How It's Going

My ambitions exceeded my abilities in regards to the kitchen redo. We wound up not being able to take out the bar area, but were able to remove the upper cabinets, so the kitchen is brighter. It took longer than I thought to actually get to the store and buy the paint. I couldn't decide on colors. Finally found what I was looking for at Home Depot. Then, when I got the paint home, I was nervous about starting the Frottage process. I have these 'great' ideas, but they don't always turn out like I want. Last week, I bit the bullet and got the base coat of 'Cracked Wheat' on the walls. Then the next day I mixed the top coat of 'Applesauce Cake' with the glaze and went to work. (Pictures will follow as soon as I can pick Lauren's brain about how to get them from the camera to here. I am technilogically challenged. Badly.)

First, let me just say that if you try this process, use plastic trash bags. Cut them up so they're flat and they'll work great. The instructions I followed said to use newspaper, which I did, but they didn't say to immediately pull the paper off. I left it on too long and the paper stuck to the wall! I scraped off what I could, then just painted over the rest. Luckily, I started on a wall where the desk will be, so it won't be too noticeable. Hopefully.

The rest of the walls went pretty good, though a little slow. Another tip: if you've taped off areas where you didn't want the paint to get, use caution in removing the tape. Again, pictures will show what happens when you go too fast. Again, repainting and reglazing fixed things.

I had wanted to use shutters as window treatments and found 5 sets of louvered doors at a yard sale. I got all 5 sets for $5!! What a steal! We weren't able to put them up like originally planned, but they still look good. I have plans for above the windows, but I'll keep that for a surprise (just in case it doesn't work out).

Lastly, we had planned on painting the cabinets with the same base color of 'Cracked Wheat', which is sort of a soft buttery yellow. Then I was going to antique them using glaze or stain. The old wooden cabinets were so beat up and dull that anything would help. After getting the walls done, though, the wooden cabinets looked better. I cleaned them well with a degreaser and they looked even better. Hmmm, what to do? Since I was going to paint the cabinets, I hadn't been careful about painting near them and Darrell had even painted the end of one row to see what it looked like. Now how to get that paint off without removing the finish?

Enter Darrell with a sander. After working diligently for about half an hour and stirring up quite a bit of dust, he'd only managed to sand a small section and had taken the cabinet down to bare wood. We quit for the day. Or night I should say. Yesterday I got froggy and used some stripper and was able to get all the paint off in a short time. Last night we removed and cleaned all the handles and put a thin coat of stain on all the cabinets and doors. This morning they look fresh and shiny. I am so excited!

Left to do: purchase a sideboard, put up new light fixtures, and lay a new floor.