Stepping out of the Box

I had a mission this morning.  The kitchen is coming together at This Old House and we noticed the area over the stove and under the hood looked mighty bland.  Something needs to go there, but what?  I did a net search of  tile medallions and mosaics, etc, but wasn’t coming up with anything exciting.  Mike wanted grapes.  (sigh… you think this has something to do with the red ? )   and I was thinking something interesting and sort of mediterannean.  Subliminal wishful thinking maybe,  I have no idea.

So anyway… I drove down to the nearest Tile place.  They have a great selection, huge!   I was optimistic that I could put together some sort of  grape-like mediterannean point of interest for over the stove.

I browsed… ..and browsed.   Three saleswomen sitting at  their computers in  the center of  the showroom ignore my browsing and I figure since I’m the only one in the store they’re busy with yesterday’s massive orders and will get to me when they get to me.   After 20 minutes it got to me. 

Finally some assistance.  And this is how it went:

SalesWoman:     You need help?

Me:     Yes, please.  We bought this tile ( simple off-white brick tile in my hand) for our kitchen and I would like to design a simple mosaic or medallion for over the stove in an approximate 20″ x 20″ square.

SW:      With THAT?  THAT tile is very hard to do any sort of design with.  You are stuck with only these few options over here.
 (pointing to small upright rack with about four selections of tile I’m not attracted to. And notice she’s already informed me that I am “stuck” with these choices. She even thinks they’re bad. )

Me:     Why is THIS tile so hard to do something with, it’s got no pattern, is a simple brick shape and easy color and I’m thinking in this whole showroom we should be able to come up with something.

SW:  Well, no, you really can’t.  I think this here is the only stuff you can work with. 
(pointing again to ugly rack) 

Me:  Well why can’t we do something like a border with  this over here…. (pointing out a really cool off-white matte finish border, real simple and the right color)…..and how about this awesome fruit basket medallion over here in the same matte finish and color for the center of the whole thing?

SW:  Oh, I don’t know… they aren’t the same kind of tile. 

Me:  Why do they have to be the same kind of tile? It’s something we are making that is different than the tile all around it, it SHOULD be different??  Atleast it COULD be?  No?….

SW:   No, not really.  This is it.   Well I suppose that might look OK, actually… certainly different.  Yes maybe that would work .  Hmmmm…. 

Me:  *sigh*  OK.. so I also need an accent color in there so it pops out alittle, because so far it’s all the same color as even the cabinets, let alone the backsplash. 

SW: You can’t fit tiles inside there, they won’t fit. 

Me:   What tiles?

SW:  The ones you are using along the wall    (the brick I came in with).

Me:   I’m not USING that inside the mosaic thing, we are going to find something that fits, right? The accent color?

SW:  Oh, ok. Like what?

Me:  You know those little tiles you have on the back wall?… how about something like that?

SW:  That might work.  

We looked through the little tiles on the back wall, I picked glass mosaic tiles with red hues and brown marble squares too… and I think!.. I think and hope and kinda pray… that it’s going to look good when it’s all done.  When she computed all the stuff into the system and ordered the components for the simple medallion/mosaic whatever… one-hour-and-a-half-later (!!!)

 SW:  “I think this is actually going to look good.  Different “

 Me:   “Sometimes it’s good to step out of the box”.