Mary's little secret part 2.

If you are reading back you'll notice a couple of new posts (if you haven't read anything in awhile then this seems in order). I put my "pet project" posts into drafts (ie., they don't show on the blog until I publish them) because Eric was out of town and (a) I didn't want to announce in a public forum that I was home alone for a couple days and (b) I wanted what I am accomplishing to be a little surprise for Eric when he gets home and he's been reading the blog while visiting his folks in Ft. Lauderdale. Lucky him- it was 80 and sunny. We had an event at the Market so I had to work. Our consolation prize was a couple of 60 degree rainy days. Anywho, tonight I returned to the house to finish painting the "wine cellar" ceiling. I was accompanied by the perfect painting companion for this job, our friend Suz. Now, Suz is an awesome painter to begin with, (witness our guest bath and front porch for proof) but she was perfect for this job because she's statuesque (aka tall) and has long arms. So while I was making frequent use of the 3-step stool to get in painting proximity, Suz could reach all quadrants of the ceiling on foot. We knocked this project out in an hour. All cobwebs were banished, electric wires camouflaged and funny unnecessary pipes rouged. Not much we could do about the pvc plumbing pipes and HVAC ducts:And the prettier part on the other side:
I've been contemplating how to "pretty up" this dungeon room in the basement which we aspire to call a "wine cellar." I picked up the moss green brick-shaped tiles on Saturday from the BIAC, but there weren't enough to do more than a couple square feet. After mulling it over I decided that I might be able to work with the random remaining stock they'd had and do something cool with the stretch of back wall/ledge (visible in the photo above at Suz's shoulder) that's above where the wine racks will likely stop. Since I closed the BIAC Saturday, I was there at opening on Monday and got 4 big boxes of the remaining rustic looking terracotta tiles for a mere $20!

I have inventoried the colrs and plotted the various designs and now have to figure out what will make the most appealing design. I played with patterning them a bit while I waited for Suz this evening. The back wall is 24" tall and 144" wide. Each big tile or smaller tile combo accounts for 8" so I know I'll need 18 "squares" across and 3 "squares" high. For the back wall and 8 squares across and 3 up for each of the end walls if I can stretch my tile supply that far. Here are a few of the combos I was playing with:

I think my current favorite is the very bottom 4 rows. A running pattern of light teal brick above and below two runs of alternating dark and light "squares." I'll have to review my inventory to see if I can pull that off!