We did a kitchen re-model back in the States, the effort was substantial, including moving a wall by about a foot to gain precious space in a cramped setting.
We salvaged the 1950-ies all metal sink and cabinet, stripped the grey paint and refinished it in bright red.
And we put a high backsplash of blue tiles behind it. The top part of the sink was white enamel.
The red, white and blue ensemble looked gorgeous.
Following the move to Germany, more building work awaited us. A new roof, a newly insulated facade, costly and time-consuming.
We decided to keep the original appearance of the house intact to preserve the character of the building. We also decided to put up new, old style shutters to break the uniform, slightly intimidating facade into smaller, friendlier visual units.
You can visualize the house pre-remodel as the poor cousin of the Amityville Horror house.
One of the measures to get rid of the severe look was painting the eves. Blue seemed a good choice.
I stuccoed the facade, taking advantage of the scaffolding the roofers had put up to get 25 feet up. The color of the stucco was white.
All that was left to do were the shutters. We discussed material, hinge types, and whether we would be able to find the traditional figurines that hold the shutters open.
Everything went well until the moment I voiced my desired color: red.
My pre-emptive explanation that the French colors were also red, white, and blue, that the Dutch used the same colors in a different order, and, heck, even the Brits had them, did make any dent.
The response "whaaat?" was not followed by a recommendation to see a therapist, but we did decide to wait another six months before we tackled the shutters.
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