Kitchen Redo

I love makeovers, especially when it’s for the house. Where we live is our sanctuary, so I like it to feel cozy and comfy. I painted the kitchen a long time ago and loved it at the time. But, it’s always bugged me that I didn’t take the care to do it right. You know wash down the walls, fix up rough spots etc etc.

We also had new lino put in. The old one was the original from 1978. I think there were only 2 patterns at the time, and we have both in our house. Just kidding of course, but in all fairness, the old one held up very well, just got tired of looking at it. We also did other rooms and as each room is finished I’ll show you the changes. today it’s the kitchen.

This time it took me three days, but I really took my time plus it’s a small kitchen and I had to work in stages, do one corner put things back and so on. Not like big spaces where you could shove everything into one area and go for it. Our cupboards don’t go to the ceiling either, so it was a lot of climbing up and down the ladder and onto the counters to be able to reach up there.

Anyway, it’s done. It went from periwinkle blue to a really light dove grey, the colour is called Cry A River, The man at the store added a touch of purple to the mix and  he was right, it just gave it that extra something. You can’t tell from pictures, it’s one of those “you have to see it up close” things.

Before and after. First the old lino.

Then the new lino and and you can see the old paint colour. We also changed the base boards to these white ones. Apparently, showing our lack of knowledge about what is baseboard and what is actually wood trim around window and door frames, we chose the later… Ooops, oh well, I like the wood and it is only for the baseboards after all.

Next came the painting. The lino in the next picture looks very dark, but the picture above is accurate. Of course, no new paint job is complete without changing the plugs and light switches to match. The white is so much nicer to look at.

I also had a basket of dried grasses on the top of the cupboards. Hubby put those in the compost and I pulled out my stash of silk flowers that were in a corner being neglected. I added them to the basket and there they are.

While I was busy with all that, hubby got busy and gave the gazebo a brand new paint job. We’ve had so much rain these past couple of fall /winter/spring seasons, that the paint was in pretty bad shape and some boards needed replacing on the floor.

He decided to prime the wood this time and bought marine grade paint as it’s the high end type that will cause the water to bead off. Expensive, but given the amount of rain and the damage it can cause to wood structures over time, it was a necessary expense. It looks like a plastic gazebo now, but also looks brand new again. Amazing what a coat of paint can do. For a 20 year old structure exposed to the elements year in and year out, it certainly has held up well.

It also looks like we might stand a chance of getting some corn this year after a couple of dismal showings…. Can’t wait. The raspberry canes on the right, are overflowing with berries and so sweet this year. Maybe it was the cold start to the growing season???