A little kitsch in the kitch.

The major kitchen task of painting (most of) the walls is now finito. It's so much more refreshing to look at an entirely painted wall rather than random swatches and samples stuck everywhere...

So, from square one:

I had a messy, messy kitchen. But of course, in line with the way I usually do things, I didn't do the practical thing first, which was clean. Instead, I just moved things around as I went along, including dishes, plants, electrical cords and then of course all the big furniture and wall hangings.

All of the switch covers I took out to my handy ventilated screen porch and threw them on the floor to put a fresh coat of spray paint on them and make them all the same white, and clean them up a little.



Always good to keep all the screws together in one place. In my case, I was basically freshening up white switch plates anyway, so I didn't have to worry about the color of the screws, which normally come with the heads painted the color of the plate. Just something to keep in mind in case the need to spray paint switch plates in any other color comes alone... ;)

It really wasn't too bad, except that it looked like the kitchen had been through an earthquake or two.

I went through and pulled off all the outlet and switch covers, and also removed the metal cover of the ventilation fan that sits on the wall above the stove. (Ew. It needed to be cleaned anyway.)


I put the first coat on in one evening, then waited for it to dry before doing the second coat the following evening. After the first night it looked something like this (from the hallway):


Messy. !!

But then I put the second coat on last night, and cleaned up quite a bit -- I moved that bulky cabinet thing into the living room so the hallway has opened up quite a bit.

My kitchen actually echoes now. Might have to work on putting in a textile or two!

This kitchen has been a work in progress since I moved in. The apartment was built in the 1960s sometime, and all of the cabinet work and everything was built then, and had been mostly unchanged... until KATE CAME ALONG, that is.

Just for before/after sake, here are a few photos of what the place looked like before I moved in, in much its original state. Good ol' 1960s-style wood stain and all (and check out how there are a million cabinet doors!!)...


(with sister!)


This wall is not original to the apartment. It used to be open to allow for a bit more kitchen counter space that L'ed around, and then to a large living room in the front that looked down onto the main street. The wall was put in to provide a meeting area and storage space in the front for the coffee shop.


Down the hall.

Sooo... for your viewing pleasure....

THE MIDDLE STAGES (before I even painted the cabinets):




... and AFTER (today! hooray!):



The plan is to turn the door next to the fridge into a giant chalkboard.



The hallway is in some serious need of wall decoration, but I'm so happy with the way the color brightened it up.


I really gotta do something about the way everything is displayed on top of the cabinets, or what is displayed there, but someday I'll figure it out. And the "backsplash" (although there isn't really one) needs some decoration desperately!



Some kitsch for my kitch!


The view from the living room. I was under strict orders not to, under any circumstances, repaint the green cabinet (which is fine, because I would never want to!) -- it is full of weird old kitschy stuff, cookbooks, and baking ingredients. And note the one mismatched kitchen chair! The three red ones were found on the curb in Madison, WI.


And that's the whole of the painting saga in the kitchen. It's the second time I put a coat of paint in here... and probably the last.

Whew!

The best part will be figuring out what the do with all this clear, bright wall space now. ;)