Les travaux

The apartments are taking shape, particularly the one in the front.

The living room

The bedroom

It’s all primed and taped and ready to paint. Just waiting for the new windows to be installed.

I’ve agonized over the colors. We are required by the historical preservation authorities to paint the window frames (inside and out), balcony and interior shutters a light gray known as RAL 3075. (Turns out RAL is like Pantone, but European.)

I had dreamed of something more in a creamy, buttery palette, with gold touches, like this:

From Pinterest…if anybody knows the source, do tell.

But we’ll go Gustavian if we have to.

Lovely, n’est-ce pas? Jean-Louis Deniot interior.

We’ll put the whitest white on the ceiling, then a medium gray called Silex on the walls, and two shades lighter for the carved decorations and interior doors. The front apartment faces south and is very bright, so we’re going to be a little daring with darker walls.

We have some wonderful slipper chairs in blush that should work nicely with the gray.

The curtains present some dilemmas. Before, the curtains covered the windows when open, with the rods placed barely larger than the openings.

The attachments for the rods are still there. See how close they were?

We’ll have to spread them out in the bedroom. But in the living room, there isn’t much space to avoid covering the wonderful decoration between the windows and to have curtains that aren’t skimpy.

The living room is a tougher nut to crack. How to hang the curtains for maximum window AND maximum carving exposure?

So: should we try curtains that pull to only one side? Or would that look weird?

I am scouring the encyclopedic do’s and don’t of window coverings at Cote de Texas, but am open to suggestions!

The floors are done, too, with some surprises.

The living room went from this (not unusual to paint the terra cotta tiles):

Tomettes…gorgeous when buffed to a shine

To this:

Paint treated for removal.

To this:

They’ll get a protective coating but will keep these colors. In the past, people painted them to have a uniform color.

The bathrooms are tiled, and fixtures will be installed as soon as the walls and ceilings are painted. Reveals coming soon.