The Kitchen Saga

We love our house.  If we could add one bedroom/bonus room and increase the size of our living room a bit, I think we would stay in this house forever.  We love the neighborhood.  We love our neighbors.  We have a pool just down the street.  A playground just next to the pool.  It's great for walks.  It's safe.  It's in a very central location.  We love it!  However, since we won't be able to add another bedroom and increase the square footage of this house, we know that eventually we will have to move on.  (But we are taking our next door neighbors with us.  We are now a package deal!).

Anyway, since we moved in three years ago, we really haven't done much maintenance or made many changes.  We did paint the garage shortly after we moved in.  And last year, Jonathan painted Nora's room when she moved out of the nursery into where she is now.  The previous owners had painted the house just a few months before we bought it, and we were really pleased with their color selections, so we decided we didn't need to change anything.  Plus, Jonathan didn't really want to paint if we would be moving on in just a matter of time.

Well, due to work situations and a desire to save some money, we have decided not to move anytime soon.  We fit really well in our house, and so we are staying put until a later date.  However, I decided a few weeks ago that I was ready to make a few changes that we had been wanting to make but just hadn't done.  For example: our kitchen.  Our kitchen was a very bright red.  I would have to say that it's probably not my top pick for a kitchen color, but it was really cute with matching curtains, and so we've kept it since we moved in.  I decided, however, that I was ready for a change.  I wanted to choose something that was more our style and taste, and I think that if/when we sell, a more neutral color in the kitchen would be more appealing to potential buyers.  They will either LOVE the red or really hate it.

So, Monday, after our REALLY long and busy and tiring day celebrating July 4th, we decided to paint the kitchen.  Jonathan worked really hard all day taping off all of the nooks and crannies of the kitchen, and primed two coats with the yellow color I picked out.  As we were working, I started having doubts about the color choice.  It was bright.  I am so wishy-washy about making decorating decisions and just don't have a lot of confidence in myself, so I just kept saying:  It'll work out.  It'll look good.  Just wait till it's all done.  The yellow was just so different from the red, so I was having trouble adjusting and imagining something different from the bright red we were so accustomed to.  I didn't say anything to Jonathan about my doubts.  And he didn't say anything to me.

Around 5:00 in the evening, we had pretty much primed everything twice.  It was REALLY bright yellow.  Not schoolbus yellow, not mustard, just cheery.  Bright.  (The name of the paint color we chose was Cheerful Hue....do you get me!?).  We had dinner plans, so I was thinking, "When we get home, the sun will have set, the paint will have dried, it'll chill out some and not look so bright.  It'll be fine."

Well, at about 8:45 when we got home and walked into the kitchen, it was AWFUL!  AWFUL!  TOTALLY BRIGHT.  Where are my sunglasses?  Ugh, I had that terrible empty pit in the bottom of my stomach feeling.  How was I going to break the news to Jonathan!?

I started off by asking him if he liked it.  "I like it if that's what you like," he said. 

Such a cop-out answer!

Then, I told him the truth.  I don't like it.  At all.  We HAVE to do something.

He was so gracious.  I was so upset.  I told him I was never going to make a home decorating decision ever again.  Apparently, I am completely inept at this and should never be trusted to purchase or make decisions about our home again.  He had worked so hard and look what I had done!  Not to mention that I was a little frustrated that everything from inside my kitchen was spread out throughout the rest of the house while we painted.  It was chaos.  I couldn't cook, I couldn't use the stove.  I had gates up and appliances everywhere.

I just wanted the nightmare to be over!

But here we were stuck in the middle of no man's land!

UGH!  To make a long story short, Tuesday Jonathan took the paint that we had already purchased and tried to have it lightened to see if that would help DULL IT DOWN.  It didn't work.  SOOOO..... On Wednesday, I did what I should have done from the very beginning.  You see, I got the idea and inspiration for my yellow kitchen from a picture out of a Pottery Barn magazine.  (This whole saga is PB's fault, I tell you!).  Pottery Barn sells their paint colors through Benjamin Moore, and you can access their paint samples and stuff through them.  Wednesday morning the kids and I headed over to Benjamin Moore and picked up the original color I wanted called Hawthorne Yellow.  I also picked out another color in case the Hawthorne Yellow ALSO turned out to be a disaster.  I came home and painted the two new sample colors on nearly every wall in the kitchen, trying to see how it looked with every shade of light coming in.  I got the opinion of my neighbor, my mother-in-law, and Jonathan, and we all agreed that the Hawthorne Yellow was the way to go.

I was nervous.  I didn't want to make the same mistake again!  But, we went with it.  AND.....it turned out so much better!  I am really liking it!  I have to admit that I am still adjusting to the difference between the darkness of the red kitchen with the lightness of the yellow one, but I think it looks really good.  Jonathan did such a fabulous job, and so lovingly painted until 1:00 am on Wednesday evening.  I think he was just as ready, if not more, for this project to be behind us.  Yesterday I spent most of the day putting our kitchen back together and deep cleaning.  It was a much needed task, and I'm glad it's all over.

So, we WON'T be painting again for a long time.  I had hoped to also paint our bedroom, but I'm not going to mention that one anytime soon.

Pics to come!