Kitchen Remodel : Shelves and Chalk Paint? CHALK PAINT!

I found the most delicious stain color a few years ago .

It was a mistint on the clearance table at Lowe's.

A few bucks for a no-name color in quart size and my entire house color scheme changed.

This picture is of the old island in our kitchen.
Once I stained the wood, I was in love.

Contractor Steve created 4 floating shelves and a custom cabinet piece for our new kitchen.

From the beginning I knew I wanted those 5 pieces to be the same color as our old island.

Little did I know how maddening that would be.

The custom pieces are made of maple.

Maple is an extremely hard wood.
Stain does not soak into maple as it does the cedar I used around my old island.

After several trips to the paint store and 3 quarts of wrong-colored-stain later, I had given up.

I did not want anything painted in my kitchen, and I knew now, I was going to have to paint.
Deciding chalk paint was the only way to go, I headed down to the local store which sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

I had used chalk paint on a high-use coffee table last year.  

There is not one scratch, not one chip, not one peel.  NOT ONE.

I knew this would be the perfect medium.

My only hesitancy came with the color.

They all seemed too light.
What I thought would be the easiest part of the remodel, had become the most difficult.

I was sad.

Diving in head first, I started the project.

When I put the first swipe of wax on, I was in love.

My heart soared as I knew this was going to be beautiful.

And perfect.

Oh, so perfect.

Here is what I did.

Equal parts Annie Sloan French Linen and Coco.

I mixed these together and painted 2 coats onto each shelf.

Black Wax

After the paint dries, I used the Annie Sloan wax brush and covered the piece with the black wax. 

Dark Wax

Once the black wax dried for 24 hours, I followed with a coat of the dark wax.  This color is a strong brown color and gave the perfect touch in making the shelves more greige than grey.

Once I was finished, I was so excited, I may have gotten teary-eyed.

Ok, I did.

I was just so happy.

OH MY GOODNESS you guys - just look at how closely the two colors match!
The piece I am holding in the middle is a stained piece from my old island.
The background piece is the shelf.

The wax truly was the magic touch.

It added the perfect color tones and brought out so much of the character of the shelves.

Here is a look at the before, during and after.

 Be still my heart.

Next : the shelves reveal!

Hallway Doors

Slowly and surely the honey-colored oak is disappearing from our home.

WHOO HOO!!!

Our bedroom and hallway doors were in excellent shape despite being targets 

for nerf gun competitions and being in the line of fire for a mean game of sock war.

I couldn't see replacing them even though they are plain and boring.

First step was ripping down all the oak trim and replace it with the white molding

we did throughout the rest of the house and doorways.

With the molding complete and the weather getting nicer, I took the doors down and worked outside.

Oh how I love the sunshine!  <--- side note

Using a hand sander, I sanded down the doors with a medium grit paper.

After wiping all the dust away they were ready to paint.

Also in fantastic shape are the hinges.  I cleaned each set thoroughly.

I pushed the screws into a cardboard box and laid the hinges flat onto a

paper bag I had ripped open.

Using a spray paint for metals in an oil-rubbed bronze finish, I sprayed the hardware.

No more shiney brass!

<Insert jig of joy here>

But what color should I paint the doors?  

I adore the look of white molding and white doors; which I get to stare at every day in my front hallway.

(That project I discuss here and here.)

It looks so clean and crisp and open and light.

Adore!

Here is the dilemma I created for myself : I also love the color of my 

breakfast bar against my white cabinets and the dark wood floors.

So after much thought, I decided to break out of the box of conformity once again.

I went with what you do not normally see.

And I love it.

Kitchen Remodel : Week 2, 3 and Probably 4

Progress is forward.  

Steady.  

But slow.

Behind the scenes, things are moving.

However, that does not always show visually.

My floors are still covered in cardboard.

The cabinets are now all firmly in place.

Design has been finalized on my custom piece and the new shelving.

The counter top people have received my quartz and mapped out my kitchen.

The next step is to cut the quartz.

Until the machine broke and pushed everything out another week.

Expect the bumps.

Expect the bumps.

(This is mantra)

Expect the bumps.

I remind myself of this as I'm washing dishes in the bathtub.  Again.

Our contractor is amazing which has been a huge blessing through this process.

While I wish there was much more to report, there just isn't. 

So lets just take a few minutes and drool over the picture of my new counter tops shall we?

 

 

Be still my heart.