Kitchen Project 2011

This post is for Lisl and Jenny and my mom and anyone else who cares about painting and home redo projects.  This was a major undertaking for us, both in labor and in decision making. Jenny, they say that imitation is the sincerest compliment. I guess you will know what I mean.  
To start with, we have been putting this job off for three or four years due to weddings and other projects.  The squeaky door gets the oil and there were plenty of other squeaky doors around here. Besides I was dreading it horridly.
I spent hours poring over paint cards and internet inspiration galleries searching for the colors and ideas that I needed.  Valspar, Dutch Boy, Sherwin-Williams, and Benjamin Moore and Co. all have good information for seekers like me.
And prayer…okay I admit it, I was scared of this project.  I wanted it to be good when we were done, and I wanted to love the new just as we loved the old when IT was new.
If we had known that it was going to take the greater part of five days to redo our kitchen; we would have all turned tail and ran.  I’m glad we didn’t know.  I was guessing it would take us three days at the most.  I was wrong!
All of us but Elv have decided that it is good…a success.He says it's okay.  Elv’s reticence is due to the memory of having to sand many layers of enamel paint off his mother’s cabinets long ago.  The dominant color was green not unlike the color I unwittingly chose for our cabinets. (Still rolling my eyes,. How could I?…I PRAYED about it!) Elv is being as polite as he can be.  I hope that one day he can get past the green and  see what we see and enjoy it.  
 Lance helped us by taking off all the doors on Monday and by taking me to Menards to buy paint. Thanks, Lance.
 
Take a good look at the old. It used to be nice and beautiful.

All of the contents of the kitchen covered the table and much of the dining room floor space.  It’s a terrible way to try to cook and eat!


The old border came off slicker than a whistle with a razor blade, some spray to wet the remains and a pancake turner.  Frances knew the tricks to that because she helped Jenny do the same.

Frances painted all day Wednesday and then went to bed early in the evening with the flu. Amy stepped right up to the plate.

Here are the colors: Chocolate River, Washed Green, and Wheat Straw.




At first we thought that the brown was too much!  I painted two walls of it on Tuesday, slept over it and took the plunge and painted the other two walls on Wednesday after all.  We had plenty of paint to paint two walls one of the other colors.  Yeah, decisions!




This is for you Jenny. Thanks so much for your good ideas. It’s almost as nice as yours, don’t you think? And thanks to my patient family this week while the house was bombed and the meals sketchy.  Thanks for your wonderful help, girls.  And Margie, you too, I sure needed the boost you gave me at the beginning when I thought I was going to lose courage and run. 
And a special thanks to my dear husband who puts up with my brainstorms and supports me in doing them by trusting me and letting me try them out.