It's just like Venice

Some updates from our kitchen project!


To the left you can see our cabinet, floor and countertop choice. The cabinets are called "paprika" and have a very plain look to them, but I like them a lot. The color is almost a cherry, but not quite as red. The flooring is the same pattern that we used in the laundry room, but that color has been discontinued, so we are going with one that has less pink in it and more of a sand color. I think this will be a good contrast for the cabinets and the walls. The countertops are a dark blue, which dad reminds me is a smart decision when you're thinking about resale; I was also trying to match the counters in the laundry room, for consistency's sake.

On Friday night we started out "painting weekend" (dad got the weekend off which is just as well because he has been feeling under the weather) by taking down the old trim on the doorframe to the living room and the door to the basement, which though it was a really cool old wooden panel door, just had to go to really do the room right. We primed all the walls on Friday and put up the first coat on flat white on the ceiling.

Here you can see Kevin's brother, Brian, on Saturday morning prepping the Venetian plaster. I picked this color off a Behr paint card, not Brian's famous "Fancies" sweatpants, though he did don them for the occasion. He asked if we had asked for his help on this project because of his art minor and we assured him that his was the expert eye that we really needed for this venture. The plaster was really thick and took a long time to mix at Home Depot. I didn't get the feeling that the guy working the desk that night has ever had an order for this before.

Below you can see the boys applying the plaster to the walls and soffit with trowels. This was labor intensive, but I really think the overall look is so cool and I'm really happy with the final product. You can see the finished room below (though some spots are still dark because they aren't dry yet). We had to add extra coats to the walls that were original (plaster) as they didn't take as kindly to the finish as the drywall did. In hindsight, we should have put a thin layer of spackle on that plaster wall to at least smooth it over. That probably would have helped a lot.



Brian reminded me of one of the Super Mario Bros. in that hat - he has to be Luigi because he's not carrying enough weight right now to be Mario.

As you can see, we kept the beadboard that made up the lower half of the kitchen wall. It needs some TLC, but we liked the look of it and decided to keep it. It will remain white, as will the rest of the trim be.

After this final coat cures, probably tomorrow night, I will add a final clear top coat that they advise for high moisture and high traffic areas. Dad told me that our floor should be in on Friday, so as we wait for that next step, he may be able to come by and replace the window and check out the door/trim situation.

Stay tuned for more updates and enjoy the Superbowl! Off to do some more reading for school...