Pretty Painted Paneling

Back when I talked about our summer goals for 2009, I mentioned that I had found the time to paint the paneling in the kitchen. Apparently, I was unable to find the time to show you, as I painted the paneling in August, wrote about it in November, and am just now getting around to post the pictures. So hate me. I do try to have a life outside of this blog. :-)

Along with cork walls, carpeted ceilings and bricked bathrooms, we inherited a doozy of a kitchen when we bought our castle. When you walked in to the kitchen, it was a little like walking into the inside of a tree trunk with a honeybee's nest inside. Or what I imagine that would look like. We had honey colored wood paneling, honey colored trim, and honey colored cabinets. To "tone down" the wood, we had WHITE laminate countertops, and some lovely orangey red linoleum from the seventies, possibly. Oh, and by the way, it's the exact same floor that Lover's grandparents have in WI. You can only see a smidgen of it in this picture, but trust me, it's the same.



I soon learned that a lot of that honey tone came from years and years of nicotine residue that had built up on the walls, ceiling and cabinets. *shudder* I spent a bit of time cleaning this kitchen. I dedicated a day to scrubbing the floor, a day to scrubbing out cabinets (with my mom's help, thanks mom!) and a day to washing the ceiling. I'll spare you the gory details. Let's just say that after I finished washing the ceiling, (which took five buckets of clean water) I had nicotine stained arms and took the longest shower of my life. Blech.



Anyways. You'll see here that we also inherited a rollup dishwasher, that filled in as counter space across from the sink. We decided that was way too much work, just to wash a couple of dishes, so we gifted the dishwasher to some friends (who were delighted to receive it) and stuck this cabinet we found at the Christmas Tree Shop in its place. It definitely gave us more counter space, but it was still not the best setup. 

Fast forward about six months or so, and we spent a weekend rearranging some things in the kitchen. We moved that little cabinet over in front of the large window. Then we moved the fridge to the right a bit (to cover the hole in the floor) and on the opposite side we put a small cabinet from Craigslist ($25) and Lover built me shelves above it for storage. It's the coziest little corner now, as you'll see.

This setup worked really well for us for a few months while we debated whether or not to paint the paneling. We know we're eventually demo-ing this entire room and starting fresh, so we didn't want to spend a lot of money fixing it up. But, we decided that a can of paint and a can of primer were do-able, so we made a trip to Walmart.

By the way, I was totally stumped on what color to pick that would both go with and tone down that orange floor. Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who grabbed a chip off the rack and confidently said "here, this will work" and it did, beautifully. The color is Dried Grass by Color Place and it is perfect. (Although it looks nothing like dried grass) It is the most amazing chameleon like color that looks different just about every time of day. I love it.

Painting the paneling was simple enough. I used a mouse sander to rough up the paneling, and then my best friend Kilz to create a surface for the paint to stick to. I'd say start to finish it took me about ten hours, which isn't bad. The room's about 10ft x 10ft, so it's manageable.

Here's the doorway that leads to the basement, and the back door that leads to, well the back. :-) Before and after.





You can see that we've ripped up the floor there by the door. Underneath all the linoleum and glue, there are big wide wood floors that we are considering trying to refinish and/or paint at some point. But that's in the very far away future.

The microwave used to be above the oven, in this huge cabinet. We relocated it to the opposite corner, by the fridge, and serendipitously found the doors for the cabinet in the basement. Now I have another cabinet. Yay!



The after, from a slightly different angle.



Here's the sink wall, before and after.







I've got three African Violets in the window, that won't stop blooming. I mean, this makes me happy, but apparently this is the perfect spot for them, because they seriously bloom all.year.round.  Aren't they pretty though?





When you walk into the kitchen from the dining room, this window is directly in front of you. I love how enormous it is (almost six feet wide) because it makes the kitchen so bright. This is where we moved the cabinet from the Christmas Tree Shop.



So the sink wall (with the oven in the corner) is on your right as you face this window, and the fridge is on your left. In the far corner is the door you've already seen,  then a small cabinet, the fridge and the little corner nook that Lover built me.





This nook holds the black hole of a microwave, the crockpot down below, junk in the drawer and all of my cookbooks and dry good canisters above. Man, that is one hardworking nook! :-)



From the time we got married, I've known that I wanted the kitchen to be a mix of Parisian decorations-meets cafe-meets chef extraordinaire.   Yes, that's a style. So I've slowly collected a few things, but most of the decorations in here are gifts. The tray on the microwave is from my mom, this picture is a wedding gift from my uncle.



These little plaques were all given to me over the last few years, with the exception of the gray one on the left which I found at a garage sale for a dollar.



We bought the chef clock on our honeymoon and I love it. It was the only thing that got broken when we moved to Wendhurst Castle. Can you believe that? Lover's amazing though. He promised me he could fix it, and fix it he did!



The mugs on the very high shelf above the stove were a house warming gift when we moved into the castle, and the little egg cup was also from my mom.

Lastly, these little faux oil paintings are the only decorations I've bought for the kitchen. I think I found them at Big Lots for $10. I love them. They match the new wall color perfectly.







So that's the play by play of painting the paneling. I'm so glad we bit the bullet and decided to paint the walls. It made a huge difference. Now I don't feel like I am inside a tree anymore, and I actually enjoy being in the kitchen. We may do a few more projects in here until we are ready to remodel, but I'm pretty happy with the "temporary fix." In fact, I love that paint color so much, I may use it again when we redo this room. He he. Am I crazy?

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps On The Porch

Make it For Monday @ Cottage Instincts

Make Your Monday @ Twice Remembered

Made it Without My Hubby @ Shanty 2 Chic

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

Transformation Thursday @ Shabby Chic Cottage

Thrifty Thursday @ Tales from Bloggeritaville