it sealed and then you just mop it? Anyone have any experience with these?

Yesterday I was talking to our resident builder/DIY-er, Chase Booth, trying to score some leftover Marmoleum tiles from the props closet--fat chance! He didn't have any free floor tiles for me--good thing bklyndame might--but he did have a lot of great advice.

Chase says what a lot of you have said:

1. If I have nice wooden floors, why cover them up
2. I could easily have the floors sanded professionally and refinish the floors myself (eek!)
3. I ought to pickle the floors, (which makes me want to say "I oughtta be in pickles").

We have pickling (aka whitewashing instructions) on the site. Think I could do that?

Do we even like that look?

Marmoleum's got some patterns on their own site, and Katy Elliott, one of our trusty web people here pointed out that we've got some great Marmoleum patterns in our eco-friendly floor slide show. But I decided to take some color pencils and do my own. Not sure I like it, but...

Turns out the kitchen is 8 feet by 15.5 feet. The built-ins are about a foot and a half deep. Forgot to measure how wide, but I think about 7 feet.

What you think? Should I quit my job and become a floor designer?

Not...

For a while there, I thought I'd just refinish the wood on the kitchen floor and be done with it. But a few months ago I was visiting a friend of Isaac's in Scranton, PA whose floor is cover in Marmoleum tile. (I took pictures, but someone swiped my camera with the shots on it.) The floor was gorgeous, and in great shape though the floor hadn't been replaced in sixty years. Friend, we'll call him Nat, sang the virtues of Marmoleum--it's durable, "green" because it's made with linseed oil, great for people with allergies, and comes in a gorgeous array of colors like the ones you see here.

So, now I think I'm going to go with Marmoleum. Like any of the color combinations above, or below?

I love the lines and the design of the fancy fridges, but this morning I started fretting about the fact that they're not Energy Star, are they? What if I got a small regular fridge and had it and the stove I already own now powder-coated at the same place I had my chairs done in Long Island? Is that toxic?

Imagine the fridge above--Treehugger says Kenmore are the best Energy Star fridges--that vintage mint green?

I'm so sad to say that Cortelyou Vintage, one of my favorite stores, is about to close. I wrote about it once. Maybe I should have written about it more. It was a store ahead of its time. Big sale this weekend...

By my latest count: $2K refrigerator, $3K stove, $100 IKEA bucher block table, $1K farm sink, plus faucet, flooring, paint, ceiling skim coat and new ceiling fan, I'm looking at about $15K - $20K for my kitchen renovation.

The bank has been after me for a home equity line of credit (as opposed to a loan).

Is that what one does to pay for all this? Takes out a loan? Or is a line of credit better?

O Taste and See indeed...

Came back from lunch and the plucky Kate Doherty of domino assistant editor fame left this picture on my desk with a caption:

"Saw this in a book on Poiret and thought of you. It's an actress chez elle."

Do you think it's the tree mural, the outfit, or the sentiment that put her in mind of Scrappy?

I love this poem by Denise Levertov. Was reading it last night and discovered the secret source of my tree fetish, and the quince/plum thing in particular. I wonder if Mielle's heard of it.

It goes:

O Taste and See

The world is
not with us enough
O taste and see

the subway Bible poster said,
meaning The Lord, meaning
if anything all that lives
to the imagination's tongue,

grief, mercy, language,
tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform

into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,
living in the orchard and being

hungry, and plucking
the fruit.

Speaking of antlers...Naked Decor just sent me this pillow. I'm not so into antlers, unless they're on pictures of girls. Are you? Flip through our antler slide show and then click on the link to discuss in the forums...

Meet Quimby. She likes to rip apart his toys. But so far, this one from West Paw (which happens to be eco-friendly) remains intact.

Emma and Djuna the cats love theirs which is shaped like a fish and comes with cat nip inside and a little bell on the end.