I painted the kitchen walls the Sherwin Williams Friendly Yellow (made using Pittsburgh Paints) that I got from mom and dad. This is the color they have over most of their house. I don't think this photo fairly shows the brightness of the yellow. It's not a creamy or golden yellow, it's a true yellow and very clear and bright. But not a bad bright. I chose to post this picture because you can see how close the family room is and how it's important that the colors at least don't clash with each other. I'm still not totally sold, but the paint was free and each color, in it's own room, is nice. At least it's not beige or tan! LOL!
I reallly need to take some good pictures after we get moved in. I had chosen this picture because it shows all the peeling paint on the windows, but it doesn't seem to be showing up so well. It peeled off when I removed the blue painters tape. Which peeled because the dodo head who caulked used silicone caulk and not paintable caulk. I think they must have gotten a boatload free because it's EVERYWHERE. I have got loads of windows to scrape paint, remove caulk, recaulk and repaint. *SIGH*
I had spent a lot of time, in the house hunting phase, looking at painted kitchen cabinets and had fallen in love with kitchens with multiple colored cabinets. When we bought this house and I hated the two toned dark wood cabinets, I knew I'd paint. I saw this large pantry cabinet and thought this would be the best place to do the alternate color, since our fridge is huge and white and I thought it'd be white overload on one wall. I think the color is great for a cabinet and would look great with some antiquing glaze, but the crown is too starkly white and I'm not so sure about the yellow next to it. The yellow is the least of my concerns at the moment, because the fridge will break most of that yellow/green connect. I'm wondering if I should go up further with the green, at least to the bottom portion of the crown molding. Or maybe it'll be better if I hang some tiles or plates up there?
This is a picture of the painted kitchen cabinets. We changed the shiney brass hinges, knobs and pulls to a matte black. (gotta get the shiney brass infestation out of here!) Excuse the mess. It's painting supplies, hardware packages, shelf liner backing, etc. etc. Eventually we want to change out the ceiling fan. The fan pull was pulled out, so it's not functional as a fan, and really, do you want such a huge fan right over the cooking space? A small personal fan would cool the cook without cooling the food. Also on my to-do list is to pretty up the interior of the glass doors. I'll get one of my artists paintbrushes and paint a nice thick line of white paint on the interior of the door glass. The paint didn't go on smoothly inside due to the caulking used to hold the glass in place. An easy fix, but it's something that I have to make time for and remember. I wish I could do something pretty and colorful with the backsplash, but that's beyond our diy skills and I think would go beyond the worth of the house and neighborhood. I might look into what I can do to those beige diamond tiles. I think you can paint them, but I've also read that it's not a good idea to do since they need to be wipe-able. (how often do you clean a backsplash?)
This is the rest of our small kitchen. Remember, the big white fridge (which I LOVE) will be blocking most of that green cabinet. We'll be replacing the microwave with a convection/microwave to give me added oven space. Eventually we'll take out the oven and put in one of those cool double oven ranges. We will need to hire someone to work on the cabinets, and probably the granite and electrical. Plus we are investigating running the propane to the oven and making the cooktop propane. I think it can be as good as gas, but I'm not quite sure on that yet. But that's well into the future.
This is just a view of the kitchen from down in the family room. BTW, the hole on the left of the stove area is a little hallway that leads to a small pantry closet and the laundry room. Beyond that is another doorway that leads to our master bedroom. I'm going to have to remember to keep that door closed!!
This is a picture of the family room, in it's painted and carpeted glory! We really need to do something with the skimpy mantel. That's on the to-do list. It seems to be very common to have bookshelves flanking a fireplace. We'll have to see how the furniture pans out. I don't know if we want to just beef up the mantel or do a whole surround? Do we keep it white or go natural wood? I like brick but hate the shiney brass (curse the shiney brass!) I think a layered stone would be pretty, but again, I think that would be an expense better used elsewhere. Brick is not bad. At least it's not an ugly pink or beige brick. It's a good normal brick.
I thought I had taken a picture of the laundry room in the it's Dill Pickle glory, but I didn't. I'll do that. It looks good.
