Shopit’s been a while since i’ve gotten a gallon of paint and painted a room. and, not for a lack of need to paint a lot of areas of our house, but it’s a time thing. weekends just disappear in a blip between soccer games, cross country meets, grocery shopping + the bare minimum of doing laundry. trying to add painting an entire space in one weekend is not the easiest feat.
until there’s a long weekend. and a sister who’s willing to pop down from wisconsin to grab a roller and help out. (check out the end of the post for the legendary story of my sister + painting!)
our kitchen was in desperate need of a paint refresh. there were marks all over the walls. it had streaks in places. i did manage to find the original paint can that the previous owners left for us and saw that the last time it was painted was 2017. it was time.
i can’t even tell you how challenging it was for me to try and figure out a color for this refresh. the reason being that our kitchen walls flow right into the walls of our great room and dining room, which also flow into the walls of our foyer and the hallway to the bedrooms. so, basically whatever color the kitchen was going to become created the need to also repaint all of the rest of those spaces. (yay! more painting!) (also: whenever the kitchen was painted in 2017, the previous owners didn’t match the color exactly to what was in those other spaces. it was clear they tried to, but it didn’t really work. also, we have bullnose corners where all of the walls meet, so there’s not a clean cut way to do different colors between spaces.)
the first step: choosing the color. the room was already a grey-ish tone with purple undertones. we have a ton of natural light in the room, so i wanted to keep it light + bright but in more of a grey tone. i had been to menards and grabbed some paint swatches, but needed my sister to weigh in on the color choice. (fun fact: two of my three boys are color-blind. so when it comes to color choices, i need outside counsel!)
i have to say, the one thing you need for your next painting project is this new paint i discovered from pittsburgh paints. i have always been a massive fan of pittsburgh paints grand distinction. when we hit up menards for the paint, i noticed a new line: pittsburgh paints revolution. and o. m. g. this is my absolute new favorite, go-to interior paint. the coverage was brilliant. the color is amazing. this is my new interior paint. my sister and i somehow managed to get the whole kitchen taped + painted in one day. the walls look so much better and the color makes the whole room feel so much more modern. (or, if you ask my twelve-year-old, he’d say, “wow mom, it looks so much different.” in the most sarcastic way possible.)
next up: i’m going to attack the hallway in the same color. then, we’re going to see if we can hire a painter to help us take care of the great room, dining room + foyer. (the ceiling is just wayyyyyyy too high for me to tackle. i don’t love ladders, especially super tall ones.)
it’s been more than five years in this house, and it feels good to be dedicating some time to make it ours!
p.s. the legend of my sister + her help with painting goes back to 2003 and our very first house. it was a blank slate. we wanted to paint before we moved in. my sister was 17 and was all about helping. let’s just say she showed up in her painting clothes, complete with a bandana and fell asleep in the middle of the floor while we painted. lol. there were also cool ranch doritos involved too. in all fairness, she was 17, a year-round volleyball player + i’d probably fall asleep too if someone let me.
