Inspired to create by…my mother and her indigo eyes

I have to start this post out by saying I love my mother. I love her dearly lest I seem impersonal as I continue to write….I am just going with the flow on this one so who knows how it will come out.

You see when it comes to design I am all business. This, I am afraid has not made working with other woman always easy…this is not in reference to my mother so please don’t misunderstand. After all these years, if there is a woman I can work well with, it would be my mother. I do sometimes have to remind her when she asks for my honest opinion and she didn’t like it, that she did ask.

If I gave out awards for the best female client of the year…which I’ve actually considered doing…for this year 2012, it would be my mother.

A mother daughter relationship can be very complicated at times and I would be lying if I didn’t say that ours been evolving and ever-changing over the years.

I am no longer a five-year old little girl sitting on the floor near my mothers feet as she sews at her sewing machine while I carefully practiced my hand stitching, passing it to her for inspection periodically.  I am also not the young preteen who years later as I was beginning  to sew my own clothing, would scream up the stairs for her in sheer panic when I sewed the wrong side of something together. The thought of un-picking made me hysterical and I did a lot of it back then.

She was my first teacher and the person whom I give credit…or the blame for my initial addiction to creating (maybe this is why she is so supportive where others haven’t been).

The tables have turned a little bit since that time, and with this last project I became the teacher. I forget sometimes is that the  things that have become second nature to me are really quite intimidating to others.

Everything is a domino effect. It all started with my mother’s bathroom cabinet. It was shabby, dark and worn and with it only having one door it was an organizational nightmare. She was tired of opening it and having everything fall out or having it all packed in so tightly she had to dig to find the toilet bowl cleaner. It probably doesn’t help that as a hair dresser she has perm rods, scissors, various razors and such she needs to store.

So she asked me if I thought there was a better option. Truth be told it would be tight, but a raised height vanity with two banks of drawers on each side, and one door in the center was the best we could do. It took some convincing my cabinet guy, who knew the drawers would have to stay pretty small.

It would also have to be custom-made. You cannot buy a box like that in the needed dimensions pre-made. I pointed out to her that if she was going to put a fresh brand spanking new cabinet in she might want to update the floor…which was a worn vinyl that she just happened to adore. Blue is her favorite color so I have to tread lightly when it comes to anything blue.

She was not thrilled but she was respectful and decided to humor me and go look at tile options….the one I recommended from Daltile was lovely enough that she forgot all about her blue vinyl flowers.

She knew that she wanted the cabinet to be lighter and she already had the wall paint…which she had bought three years ago, and no I wasn’t with her. We were suddenly working around this previous selection so we knew any direction we went had to make the blue paint work.

For the countertop I suggested she go with a granite and an undermount sink. As you can see the cultured marble top had seen better days.

She was concerned because she wanted a blue countertop and knew that isn’t so common in natural stone… I suggested the blue pearl with the hopes of grounding the brighter blue in her paint.

I would consider its color to be a deep indigo tone. It is actually the color I think of when I think of my mother, so I was actually dying to show it to her.

You know that old Peter Murphy song ‘Indigo eyes?’ I have no idea what all the lyrics say, but I have always loved the chorus. Well, I used to think it was about my mother because she really does have indigo eyes, which genes she has generously transferred through me to my blue-eyed daughter.

The color potential of this granite was never more apparent though, than when we found the perfect wall tile for her backsplash. I knew it was her when I saw it, even though Daltile had so many other amazing options for us to choose from..when you know, you just know.

This really was a small job, but it was no small thing having the bathroom unusable for two and half weeks. It can make even the most patient of people edgy and irritable but she handled it with grace. Tonight we discussed it and now that all the dust has settled and she has organized it all, she is wondering how she lived in it the way it was before.

She is happy with it, which is music to my ears.

The guys who did the work were so incredible and are always my go to guys when I have the choice. For the tile work we worked with Joe from K J Tile. The granite was done by Gene Prunty of Medusa Granite and Marble. The best place to go “when you turn to stone.” The Cabinet was a collaboration between friend, and fellow designer David Porter and was  built by Bear River Cabinetry.

My thanks goes out to them for always coming through for me. Much gratitude and appreciation to these gentlemen and all the others who were involved in making my mothers indigo eyes sparkle.

Tags: domino effect, hand stitching, mother daughter relationship, sewing machine