Monday, April 11, 2011

Kitchen Makeover Update - The Paint War

As most of you know, hubby and I have started a minor cosmetic makeover on our kitchen. Over the past couple of weekends, we have gotten some things accomplished, but not as much as I had hoped for by this point. We have managed to get the walls all painted and I've started on the makeover for my kitchen chairs and table. We had intended on having the cabinets painted by now, but alas, that has not happened! I had decided to paint the cabinets the same reddish terra cotta color as the bottom half of my dining area wall. So off to Lowes I went with paint chip in hand. I used a satin finish on the walls and love how rich and nice the color came out. For the cabinets, I decided to go with a semi-gloss finish to better protect them from normal wear and tear. Well, that ain't gonna happen! I handed the paint guy the color chip and told him I wanted a gallon in semi-gloss. So he went to get the paint, came back and started mixing. When he finished, he dabbed a little on the lid and all looked good. I was super excited to get home and get busy!

Once home, hubby took off one of the drawer fronts, sanded it, and I started painting. I noticed when I opened the paint, it looked rather pink. Sort of salmony color. But I trudged on thinking that surely it would dry darker. It. Did. Not.

I tried a couple more coats just to make sure, but still ended up with a dark pink, salmony color. Not what I wanted at all. So back to Lowes we went with the gallon of paint in hand. I asked them to add more red to it and they did for free. Back home we went and I tried it on another drawer front. This time the result was an even darker salmony pink. Still. Not. Happy. So back to Lowes we went. This time without the gallon of paint. We decided to just buy a sample container in a darker red and see how we liked that. We reasoned that it would be easier to redo the wall section if we found another red we liked that looked good on the cabinets. So this time I picked a red that had a burgundy tint to it. Got home with it, painted another drawer front and ended up with a pink toned burgundy/red color!!!! AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! At this point, I'd had enough with the red paint so we decided to walk away from it for a while. I think the problem with the original gallon we bought for the cabinets is that the paint guy tinted a yellow based paint with it and they did not do that with the gallon of satin we purchased to paint the walls with. So after much deliberating, hubby and I have decided to purchase another gallon of the satin in the Apple Peel red and maybe polyurethane the cabinets. If this doesn't work, y'all may have to send in the guys in the white coats!!!

I did get some painting done this weekend. You may recall, a while back a friend was giving away four ladder back dining chairs and I snatched them up. They were showing some signs of wear and tear, but I knew I could work some magic on them. So with some black paint and a little time, I transformed this:



into this:



Much better, don't you think? I am very pleased with how these chairs turned out and can't wait to get the table painted black and get the dining area put back together. If you look at the before picture, you can see the new paint colors on the wall. The red on the bottom is the color my cabinets will be. I hope! I cannot wait to get rid of the ugly floor! Ugh! I hate this floor. It never looks clean, I don't care how much you scrub on it. It will be one of the next things we do so stay tuned for that!

If these cabinets don't kill me first!!!

I'm linking up with Kim at Savvy Southern Style for her Wow Us Wednesday party. Go check it out!

Until next time. . .

8 comments:

  1. LOOKING GOOD!!! Don't you hate how paint never looks the same, we painted our livingroom several yrs. ago a tan cappuccino color and when the sun came in it had a pink tint to it, UGH!

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  2. Looks good Donna....love the chair...and God how I hate dealing with picking paint colors!!!

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  3. So sorry about your paint problems - how frustrating. Your other paint project- the chair - WOW the black paint really makes the rush seat pop. They look great. ~Ann

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  4. A little trick to helping red colored paint look the color it should when painted is....use a gray colored primer....sometimes when we paint with red...the color takes forever to acheive the color we intend without a good base color for it to reflect from...this I learned from a dear friend of our who is a professional painter....hope that might help you out some with your red dilemma.

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  5. Love the chair. It looks great!

    Donna

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  6. Wow, wonderful job on that chair! And I love your red! If you do that color red on cabinets, it is going to look fantastic. Red is my favorite color. Good luck! (and sorry you had all of those paint problems with Lowe's!)
    Best,
    Gloria

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  7. Love the black paint on the chair. So prim.
    Black seems to make things pop.
    Tamera
    Country at heart

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  8. Oh Donna I feel your pain. I hate when I can't get the color right when I am painting. Hopefully you will find something that fits your vision and soon! lol! Love the chair makeover. Yes the black definitely looks best!
    Have a blessed day,
    AMY

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