I do know that, in the world of interior design, you’re supposed to find one piece of inspiration and build off of that. It’s helped me as I have decorated our home over the years. We thought we found the entryway floor tile we wanted, but then, yesterday, our tile rep threw us a curve-ball: blue tile in the starburst pattern we originally liked in black and white.

We’re modeling our decor to closely tie in with the Crest Theater next door with a lot of Art Deco inspiration. We also wanted to (more or less) match the Crest’s blue ceiling. Such a yummy color. Essentially, we put the cart before the horse. Our inspiration piece should be the tile. And I’m 99% sure we’re going with the blue starburst in the entryway.

As my husband and son started removing the second floor rooms today  — a job I want no part of, but I think they’re having fun — I came over to put my paint samples on the walls. Once I laid my sample tiles on the floor, I quickly realized the colors were all wrong.

Keep in mind that these squares were painted with a crappy, throw-away foam brush, but it gave me enough of a look to know that I need to go back to the drawing board and base the wall and bump-out colors on the blue-grey in the starburst (top right tile). I don’t even like the wall color on the far left. The walls have these odd “bump-outs” for what I assume are plumbing or AC ducting, so we’re going to play those to our advantage with a darker blue and ornate gold poly bas relief scroll-work like the Crest uses (which took me FOREVER to source online).

I could have been completely depressed that my side of things went so awry right off the bat but, fortunately, I redeemed myself. I had this idea to paint the framing around the outside windows (which currently is light blue) a gold and paint the hideous blue and yellow that is the inset as you walk into the front door a dark blue. Essentially, play off the Art Deco as you walk in. Set the scene, if you will.

My husband thought I was out of my mind to want to paint the trim gold.

But I was right! It will look fabulous, I think.

Next, I’ll have to wash the facade of the entryway — I guess with a bucket of water and mop.

I have a feeling that a hot bath, Ibuprofen, and perhaps wheelchairs will be in order tonight for my husband and son. They’ve certainly gotten the short end of the renovation stick.

Tomorrow, they’ll have to bring in power tools to saw down the framing. Even though we’re only going to initially occupy the first floor of the building, we only have one chance to demolish and remove what we don’t intend to keep once we DO occupy the second floor and basement. If we waited, we’d have to run all of the debris through the bookstore, because there is no alley exit. Everything must go out the main front door. So, it’s now or never for demolition, which is unfortunate because this is A LOT of work, and we’re trying to cut costs by doing as much of the renovation as we can ourselves.

As I stood back on the sidewalk to look at the painting I’d done to the facade, I think it finally hit me that this is really our store. A new, fabulous adventure!