53 Hours

Since last Thursday night, I have been caulking, sanding, scraping and painting for a total of 53 hours.

Remember what the inside of my pantry used to look like?

Bye-bye, ugly 70s paneling.

Hello, lovely white.

 

What do you think?

The problem with fixing up one thing in an old house is that it inadvertently lengthens your to-do list.  Juxtaposed to my new, pristine white subway tile backsplash, my "Heavy Cream" colored cabinets looked ugly and dingy.

So I repainted them all.  Inside and out. 

 

See the "Heavy Cream" cabinet door on the right in the photo below?  It doesn't look like a big difference, but believe me:  it was grungy and dismal compared to the bright white of the tile.

And I just can't LIVE with that for the REST of my LIFE!

(I'm still painting the cabinets, so that "after" pic will be posted later.)

Did y'all see my new solid-surface counters?

Just kidding.  

The top is Formica.  I painted the edge to match.

It took lots of phone counseling and encouragement from my friends, including Nashville designer and professional faux painter (and my friend since the 6th grade!) Heather Spriggs Thompson.  (And Anjie, I could not have done it without you, either.  My best sections occurred while talking with you on my "AnjieTooth.")

I think the counters turned out pretty good! 

Let me state for the record:  I am NOT a crafty gal.  I dislike crafty things because I lack skills of craft.  But I did this!  So that's a big deal for me.  By going this route, we saved lots of dough which can go into something fun like my wish fund for my dream stove (no hard feelings, Gladys, old girl).  

Here's how I did it....

I took a sample of the Formica to Lowe's and walked around matching paint chips to it while my kids screamed and fought over who would be the "driver" in the blue race car shopping cart with two steering wheels.  It was super relaxing and lots of fun.

I bought a small $3 sample of each color.  Then, I bought one $10 sea sponge (available in the now-aren't-you-crafty section of the paint aisle) and cut it into thirds.   

 

I started out with a base layer of the mid-tone color 

(thanks, Heather dear, that was the kicker).

And then I went to town with the sponges and lots of dabbing and blotting, working on about a 12-inch section at a time.

  

(I even used an old toothbrush loaded with watered-down paint and "spattered" with the brown color.  That was fun.)

While I still need to add a coat of polyurethane (which will probably cost about $10 for a quart), I'm liking the $29 price tag for this whole faux shebang.  (The Formica was a special order item and cost about $300...I don't know how much we spent on the plywood base...need to ask my hubby). 

But I'm liking the new look of my little kitchen! 

Maybe by this weekend we'll have it all put back together and we can actually eat something besides frozen pizza and PB&J.

Just curious here:  have you ever "fauxed" anything?  Are you happy with how it turned out?