Many Days Later…

Sorry about the lack of updates.  I’ve been over here trying to put my kitchen back together and keep my sanity.  🙂

So much has happened.  The sprayer never worked out after that first day.  Knut spent a whole morning replacing seals and cleaning out filters.  We could never get the pressure back up to where it should have been.  While he spent time on that, I started painting the inside, since we weren’t planning on spraying that.

After priming everything, I put on the first layer of “Delicate Mist” and thought, “Huh.  That’s white.”  Then I started thinking, “Wow.  This is really bright white.”  Finally, I thought, “This is not going to work at all.”  I had finished the upper cabinets of the peninsula when I had reached that conclusion.  I wanted a pale blue, but this was a white, tinted blue.  Next to the whites in the kitchen that had been antiqued and yellowed over decades, it looked awful.  It was like I had several natural light light bulbs in the kitchen, and then one fluorescent light blaring right in the middle.  Not the look I was going for.

So Knut and I brought out the color cards, and chose a blue with a stronger value, so that it would have more contrast against the old whites in the kitchen.  I went back to the store and picked up the new color.  We chose “Rain Washed.”  I guess we didn’t need a delicate mist, we needed a full downpour.  Haha.  Color names amuse me.

I have hesitated in writing anything after that point, mostly because I’m still sorting it out in my brain.  This new color is so different than how the kitchen was before.  It’s actually a bit bluer than this picture shows.  It looks more grayish during the day, which I like, but it gets brighter at night.  I don’t know why.

I keep wanting Knut to tell me how fabulous the kitchen looks.  The house portion is done and it looks so completely different.  I ask him how he likes it.  He says things like, “I don’t hate it.” or “I don’t dislike it.” or “As long as you like it.”  I finally pulled from him yesterday: “I like it better than it was before.”

The poor man can’t lie to me.  It’s his curse.

I actually wasn’t sure for awhile how I liked it, but I really needed someone right now to ooh and ahh over it so I can go from the fence of liking it to really loving it.  I hate what that says about me, and I’m trying to overcome it.  The only people who have seen it and told me it’s fabulous are my children.  I love hearing their ohhing and ahhing, but honestly, I think they would have done it more had I painted it hot pink.

I wonder if I should have gone grayer, I wonder if I should have gone darker.  I wonder if I should have just painted it the same green as the dining room to tie the two rooms together.  I am so extremely impulsive in my home improvement endeavors, and I do truly love this color.  I love it so much.  It’s what I would have picked had I been building my home from scratch and just picked what my heart wanted.  I’m not entirely sure it matches the beautiful wallpaper my mother in law left behind, and I’m not entirely sure it’s what Knut would have picked out.  It doesn’t clash with the wallpaper, but I’m not sure if it’s the best choice to match.

Now I just want to tear down the wallpaper.  Next year.  Maybe.  If I get all anxious to do it and all.

Home improvement projects are so psychological, aren’t they?  Well, at least they are for me.  I wanted to finally just pick something I want, just for me and as soon as I get the paint on, I’m asking for affirmation from everyone I meet.  It makes no sense.  Honestly I do love it.  My confidence took a little while to grow.  That part surprised me.

Today some of the doors are getting put back on.  I’ve been painting them by hand in batches here on the kitchen floor, since the temps have dropped outside below a temperature that paint works best.  The timetable I had set for myself was based off of that weather.  So now my kitchen is even more of a mess, but in all reality, if I stay on my new schedule, I’m only losing 2 more days.  That’s not so bad in the grand scheme of things.

I’ve been up late at night, with my mind whirling as to how I want to complete this kitchen.  I went out to the barn, and the summer kitchen, and am pulling out some old broken things to see if I can make some “new” decorations from them.  I found this old window with old red paint, and 1 broken pane.  I’m so in love with it.  I’m not sure what I’m doing with it yet, but I love it.

I also found some old barn wood in the barn with traces of red paint, and I’m thinking of making a big “EGGS” sign or something with that.    I’m really excited to pull this all together.

I changed my mind about the knobs.  I looked into replacing them, but realized I really like the simplicity of them, but I wasn’t a fan of the antique brass finish on them.  Plus, a can of spray paint is much cheaper than 30 new pieces of hardware!!  I was planning on painting them white, but seeing the color of the cabinets go up, it all felt so light and bright that I thought maybe some darker knobs would bring them back down to earth a bit.  Plus everything in the house has that old bronze finish to it.  So for some spray paint in bronze, and a sprinkling of copper to age it a bit, I have some new bronze finish knobs to match the rest of the house.

I feel like this project has been my version of sky diving.  I feel like painting these a color is such a big risk, and so bold.  I’m thankful that my family has been so patient with me and so helpful as I just ripped the heart of our home apart and am re-imagining what it could look like.  As much work as it has been, I really needed this.  I really needed to do something big.  Right now I feel like I could conquer anything.  That’s the exact feeling I needed as we approach gardening season.  Oh, we have some big plans there.