My Constantly Evolving Kitchen

Last spring I painted my kitchen. Uh wait. No that'd be 2006. Man time flies. I didn't realize it'd been that long since my kitchen started seeking it's own identity. Well, let me back up a little. The summer before that I'd replaced the floor with a beautiful ceramic tile. I'd fallen in love with the tile even though it didn't really work with the rest of the decor. The color was very rich. Bold and dramatic. My kitchen was more of a cottage style at the time. It had white painted cabinets with stenciled flowers along the edges, sage green sponge painted walls and an ivy border around the top. I can't believe I'm not finding any pics of it saved on my computer so you'll just have to use your imagination. But here's the floor. The pic doesn't do it justice. It's a great mix of mauves, pinks, burgundys, etc. My favorite colors are pink and green (which you regular readers probably already know). So I thought the floor was pink enough to work. Nope. Too dark. I didn't like it. So I decided to paint the cabinets and walls. The first bright idea I had was to paint the cabinets the same color as my couch. Olive green. It was awful. It looked like a row of army footlockers in there. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until I was finished painting. Well, I kinda did. But I've learned some valuable painting lessons with this project. If it looks bad in the beginning.... it's not gonna get better even if you continue painting. The green didn't even last long enough for me to think to take a pic.

So I took a piece of tile to the paint store and picked something in that color family. It's called sun dried tomato. Looks kinda burgundy, I guess. I loved the new cabinet color. Replaced the hardware, too. But that meant I now had to paint the walls. So I stuck with the pink and green obsession. Tried a green. It looked like pea soup. Luckily, I was a littler wiser now and only did a big patch on the wall before I realized it was hideous. Then I picked a mauve pink color. I thought it was okay. The different shades of pinks and burgundys seemed to work. So I lived with it for awhile. But something just seemed off. So I put an ivy border back up. Nope that wasn't it. Still didn't feel right. So I painted the trim the pea soup green. Hey, I had a whole frickin' can of it. Plus I forgot the rule that if it looks bad... it ain't getting better. I guess I thought I needed ALL the trim pea soup green to fairly judge if it was right. Another error in judgement. As you can see by the pic, the trim was quickly painted white again. One day it hit me. Yellow. Now this is not a normal color choice for me. I'm a loyal pink and green girl. But I thought yellow against those cabinets would really make them pop.
But once it was finished, it just seemed too light. I knew I was heading in the right direction with the yellow though. But I was going for something more golden to pick up the colors in the curtains. They're sage green with some gold, burgundy and pink. I still had half a can of paint left so I went back to the paint store and had them darken what was left two shades down on the color strip. At this point, I'm really sick of painting. But here was my idea. How about a color wash? That'd give the walls some drama, darken them, and be much quicker and easier. So I grabbed an old bowl and ripped up an old tee shirt. One part paint. Two parts water. A pair of rubber gloves.
Instant difference. I couldn't contain my excitement. My goddess! I think I've finally figured it out! It was so easy. Just rub it on the walls. Took about an hour and I didn't even have to tape anything up.

Here's a more obvious pic of the change. You can't tell by the photo but this wash looks awesome on the walls. It's a great dramatic effect. Made them look old. Very Tuscan. So I guess my kitchen wanted to be Tuscan or Mediterranean, huh? It decided on it's own. I never envisioned this. It just kind of happened. But I love it. It's still not quite finished. Still working out some new accessories. All the pink and green just doesn't work anymore so I'm buying new stuff. And trying to figure out the perfect border for the top. I'm thinking some wall words. But probably just on one wall. I'll update the pics when it's finally complete.