While I don't believe that the person who owner our house before us had bad taste, per se, the main rooms were all a color that I can only describe as "antiqued mushroom." I am not an antique mushroom kind of gal.
I spend a lot of time in our kitchen year-round, so I decided to un-mushroom that room first. I also decided that, since we have a very small kitchen, I would take the cabinet doors off of the larger cabinet where the dishes were and paint the interior the same as the wall color, to make the space feel more open.
There was only one problem...
What you see above is a paint misery trifecta--laminate wood paneling at the back, dry, dark, and sad hardwood at the top and sides, and shelf paper from the 1960s on the bottom.
Thank god for the can-do attitude and general lack of future planning that leads me into these projects, or I never would have taken it on.
First, I peeled off the old shelf paper. The utility of this endeavor was debatable--it had been on for so many years that it actually took up some of the shelf wood with it. Once I was done, I sanded the shelf with a finish sander to get rid of the large splinters and try to prep for painting. This actually ended up being among the easier surfaces to paint so...win?
I chose a buttery yellow color for the kitchen, using Pittsburgh Paints Ultra Primer + Paint. Sure sounds like you should just be able to paint it once and be done with it, right?
Not on dark wood, my friend.
Here is two days and three coats of paint into the project:
Please appreciate the yellow walls, and the not-so-yellow insides of the cabinets. Maybe I got the wrong paint. Maybe it's because of the color differences. I don't know. What I do know is that all told I used a gallon of paint in a space that is roughly 250 square feet.
I had also been hoping that the current cabinet color would suffice, but noticed about half way in that it felt very washed-out. So back to the hardware store I went for a gallon of pure white. I painted all of the cabinets, including the doors that I'm keeping on the rest of our storage space. I picked up Pittsburgh Paints' Premium High Gloss Primer + Paint. Still needed two coats, even thought I was only covering a cream color. But in hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with a quart.
Things I learned:
A couple of side notes on paints and painting tools: I'm not a professional painter, and so I have a hard time spending a ton of money on brushes. Mostly it's because I'm also a little irresponsible, and no matter how hard I try, I'll inevitably forget about a brush, only to come back to it caked with dry paint and ruined. However, the Red Devil All-Purpose Painter's Tool is THE BEST $6 I have spent in quite a while:
A couple of side notes on paints and painting tools: I'm not a professional painter, and so I have a hard time spending a ton of money on brushes. Mostly it's because I'm also a little irresponsible, and no matter how hard I try, I'll inevitably forget about a brush, only to come back to it caked with dry paint and ruined. However, the Red Devil All-Purpose Painter's Tool is THE BEST $6 I have spent in quite a while:
It cleans brushes and rollers, it scrapes paint, it opens cans...it does everything! Apparently it also hammers and can pull nails. We didn't get to that together, but I have high hopes for the future. As you can see, it was well-loved. It makes it much easier to keep cheap brushes in usable shape.
Also, I had the opportunity to experiment with a few types of painter's tape. Allowing for the fact that it may have been user error, I didn't have a great experience with 3M's Blue Painter's tape on my moulding. The paint seeped under the edge, and I ended up doing a lot of spot cleaning and scraping afterwards. Mid-way through the project, however, I picked up some masking paper with much better results. If you aren't familiar, masking paper is like masking tape with an additional, non-sticky paper edge that acts like tape plus newspaper. Had I been thorough enough to use the blue tape with newspaper, I probably would have had better luck.
I did not sand the laminate before trying to paint. My excuse was the it was in an awkward spot (on the ceiling too). Mostly I'm lazy and not so into this "planning" thing. This translated into earlier layers of paint easily wiping away as I applied new ones, leaving little gaps with blaring brown horror peering through. Sanding the laminate may have helped, but also be generous with the paint, and stick around to keep an eye on it if it starts to drip. Also, give it a good long while to dry between coats, or you will end up like me, painting for days and taking breaks to google the inventor of laminate wood wall paneling and trying to start a whitehouse.gov petition to have him/her indicted on crimes against humanity (still haven't found a culprit, but the search continues).
I did not sand the laminate before trying to paint. My excuse was the it was in an awkward spot (on the ceiling too). Mostly I'm lazy and not so into this "planning" thing. This translated into earlier layers of paint easily wiping away as I applied new ones, leaving little gaps with blaring brown horror peering through. Sanding the laminate may have helped, but also be generous with the paint, and stick around to keep an eye on it if it starts to drip. Also, give it a good long while to dry between coats, or you will end up like me, painting for days and taking breaks to google the inventor of laminate wood wall paneling and trying to start a whitehouse.gov petition to have him/her indicted on crimes against humanity (still haven't found a culprit, but the search continues).
Anyway...
...it's finally put back together!
I forgot to take "before" pictures of the color, but trust me, it really brightens up the space. I mean, it's bright yellow. The only way it could have toned the space down was if I painted over neon green.
This project has, however, made me realize that I also hate the floor color and the counters, but since both of those are very dusty, very stinky endeavors, they will be waiting until I can open the windows.
Supply Cost:
2 Gallons Pittsburgh Paints Ultra Semi Gloss in "Pat of Butter": $65
Additional paintbrushes: $7
Red Devil Painter's Tool: $6
Painter's plastic (3 roll pack): $5
1 Gallon Pittsburgh Paints Premium High Gloss in White: $30
Painter's tape: $4
Masking paper: $5
----
Grand Total: $122
Next: making a $49 kitchen cart into a butcher block.
