kitchen update part II

Thanks for checking out the kitchen update part I yesterday! We're on to part II.

Most opinions offered centered around an entirely white paint job, but I figured this was the time to experiment! I searched a number of sites and magazines, and when I saw this photo, I knew I had my inspiration:

via theletteredcottage

After pulling off the cabinet doors and hardware and painting the walls with a satin Behr Limestone, I pulled out the drawers to prime and paint. Here they are with the first coat of primer:

Then, I yanked out the marble-looking contact paper that coated each drawer. Here's a side-by-side before-and-after shot:

After ripping it from every drawer, I had two piles like this in our dining room.

We placed them face up in the dining room to air dry. You can see the remnants (or beginnings of) the kitchen on the floor. We used the same Sherwin Williams Alabaster (mixed at Home Depot by Behr) on the drawers and cabinets that we used throughout the whole house on trim, chair rails, and ceilings.

Here are the top cabinets with two coats of Alabaster. Note to readers: we had two coats of primer and 2-3 coats of paint! The older wood drank everything right up, and to ensure that we didn't miss anything through each coat, we applied an upper coat to lock things in place.

Also, and this is important, I used a foam roller on everything in the kitchen. Mom Hawk got me hooked on foam rollers when she taught me to prime the cabinets (yes, everyone needs a real lesson from an experienced painter!). Here's my baby now:

I ended up using it's big sister in the green and blue rooms, though I wouldn't recommend using it with colors like blues and reds because the colors are so finicky, and foam rollers tend to cover well but pick up paint that has already been laid down. 

Now, if you went back up to the inspiration photo, you might have noticed that it showed a black kitchen. We're getting to that in a moment. 

I knew I wanted one set of cabinets to stand out. At first I thought of painting the bottom cabinets on both sides of our galley a pale french blue, but after I saw that photo, I went bolder. Here's the funny part---Layla of theletteredcottage has recently painted her black cabinets with Alabaster tops and pale blue bottoms! What are the chances!

Anyway, I was struck by her application of corbels to the base of the black cabinets. It made me think of an old built-in cottage kitchen. So we chose to single out one side of the kitchen, and one area of that one side: the cabinets surrounding the window.

Here is after three coats (the first two were satin, the second was a semi-gloss):

Alright, that's a good dollop for one day. Join us tomorrow for Etsy Friday, and next week, we'll explain painting tile and show you the final photos!

Well, final in that we haven't fixed that light hanging above the window (it still looks exactly like that) or those hanging from the ceiling, and one of the shelves needs to be cut down to size. But people encouraged us to show the in-progress shots (thank you Anna!), so we're gonna do it!

icj,

~j

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