welcome to the forums jan ... with 18 year old plants.. not much in the way of weather is going to kill them ... especially the huge old root mass ... so though they might have taken some above ground damage.. and need some pruning after they bud out ... i suspect they will be back ... even if they die to the ground.. with no insult to the root mass.. you might be surprised how fast they can regrow ... but.. you might lose this years bloom.. give them a month or 2 longer.. to see how and where they bud out.. and then we can go from there ... [you dont mention where you are???] i suggest you take some pix then.. and start your own post.. with the pix.. and we can opine from there ... ken

Hi, I've been stalking Ellen kennon for the last two weeks. I've sent her pictures of my rooms and have been emailing back and forth ever since. She has been extremely helpful and sent me swatches of what she suggested I use. I'm really excited to use her paints. She actually sends the formula to glidden prof. paint and you pick it up there. So, it should be local for you. Glidden paints now owns ici. I did see that the ici paints uses (and incidently glidden) the same manufacturer that Fine paints of europe uses. And, I've always heard good things about the ici paints. Anyhow... In my room, I have these wonky grey green couches that I can't match anything to. And, lovely brown orangy trim to boot. She recommended mushroom, her tobacco road knockoff, sage, and several others. I really want to go with the powdered pebbles, but she didn't recommend it. I just love the color. She said mushroom would work best. It is a light beigy, greyish color that I do love (not as much as that darn powdered pebbles- the perfect taupe). And, she reformulated it so it didn't have those funky pink tones. For the gallon size, it was 52 dollars in flat. Maybe 53 in satin. I spend that for regular old BM (not aura) paint. Originally, I was planning on FPE paints, which was I think 125 per gallon. I contacted FPE for help. They have a color specialist. Though emmett was helpful, Ellen was much easier to speak with and get ideas. FPE literally has thousands of colors. Ellen only has maybe 100 to 200. Easier to deal! I'm super indecisive. So, I've been collecting paints/painting for months. I was going to hire a color consultant and pay the 200 dollar fee. Until, I saw some information on EK on here. She will help you and is really nice. I think you should seriously look into her paints or at least give her a call/send her a picture. I think it was funcolors that speaks with her/did some sort of interview with her. You might search for funcolors and see what she says.

Thanks, newchapter, I saw those pendants and had to have them (and I had to figure out to cut the budget somewhere else to get them, too! But you gotta splurge once in awhile.) If you want focal points, then my opinion is you also have to consider color in addition to size. A brilliant blue pendant against white cabinets probably does not need to be as large as a stainless pendant. So you might want to blow up a colored balloon to your selected size and hang that.... I didn't try that - I just asked my KD if I could use the pendants I wanted and she said "fine" (her services came as part of the cost of the cabinets, so I used her until my free time ran out!) Good luck - and post pictures when you are done!

THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful feedback! I'm sorry I've dropped off the face of the earth but btwn going back to work after 2 weeks off and having a sick kid at home I feel like I've been hit by a fast moving train... I wish I knew how to hyperlink back to specific people so I can respond directly but I will try to address a few questions that I've seen! Table -- we definitely had to replace that sucker! It was Pottery Barn circa the mid-90's, and was very "well loved"!! We did have a smart idea that actually my PAINTER suggested -- we painted it (the same color as the island, b/c we had a lot of it left over and loved the color - Black Fox), and moved it up to our playroom to use as a game table (took the leaves out). It looks like a million bucks, and it's so nice to be able to reuse it! I do love our new table (which was the last thing to arrive, just last week!). I definitely wanted round so we had more space to navigate, but we were torn btwn 60 and 54"... Went with the smaller one which is perfect for five, but might be tight for more people! But, I do think any bigger would have been a little crowded down at that end of the room. I had to keep reminding myself to think about our day to day needs as opposed to much more infrequent entertaining or hosting situations. Day to day it is perfect!! And yes we did just keep our existing chairs and reupholster. Tried to tie in a couple of "pop" colors (turquoise and orange) so it was not so monotone. We also had considered painting the chairs to match the table more closely, but I like the contrast of the wood! Here is a close up picture (with one chair removed): Hutch -- definitely was a great idea to hide clutter! Funny story: My 11 yr old took one look at it once the glass was installed and was horrified! "Mommy did you actually PAY for it to look that way? It's all spotty!" :) Very funny to see things through the eyes of a child!! Here's a close up of the mirror: Oven/Range -- I hope I love my griddle some day! I'm really intimidated by it. I actually bought steaks to make on it tonight. I wish I could find a griddle cookbook!! Please lmk if anyone knows of such a thing! I need to just keep trying and hopefully the love will grow... :) My husband uses it for breakfasts but that's about it so far! Outlets - we did include just one pair of outlets at the hutch, and tbh we have not really plugged anything in except the phone. So we have an outlet and a phone connection in there. Otherwise, we put an outlet on each end of the island (facing the window wall). We do not have any outlets on the other side (facing the pantry wall), which sometimes is annoying but mostly I would use it for my laptop, and I can just reach around. Aesthetically it would not have been the best. Also, for some reason my GC was very down on installing plug mold under the cabinets. He did not want to put it in, and I did not want outlets on the backsplash. Ultimately he put regular 2-gang outlets (?) up under the lip of the cabinets, mounted against the bottom of each cabinet -- genius idea. So now I have two plugs (if that makes sense) under each of the three cabinets. Definitely more than I need! And we put a couple of outlets in the coffee bar, and had a couple on the walls. So far so good! Floors - One more thing I'm really glad we did while we were redoing the floors, which I never would have thought of, is to replace our old metal A/C registers with wood ones that are flush with the floor. My GC suggested it, and I think they were like $10 a piece -- another genius idea!! They look SO great compared to the old ones! I love the small updates that end up making a big difference! Microwave - this was a tough decision as well. We were going to put it in the island, but I was worried about it being too crowded wherever it went. We really only use it for popcorn and an occasional reheat. It's definitely not a super convenient location, but I thought it was the lesser of two evils! (ie in the way, or out of the way!!). It is also nice to be able to close those doors and not look at it, too. TV over fridge -- someone on this site gave me that suggestion, literally at the very last minute, and I'm really glad we did it! Funnily enough, my husband wanted to put it between the two windows by the table, but then I realized we would not be able to see it b/c of the light fixture. So then he wanted to put in recessed cans, which I briefly considered, but I really like having a hanging fixture there. So over the Refrigerator it went. Here is a picture of it taken from the family room with the TV cabinet open. A great side benefit, which we did not plan for, is that apparently my husband can sit on the sofa and watch two football games at once, since we arched that doorway -- he can clearly see it from the other room! While I'm at it, here is a pic of the kitchen from the Dining Room (other doorway). I was hesitant to put the oven against the wall b/c this is literally the view you have as you walk into my front door -- you can see through the dining room and into the kitchen. But, I figured, it's a beautiful appliance, and at some point you just have to make the best decision you can with what you have. It was either on the island (I was not crazy about having a ceiling-mounted hood), or against the wall, so the wall is where it ended up. Last thing -- this is pretty much off topic, but I wanted to share my favorite "score" during our reno!! Unfortunately we had some scope creep, and since we were redoing the floors, we ended up redoing a couple of bathrooms and the laundry room - partially... Husband did not want to rip and replace cabinets b/c after all it's just a laundry room! So we kept the boxes, replaced the ugly doors, repainted inside and out, installed new floor tile that we found at Home Depot (previously had been linoleum), got new sink/faucet, and then I was left with what to do about countertops. I looked and looked at builder-grade granite, but it was all speckly and just not what I wanted. There were so many great options but all were more than I wanted to spend. One day at Home Depot I happened upon the laminate area, and lo and behold, there was a laminate in the SAME PATTERN as my quartzite - Mother of Pearl! I ended up spending $325 on the countertops, which I think look AWESOME, and coordinate w/the rest of the house really well! I'm afraid that if there is such a thing as over sharing, I crossed that boundary LONG ago... Sorry for such a long post!!!!!! Oh and the pig - I do love that guy! He is a pitcher actually. Still need to do some work on "accessorizing" a rather monotone kitchen... I admit that I had to google towel pig and now I must try to find one!!! :)