Final Stages: Painting the Kitchen

My favorite part of a restoration project is the painting. Stripping away the old paint and dirt and then sanding is therapeutic in its own way, but painting comes with instant gratification. It quickly transforms a room from a dull, sad place to a bright, cheery one. I love that! We learned a lot while working on the kitchen in terms of technique, and for that I'm glad we started in this room. We hope to do a true remodel at some point, so mistakes are forgivable here.

Lessons:

• Use a heat gun for stripping paint.
• ZAR latex wood filler is best for surface imperfections.
• Plastic Wood is best for deep gouges (dries very hard).
• Shellac primer is expensive but is the very best for sealing in odors. Just do it. Buy a throw-away brush, cover everything well because it's very soupy and will drip. It's smelly at first but gasses off quickly.
• Brush paint cabinets but move quickly to avoid leaving actual brush strokes. Watch for drips. If you miss any, suck it up and do some light sanding before moving to the next coat.

Priming	I wish I had primed all surfaces of the drawers.

We switched out the old hardware for new, including the cupboard door hinges. This was a bit of a pain because the new hinges were slightly thicker than the old, so in order for them to work properly I had to make the mortise a bit deeper. The old hardware was a bronze-looking steel. The new hardware is chrome plated brass. 

Old hardware.	New hardware.

I wanted a yellow kitchen and Nick allowed it. I loved this buttery yellow when we picked it out, but to my disappointment, I found that the color changed a bit  with the addition of the new light. I think we had a CFC bulb for awhile (I DESPISE those), and the blueness of the light with the yellow walls resulted in a "greenish" cast. It's an easy fix, but we let that bulb burn out before we actually changed it. Obviously, you want to pick your paint in the exact lighting that you'll have in the room, but the challenge was that we wanted to paint the ceiling before adding the new light fixture and I had already charged forward with my paint selection. I still like yellow for the kitchen, but in the future I might go for a slightly lighter hue.

Nick cuts in; Hallie rolls.	I love the schoolhouse light. *Heart*