Painting
An Inside Job
Lately I’ve been noticing glass front cabinets with a twist. The twist is that the backs of the cabinets have a little somethin’ extra. Sometimes they’re wallpapered. Sometimes they’re beadboard. Sometimes they’re upholstered. And sometimes they’re painted. So after living with our very own glass front cabinet for a little while, we decided to join the club.
In about two hours I painted the back of our corner cabinet the same beachy blue-gray color that’s on the walls. I left the shelves white and just painted the back wall to keep the contrast high and make the white plates and dishes pop against the new moody backdrop. Can I just say that it was so worth the effort? Subtle and sweet. Check it out:
Table For Two
We’re pleased to bring you another exciting transformation, this time in the form of a table. The story begins when we purchased an old rickety game table at a thrift store for twenty bucks two whole years ago. We hated the old scruffy square top, but immediately knew the chunky wooden pedestal had potential. For a while we just topped it with a bigger square of wood and painted it black so it could serve as a dining room table. But it was eventually replaced with a rectangular one when we shifted the dining room into the living room, and the ol’ table happily lived in the garage for a while.
But with the warmer weather blowing in, John and I were just talking about how nice it would be to have dinner outside sans bugs and we realized that sunroom + table = dinner outside sans bugs. So we picked up a round tabletop for 40 bucks at Lowe’s and popped it onto the pedestal of yesteryear and presto:
Then all it needed was a coat of oil based primer, two coats of white semi-gloss paint followed by a few light coats of water based polyurethane to keep it food and drink friendly. And the best thing is that we had four of these fun Eames-esque chairs in the garage just waiting to be recycled in some form and two of them work perfectly for our new dining nook in the sunny sunroom (they used to be blonde wood, but we painted them to match our table).
And for all you big picture people, here’s the wide shot so you can see it in context:
Hue Knew?
While celebrating Easter in Northern Virginia, my parents dropped a copy of The Washington Post in my lap that featured a BIG collection of articles on the blog world’s recent love affair with paint color. Blogs? Paint? Yes please.
The lead article focuses on two colorful blogs. (And no, Young House Love wasn’t one of them- but you can read about our own adventures in wall color selection here.) The first blog, Color For Your Home, is authored by several home color experts who dispense rules, tips and even personalized advice about color selection for the interior and exterior of your home. The second blog, Hue, is less about what to put on your walls and more about color’s impact on our lives – from what products we buy to, well okay, what we paint our walls. Both are definitely worth a look.
But back to the Washington Post feature. While there, be sure to check out all the items grouped under this story. You’ll find some pretty useful paint info including the difference between “eggshell” “satin” and all those other finishes, how to steer clear of an ugly exterior paint job and required reading for the paint enthusiast.
Our favorite feature, though, was the list of designer’s favorite paint colors. Can’t say I’d let all of these guys pick paint for my house (can a person who loves “Nacho Cheese” paint really call himself a designer?), but it’s always fun to see what the experts have to say. You can click here for the full graphic.
