We Have a Blue Kitchen!

It's not blue because it's sad; it's blue because it's happy because I finished painting it two weekends ago! I just wanted to set the record straight that it was early October that I finished it, which kind of beats my prediction of October in general that I made when I started painting in mid-August. I'll take my pats on the back now, thank you. I was going to wait to post about it until I took pictures with a real camera, but two weeks later and I still haven't taken those, so phone pictures it is!

It took me so long to do this because I only painted a couple of hours at a time. Since everything needed 2-3 coats and there was SO MUCH cutting in to do, it took much longer than it normally would for the same area. I knew this would be happening, so I went to my friend Google to find out how to save my brushes so I wouldn't have to rinse them twelve different times and dump all that paint down the drain. I found that wrapping them in Saran wrap and storing them in the fridge was the number one suggestion. It absolutely worked! At one point I had my brush in the fridge for over a week and when I took it out it was like I had just put it in; the paint was not dried out one bit. I will definitely use that trick again in the future.

We also hung these super cool totally awesome prints that I got for Nick for his birthday. See how totally awesome and super cool they are? They are vintage-inspired travel posters for Middle-earth destinations, made by Steve Thomas.

Up next in this area should be grouting, but let's be serious; that's not going to happen next. You can probably tell that I didn't do the best job of cutting in around the ceiling, and that's because we'll be adding crown molding in here at some point. But before that even happens, I got this harebrained idea that I want to add paneling on the vaulted ceiling in here, along the lines of this: here, here, here. So if I get my way, that will probably come before grouting.

I also have dark brown paint at the ready for the ceiling beam in the living room to make it look at least a tiny bit more like wood instead of like a big beige blob.

Paint color is Sherwin Williams Amalfi

Kitchen Progress

So after almost a year I picked a kitchen paint color! I had two swatches taped to the wall for months and months and when I finally went to Sherwin Williams to get my paint I picked a totally different color. Luckily my impulse color picking worked out this time. I know it's going to take me forever to finish this paint job so I figured I might as well post some "progress" shots, in other words I painted the easy parts and now I have to get the giant ladder in here and move a fridge to finish the rest. 

The undersides of the lowered ceiling still need painting because they were painted the same musty yellow as the rest of the kitchen and dining area. Also imagine that the door is painted white!

This part looks done! This picture best shows the actual color of the paint.

I should have started off with this one since it actually looks finished! I could have fooled you all!

And not so much. This is the point where I got tired of painting and stopped for, oh, three weeks or so. Lucky for us we have friends who don't give a darn if our beer and cheese tasting parties are in a fully painted kitchen or not.

Here is our list of what we have done and still have to do (which is obviously mostly what we still have to do; I guess the kitchen isn't too high on our priorities list just yet):

• Remove the poorly installed crown molding
• Paint it navy <-- It turned out kinda close to navy, but I think I like this better. Halfway done with painting obviously!
• Improve storage in the deep but narrow pantry -- Added shelves to the door but more needs to be done to make it really useful
• Add new white crown molding
• Paint the baseboards & door frame white
• Replace the brass 90s light with a more modern chandelier -- Something is in the works for this! We got a light from a friend who didn't want it and I'm going to paint it and see if I can get some prettier bulbs than the generic chandelier ones for it to see what I can do with it
• Paint the door to the garage white
• Add matching blinds to the dining window?
• Replace the over-the-stove microwave -- We didn't really want to do this but the existing one died about a month after moving in :(
• Build a window seat with storage for more dining table seating
• Replace the old over-the-sink window with a greenhouse window; I didn't even know this was a thing until I saw one in Nick's parents' house and I love it!
• Probably paint the cabinets eventually since they're not terribly pretty