Kitchen Transformation with Paint

Every decorator knows that painting a room gives you the most bang for your buck.  Without question, it is by far it is the most affordable way to make the most dramatic change.  For those of you who know me personally, you were probably surprised that it took me a little over a year to paint my kitchen (that's a long time for someone who has a history of changing paint colors often).  Although I cannot complain about this mild winter, this gloomy weather had me feeling a bit, well let's say, gloomy.  Who doesn't have some form of seasonal depression in Ohio?  I have heard that it's grayer here than even Seattle with all of its rain.  I also have heard that we only average 17 sunny days an entire winter.  Okay, enough about that.  I know you see where I am going with this.  I NEEDED COLOR!  The common areas of my home are painted Grant Beige, which is a lovely neutral, but like I said, I needed color, so my kitchen was the most obvious candidate for a color transformation.  I have to admit that once I had the idea of painting my kitchen in my head, I had to start that day. Literally.  Patience has never been one of my virtues, but God is working on me, and decorating on a budget certainly helps.

Off to Lowes I went.  I think the guy at the paint counter thought I was a little nuts with my huge stack of paint chips.  I brought the chips home, and over the course of a few hours was able to narrow my selection to a beautiful color.  Could it really be this easy?  I went back to Lowes and bought a paint sample.  Seriously friends, invest in paint samples, they are only three bucks and you can use the left overs for other projects.  Anyway, I threw the color on the wall and instantly knew I had gotten lucky. Yahooooo! Love at first sight.

So I headed back to Lowes for the third time in one day, bought my can of satin paint, new rollers, and some spackle. I was a woman on a mission.  Now because I have painted so many rooms over the years, I have gotten really good at edging without tape.  I don't know about you, but tape always gave me the false securtiy that my trim was protected, so I would shlopp it on and paint would seep under the tape.  Not good. So, by not taping, I take my time cutting in and it works so much better for me.  Here's a tip if you have white trim; paint the top of your trim and a little bit onto the wall to cover up any existing paint color.  That way when you edge, you have a nice crisp line.  Also, buy a good brush.  I LOVE my Purdy brush. There is probably a name for it, but it is a 2 inch brush with angled bristles. I bought it a few years ago for thirteen dollars or so from Lowes. 

Anyway, you are probably wondering by now what color I chose.  Drum roll, please!... The suspense is killing you... I am telling you, this is the perfect color... A beautiful "color-neutral" as I would call it... Okay, okay... it is called Silver Threads by Olympic.  It has just enough blue in it that it doesn't feel gray.  It makes me feel like the sun is out shining and I have the lovely sky in my kitchen.  As you can see in the pictures below, it is not an "in your face" blue.  It is a perfect blue, with just the right amount of gray in it to make it "color-neutral."  This color makes me so happy!  And let's face it, "When Mama ain't happy, nobody is!"

It's really hard to capture the true color of Silver Threads, but you get the idea... and the "C" above our hood, is one of my many awesome GW finds for TWO BUCKS! I didn't even have to spray paint it.  SCORE! 

Happily Painting Ever After,

Lindsey