The Kitchen - the final frontier ~ Part 2 - The Power of Colour
I decided to stretch my paint inventory again, and use Hiking Trail (from the bathroom) on the walls of the kitchen. I was going to go with something a little more bold in the beginning, but as I now need to ensure that it's "buyer friendly", I thought a good neutral would be best.
First, I had to remove more grease and dirt from the walls using a handy-dandy little product called TSP:
Great for cleaning off walls and other surfaces to get it prepped for painting. You can find it in any Canadian Tire, or Walmart.
I did a minor bit of spackling, slapped on some primer, then put on a couple coats of Hiking Trail. Though it wasn't without a lot of grunting, as I had to move the stove and the fridge in order to get the painting done. I also had to perform balancing acts that would be to the envy of Cirque de Solei in order to paint above the cupboards over the sink. It's a small kitchen, but cutting around the cupboards, around the counter, around the ceiling...ugh...took a long time...but it looks awesome:
A little glimpse....
I then gave the ceiling a much-needed painting. This would have been a straight forward task...had I not run out of ceiling paint. One thing I know for sure...you can't stretch ceiling paint. I did one coat - and I thought that was all that I was going to need to do - but it looked like crap. Patchy. Very patchy. I went to Home Depot hoping to purchase just a small can of ceiling paint, as this was the final ceiling to be painted. Ugh. No. Small cans of ceiling paint do not seem to exist. The smallest size was a gallon - $20! $20 for one coat of paint? Seemed illogical and a big waste of money. So I improvised...with primer. It's white. It coats well.
And coat well it did...
Hey, no one will know the second coat is primer. It's a ceiling and it's white. Good enough.
The final debate was what to do about the backsplash. I am not the Queen of Tiling (well, I might be, as I haven't attempted tiling before, but I wasn't too keen on doing it now). How you want your backsplash to look is kind of a personal thing, so I decided to just go with paint in a contrasting colour, and the new owner can feel free to do whatever she or he desires. I then went onto CIL's website and used their Virtual Painter tool to find out what would be a good compliment to the Hiking Trail. Alas, it is silver (that worked out rather coincidentally, as silver is the metal of choice in my home and I love grey). I was going to go buy a can of "Aviator Silver" (their suggestion), but at the last minute I remembered the striped wall that I did in the livingroom, and that I was already in possession of a light grey called Oyster Bay, so I went with that.
Uh...meh.
I didn't really like it once I got it on. In my living room it looks a lot darker that what it looks here. Lesson learned - just because its the same colour, it doesn't mean that it is going to look the same in every room. Lighting, and the position of said lighting, can really effect what a colour looks like. So if you are thinking of re-using a paint colour, put up a swatch, or just paint a little section of your wall and see how the colour reacts to what's around it.
So since it wasn't "blowing my skirt up", I decided to change the paint a bit. I actually still had a bit of my Granite Grey from the bedroom. It's kind of thick now, but was still useable. So I put 3 heaping tablespoons of the Granite Grey into the small can of Oyster Bay. I'll call it Granite Oyster! Uh. Yeah.
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Much better. That was the contrast that I was looking for. I know you may not be able to see the difference in the pictures. It's a tonal difference, between light grey, and a little deeper light grey.
After that it was a bead of caulking. Now one things for sure - I am a very messy caulker. I just can't seem to master the flow, or control it, for that matter. But hey, there's always the option of creating the illusion that you are the "Master Caulker". I call it - painter's tape. Give everything a clean off, thorough dry, and then set out your painter's tape. I just eye-balled it. After that, grab your white caulking and caulking gun (spend 20 min declogging the sucker because you didn't put a stopper in the top), then slap on some latex gloves (cuz that stuff is a really not easy to get off your hands). Put a bead of caulking around the countertop (or, in my case, several blobs that I then smoothed out with my finger). Just try to keep it consistent and even. Wait maybe 5 min, then take the tape off (don't leave it any longer, otherwise as you take the tape off, you'll take caulking off with it). Then whip out your touch-up brush, cuz no matter how much they like to claim that painter's tape is not suppose to pull paint off, I always find it does). And voila!...
Ok, so there you go. Neat and tidy.
And I guess I'm all done...
Uh, wait...yes...I'm sure you're wondering "what about the cupboards". *Sigh* Yeah...the cupboards...
You know when you take on a project and you're thinking all "it'll be easy"...yadda, yadda, yadda. Uh...no...not easy at all. For the hair-pulling and necessary over-consumption of wine that the cupboards caused, I feel it is worthy of it's own posting....cuz you'll never believe what I had to go through.
Stay tuned...not long to go now...
Love, Laugh, and Make It Gorgeous!
Blogger on the Run
First, I had to remove more grease and dirt from the walls using a handy-dandy little product called TSP:
Great for cleaning off walls and other surfaces to get it prepped for painting. You can find it in any Canadian Tire, or Walmart.
I did a minor bit of spackling, slapped on some primer, then put on a couple coats of Hiking Trail. Though it wasn't without a lot of grunting, as I had to move the stove and the fridge in order to get the painting done. I also had to perform balancing acts that would be to the envy of Cirque de Solei in order to paint above the cupboards over the sink. It's a small kitchen, but cutting around the cupboards, around the counter, around the ceiling...ugh...took a long time...but it looks awesome:
 |
| (got myself some fridge magnets) |
A little glimpse....
I then gave the ceiling a much-needed painting. This would have been a straight forward task...had I not run out of ceiling paint. One thing I know for sure...you can't stretch ceiling paint. I did one coat - and I thought that was all that I was going to need to do - but it looked like crap. Patchy. Very patchy. I went to Home Depot hoping to purchase just a small can of ceiling paint, as this was the final ceiling to be painted. Ugh. No. Small cans of ceiling paint do not seem to exist. The smallest size was a gallon - $20! $20 for one coat of paint? Seemed illogical and a big waste of money. So I improvised...with primer. It's white. It coats well.
And coat well it did...
 |
| ugh...builder's beige |
Hey, no one will know the second coat is primer. It's a ceiling and it's white. Good enough.
The final debate was what to do about the backsplash. I am not the Queen of Tiling (well, I might be, as I haven't attempted tiling before, but I wasn't too keen on doing it now). How you want your backsplash to look is kind of a personal thing, so I decided to just go with paint in a contrasting colour, and the new owner can feel free to do whatever she or he desires. I then went onto CIL's website and used their Virtual Painter tool to find out what would be a good compliment to the Hiking Trail. Alas, it is silver (that worked out rather coincidentally, as silver is the metal of choice in my home and I love grey). I was going to go buy a can of "Aviator Silver" (their suggestion), but at the last minute I remembered the striped wall that I did in the livingroom, and that I was already in possession of a light grey called Oyster Bay, so I went with that.
Uh...meh.
I didn't really like it once I got it on. In my living room it looks a lot darker that what it looks here. Lesson learned - just because its the same colour, it doesn't mean that it is going to look the same in every room. Lighting, and the position of said lighting, can really effect what a colour looks like. So if you are thinking of re-using a paint colour, put up a swatch, or just paint a little section of your wall and see how the colour reacts to what's around it.
So since it wasn't "blowing my skirt up", I decided to change the paint a bit. I actually still had a bit of my Granite Grey from the bedroom. It's kind of thick now, but was still useable. So I put 3 heaping tablespoons of the Granite Grey into the small can of Oyster Bay. I'll call it Granite Oyster! Uh. Yeah.
Much better. That was the contrast that I was looking for. I know you may not be able to see the difference in the pictures. It's a tonal difference, between light grey, and a little deeper light grey.
After that it was a bead of caulking. Now one things for sure - I am a very messy caulker. I just can't seem to master the flow, or control it, for that matter. But hey, there's always the option of creating the illusion that you are the "Master Caulker". I call it - painter's tape. Give everything a clean off, thorough dry, and then set out your painter's tape. I just eye-balled it. After that, grab your white caulking and caulking gun (spend 20 min declogging the sucker because you didn't put a stopper in the top), then slap on some latex gloves (cuz that stuff is a really not easy to get off your hands). Put a bead of caulking around the countertop (or, in my case, several blobs that I then smoothed out with my finger). Just try to keep it consistent and even. Wait maybe 5 min, then take the tape off (don't leave it any longer, otherwise as you take the tape off, you'll take caulking off with it). Then whip out your touch-up brush, cuz no matter how much they like to claim that painter's tape is not suppose to pull paint off, I always find it does). And voila!...
Ok, so there you go. Neat and tidy.
And I guess I'm all done...
Uh, wait...yes...I'm sure you're wondering "what about the cupboards". *Sigh* Yeah...the cupboards...
You know when you take on a project and you're thinking all "it'll be easy"...yadda, yadda, yadda. Uh...no...not easy at all. For the hair-pulling and necessary over-consumption of wine that the cupboards caused, I feel it is worthy of it's own posting....cuz you'll never believe what I had to go through.
Stay tuned...not long to go now...
Love, Laugh, and Make It Gorgeous!
Blogger on the Run
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