Kitchen Updates Continue

January 2014

 

While we were waiting on the counter sealer to harden I had a few days off work for New Years.  I decided it was perfectly logical to repaint the kitchen.  Back in 2010, when we bought the house, the kitchen was the first room we started working on.  Together Josh and I chose to paint the space a bright green, Benjamin Moore Eccentric Lime to be exact.  Soon friends started affectionately calling it Shrek Green (maybe not affectionately behind our backs).  It was a little unorthodox and loud, but at the time it felt so nice to banish the sooty mustard walls with something bright and happy.

Over the last four years we have slowly painted other rooms in the house.  These rooms all were painted serene nature inspired colors: dark mossy greens, sunny yellows, rich earthy browns, and cool deep blues.  With each new paint color, the kitchen became more and more out of character with our home.  While we loved our Shrek green, it wasn't exactly fitting in the palette.  The clincher came when we got all new kitchen gear for our wedding.  For the most part we chose neutral white and black items, however most of serving pieces and smaller appliances were a bright cheery red. Since all of our upper cabinets are doorless, these new items started giving the room a bit of a year around christmas theme.

 

At first, I thought about painting the whole room white to match the trim and cabinets, but we decided a little definition would help call out some of the nice features of the room. We decided a nice neutral light gray would be perfect.  Since we already loved our bathroom color BM Stonington Gray, it made sense to get something similar.  We decided to go one lighter on the same paint strip which brought us to Wickham Gray. Having learned from our past mistakes we got the paint in our favorite Acrinamel Satin paint from Miller.  The enamel base will allow us to wipe the walls down much easier and will help us avoid greasy build up.  The existing green in our kitchen was Acro Pure satin from Miller (which is VOC free and good quality, but it took multiple coats and tended to smudge if you wiped it, long term we have been told it can go chalky as well).  

So, over a few days I washed the walls, taped, and then painted the kitchen.  I split the room in two; doing the nook first and then the fridge side of the kitchen a few days later.  This is currently my new favorite way of painting a room.  It allows me to not empty the entire space and gives me the opportunity to get two coats done in one day.  This did mean I had to move everything off our pantry shelf AGAIN, which I really could have done without, but still, it was relatively easy.

 

 

The paint definitely reads more blue than gray in the space, I wish it was a little more gray.  There is something about the lighting in our house we cannot seem to get right, it feels like everything takes on a blue tone. However, it achieved the look I was overall going for.  The room is now bright without being loud, feels fresh and clean, and allows a few of our more colorful objects to shine.

 

 

By the time I was done painting the counters were ready to be used, Josh added quarter round edging and installed back the window trim.  Together we cleaned the kitchen and moved everything back. I think this can count as a mini-remodel and hopefully the last kitchen post I will do for a while.
 

Plaster and Paint, And Then Paint Again

February 2012

After our built-in's were completed we brought in a contractor to skim coat our bedroom walls.  We did this for two reasons.  The first being the room was drywall with a speckle texture which did not match the rest of the house.  The second was we had done several repairs/modifications to the walls.  There was the access panel, which added some drywall to the South wall, we had framed in the closets and added some new drywall to the North wall, and finally when we insulated the house we went ahead and added some additional insulation into the walls from the interior.  All in all, it made our walls look like a hot mess.  Some had texture, some were smooth, some had large holes. It was rough.

Over the course of two days, the contractor skimmed all of our walls and applied a rough texture that was a close match to our downstairs plaster. During this time, Josh and I worked on paint colors.  We both were on the same page with having a nice serene blue gray color in the bedroom. We thought this would go well with our vibe, and also with the existing headboard fabric and our duvet which was a mixture of blues, grays and tans.  A little before the remodel we went to a awesome bar in Seattle and when I was in the restroom I thought, this is the color I want in my bedroom. Is this weird?  Most likely.  So when I came out of the restroom I asked Josh to come take a look (which got us even weirder looks from the staff).  But they were kind enough to tell us the color was Sherwin Williams Foggy Day. Bonus!  As soon as I got home I went to Sherwin Williams and got a sample, as well as two other colors just to be safe. 

Josh and I thought the best way to work with our low sloped ceiling was to paint it the same color but in a lighter hue.  So I also picked up several shades for the ceiling.  We put our test colors on and actually felt the Foggy Day read a little too-- dare I say Foggy. So we went with a similar shade called Storm Cloud which was a bit more punchy.  We went to Miller Paint, color matched and started painting the ceilings the lighter hue of Storm Cloud and then the walls got painted. This was pretty hard work, ceilings are miserable and it tooks us one VERY long weekend to paint the entire room.  The whole time I painted I had a weird feeling.....

When we were completely done I stepped back and thought, HOLY PURPLE.  With having the color on all four sides of the room it became overwhelming.  The color which appeared to have NO purple in it from the swatch was reading like a mother-of-the-bride lavendar dress gone wrong.  I took a gulp and asked Josh what he thought.  He was silent and then admitted he too was overwhelmed by the color. We went back in forth about being able to live with it.  But in the end, we knew we would always lay in bed hating it.

So, round two:  Foggy Day (I never should have questioned) and a Bone White ceiling to match the rest of the house began.  As much as we complained it was not that bad.  The ceiling took two coats and was horrible, but the walls only took one coat since the Foggy Day was so close to Storm Cloud.   This was the first time Josh and I have ever had to repaint a room.  I am not proud of it, but it happened.  It meant a  wasted weekend and about $100 in paint.  But now the room was perfect and Foggy and we loved it.