My Inspiration
We're still working on the kitchen project here. In case you were looking for photos. We went to Disneyland for a couple days so it threw us for a loop!
I thought I would share how I decided on colors and ideas for our kitchen.
I don't consider myself creative by any means. I have difficulty seeing a vision of what I want something to look like and then actually bringing it to life. So, I started browsing the HGTV website. I saw so many things I liked and then so many things I down- right- hated. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary or modern. Although, Paul really likes contemporary and modern. He likes the clean and sleek look. I, on the other hand like my home to feel comfy and cozy. I want my kitchen to be a place you can come to, slouch in a chair, and sip on a cup of tea or have some comforting soup when you are sick. I want my home to be lived in. Not on display. Even though we have some differences, I think we have found a way for our styles to mesh.
I browsed the photos and it really helped me filter the styles that I liked and what I didn't like!
(All photos courtesy of HDTV.com)
While these kitchens are nice, they aren't for me!
These reflect more of me and what I would like to enjoy in my kitchen:
This is the one that really caught my eye:
When I saw the above photo, I had basically made up my decision. I wanted a "barn" or country red on my bottom cabinets and I was thinking of an off-white color for the top cabinets. I really liked the two toned. I think it will really help open up our kitchen and make the space more inviting while adding some color.
So, off I went to the local big box home improvement store. I came out with a can of Rustoleum Country Red and a can of Navajo White.
I only bought one can because I wanted to test it out first. I was really trying to avoid all the sanding involved so I just wiped everything down with some TSP and then added a coat of primer. Then, I added the coat of color. I was so amazed at how easy it all was! Pfft! This was gonna be a cinch! I was too chicken to paint a cabinet with the red color. The deep color just made me nervous. What if I didn't like it? Would it be hard to remove or cover up? So, I decided to paint a little wooden stool I had instead- just to test the color.
I reeeeaaaalllllly liked it. That was it. I got back in the car with my two kids and stocked up on all the spray paint I thought I would need for my cabinet doors.
I thought I could use the same technique to paint the bases of the cabinets (or the boxes) with out sanding but with out using spray paint. The spray paint fumes are very strong and I didn't want to bring them into the house. I also didn't want to cover everything in plastic to protect from over spray! So I decided to get regular paint for the bases. Navajo white is a pretty basic color and that was easy to find. The red color was another story.
I took with me my little stool so the paint department could match the color. Well, apparently the gloss in the spray paint made it difficult for the machine to pick up the right color. It was calculating the color as a pinkish color due to the flash of the camera it uses to read the color. So the lady behind the counter decided to manually adjust it... All was good until I got home.
[Not sure why but I thought it would be a great idea to start this project Easter weekend... with the plan of having guests over here. I still don't know what I was thinking... its been almost 3 weeks and we are still not done.]
We stayed up really late Friday painting. I rushed everything and decided to primer and paint the bottom cabinet boxes in the same night. Remember, this isn't spray paint I was using. I was really unhappy the next day when the paint was scratching off! Long story short... and probably a rushed judgment, we decided maybe that wasn't the way to go and we started from scratch! Some parts of our cabinets aren't real wood and have a very slick surface, affecting the way the paint was adhering.
We had to wait until after Easter, and a week later we got my mom to watch Clare for us. I emptied all of my cabinets and put everything in my living room. Again, tell me why I thought this was a good idea with two little kids running around here?! Said "stuff" is still in my living room but it now looks like a cat 5 hurricane came through too! Oh, wait. She did. Her name was Clare.
I also noticed after painting the boxes that the color I chose for them did not match the spray paint color I chose for the cabinet doors! I had to scrap all the plans I had to save time and spray paint. The good news is that the color the lady custom mixed turned out to be a better and deeper color than the spray paint I had picked out! It was a blessing in disguise, really.
Paul went out, bought a hand sander and we got to sanding. It took us an entire day for sanding alone. It will take me months to collect all the dust that has accumulated all over the house. So, here I am.. little by little am trying to catch up with the primer and painting. All by hand with a paint brush.
The Saturday before Easter in the midst of all of this a friend of ours came over with his mother who had just finished re-doing her kitchen as well. She had the nerve to show me the photos and give me more crazy ideas... hehe. I was perfectly happy with a simple paint job. That is, until she showed me these photos.
Here is J's beautiful kitchen (I hope you don't mind me sharing)!
Next time I'll show you what ideas took from this and ran with...
I thought I would share how I decided on colors and ideas for our kitchen.
I don't consider myself creative by any means. I have difficulty seeing a vision of what I want something to look like and then actually bringing it to life. So, I started browsing the HGTV website. I saw so many things I liked and then so many things I down- right- hated. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary or modern. Although, Paul really likes contemporary and modern. He likes the clean and sleek look. I, on the other hand like my home to feel comfy and cozy. I want my kitchen to be a place you can come to, slouch in a chair, and sip on a cup of tea or have some comforting soup when you are sick. I want my home to be lived in. Not on display. Even though we have some differences, I think we have found a way for our styles to mesh.
I browsed the photos and it really helped me filter the styles that I liked and what I didn't like!
(All photos courtesy of HDTV.com)
While these kitchens are nice, they aren't for me!
These reflect more of me and what I would like to enjoy in my kitchen:
This is the one that really caught my eye:
When I saw the above photo, I had basically made up my decision. I wanted a "barn" or country red on my bottom cabinets and I was thinking of an off-white color for the top cabinets. I really liked the two toned. I think it will really help open up our kitchen and make the space more inviting while adding some color.
So, off I went to the local big box home improvement store. I came out with a can of Rustoleum Country Red and a can of Navajo White.
I only bought one can because I wanted to test it out first. I was really trying to avoid all the sanding involved so I just wiped everything down with some TSP and then added a coat of primer. Then, I added the coat of color. I was so amazed at how easy it all was! Pfft! This was gonna be a cinch! I was too chicken to paint a cabinet with the red color. The deep color just made me nervous. What if I didn't like it? Would it be hard to remove or cover up? So, I decided to paint a little wooden stool I had instead- just to test the color.
I reeeeaaaalllllly liked it. That was it. I got back in the car with my two kids and stocked up on all the spray paint I thought I would need for my cabinet doors.
I thought I could use the same technique to paint the bases of the cabinets (or the boxes) with out sanding but with out using spray paint. The spray paint fumes are very strong and I didn't want to bring them into the house. I also didn't want to cover everything in plastic to protect from over spray! So I decided to get regular paint for the bases. Navajo white is a pretty basic color and that was easy to find. The red color was another story.
I took with me my little stool so the paint department could match the color. Well, apparently the gloss in the spray paint made it difficult for the machine to pick up the right color. It was calculating the color as a pinkish color due to the flash of the camera it uses to read the color. So the lady behind the counter decided to manually adjust it... All was good until I got home.
[Not sure why but I thought it would be a great idea to start this project Easter weekend... with the plan of having guests over here. I still don't know what I was thinking... its been almost 3 weeks and we are still not done.]
We stayed up really late Friday painting. I rushed everything and decided to primer and paint the bottom cabinet boxes in the same night. Remember, this isn't spray paint I was using. I was really unhappy the next day when the paint was scratching off! Long story short... and probably a rushed judgment, we decided maybe that wasn't the way to go and we started from scratch! Some parts of our cabinets aren't real wood and have a very slick surface, affecting the way the paint was adhering.
We had to wait until after Easter, and a week later we got my mom to watch Clare for us. I emptied all of my cabinets and put everything in my living room. Again, tell me why I thought this was a good idea with two little kids running around here?! Said "stuff" is still in my living room but it now looks like a cat 5 hurricane came through too! Oh, wait. She did. Her name was Clare.
I also noticed after painting the boxes that the color I chose for them did not match the spray paint color I chose for the cabinet doors! I had to scrap all the plans I had to save time and spray paint. The good news is that the color the lady custom mixed turned out to be a better and deeper color than the spray paint I had picked out! It was a blessing in disguise, really.
Paul went out, bought a hand sander and we got to sanding. It took us an entire day for sanding alone. It will take me months to collect all the dust that has accumulated all over the house. So, here I am.. little by little am trying to catch up with the primer and painting. All by hand with a paint brush.
The Saturday before Easter in the midst of all of this a friend of ours came over with his mother who had just finished re-doing her kitchen as well. She had the nerve to show me the photos and give me more crazy ideas... hehe. I was perfectly happy with a simple paint job. That is, until she showed me these photos.
Here is J's beautiful kitchen (I hope you don't mind me sharing)!
Next time I'll show you what ideas took from this and ran with...
Labels: From House To Home, Kitchen Makeover, pictures, rachael
