Clear Day Kitchen Refresher

Some people get the seven-year itch, I think I get the three-year itch!  Three years in our ‘new’ house and I want to repaint things I’ve already painted.  The kitchen was on my radar this go-round…

Let’s look back to remember what it looked like when we moved it – because you can’t appreciate how far it’s come without seeing where it was!  Dark walls, loads of wood, glossy yellow ceilings, and dated wallpaper.

White cabinets and a grey island is where we landed back then and they were fine.  But I was craving something a little more!  When Canadian Tire approached me about their new paint line called Premier, I knew that the kitchen would be what got the make over!

Our kitchen is, like most maritime homes, the hub of it all.  I spend a lot of time in there while I’m home, getting meals made and lunches packed.  So, not only does it get a lot of use, I want it to be inviting and look good, too.  And honestly, it’s the lower cabinets that get all the spills, hard bumps – you know – the messy stuff.  Here’s a few pictures of where we were starting from for this makeover…much brighter even then when we first moved in, but, I still had another vision.

When Canadian Tire sent me my painting kit, they included a fan deck, which if you know me at all, is better than candy!  I love flipping through a fan deck, looking at the different tones and shades and dreaming about all the projects I would want to take on…give me all the colours!!  And, being a Canadian company, the names really struck me.  I could re-do a house purely by selecting the colours based on the names!  I think if they picks names that make you want to get out to explore your country more, they’ve done something right!

The colours I selected for this project were Paper Birch and Huckleberry.  I needed my colours to work with the griege colour on the walls and the tones in the flooring and I knew I wanted a rich, deep colour for the island.  I also knew I wanted to do something about the hardware, but right now it doens’t make sense to replace it until we REALLY do the kitchen over.  So for now, it was time to get painting.

Off came the doors and hardware and everything got scrubbed down and then the magic started.  There is something so satisfying about rolling on a thick, lovely layer of paint and transforming something.  I find that to be so fulfilling.  I admit that I’m a bit of a paint snob and tend to ensure that I use good quality paints for my projects.  I think that stems from using crappy paint as a kid, painting the all the white trim and fence posts around the farm with whatever the local feed and farm supply store sold.  I want paint that covers well in the first coat, I always do the second coat but if it takes more than two coats to cover, I’m not impressed and the Infinity line from Premier did not disappoint.  Here’s a quick during photo…including Hannah making breakfast!

I pulled all the red out of the china cabinet while the paint dried and pulled in more layers of brass and warm gold tones.  We even took a trip to Value Village to see what treasures I could find to add into the mix.  Check out the ‘Whenever’ bill holder!  It cracks me up and it’s perfect to hold the papers that need to be addressed and not filed away quite yet.

I also scored some cool wooden accents to add to the hooks by the stove.  I had all my aprons hanging there but they looked sloppy and I knew I wanted to freshen that area up, too.  I brought out my little pottery plant pot with my fake succulent { the only kind that I can keep alive } and hung up the wooden cutting board and little wooden pot along with a clean tea towel and I’m loving the look!

Now, I have a confession to make.  I took down the doors and pulled off the hardware and misplaced 4 of the screws for the handles.  I searched high and low for those screws.  I put everything else back together and had to not stress about the two handle-less doors.  I knew the screws would show up at some point….I put them somewhere safe after all, I’m sure you can relate!  So, here is my kitchen…short a handle or two…

I love how much richer the cupboards feel!  And spray painting the hardware was so easy and lightened it up so it isn’t as busy and so much richer!! I mean, come on – check out this gorgeous island!!!

And one final glimpse – the china cabinet and it’s current look!  I can easily add some fall colours to it when I’m ready but until then – I’m loving it!

I’m really pleased with how far the kitchen has come.  Now, I have a long list of other things I would love to change and will get around to doing but for now, this was the refresh that I was craving for the kitchen!  Do you find that when fall hits you are craving to make some changes around your house??

To be continued,

Lori

This post and makeover was sponsored by Canadian Tire but my take on their products is just that!