paint the kitchen - check!

Okay, remind me not to paint again while pregnant. Not ever again. For some reason, it's just so much harder. (If nothing else, it makes me want to whine more.) Thank goodness for my mom - she's a Painting Machine. If it wasn't for her, I never would have gotten the project done. In all honesty, it's not actually done. There's still woodwork that needs a coat of glossy white paint - we primed it but haven't done the paint yet. Thankfully, it was white to begin with, so I can get away with primed woodwork for a little while yet. And I still have to scrape the paint off the windows. Oh, and put the outlet covers and switchplates back on. OKAY so it's not DONE done, but close enough! So, behold a kitchen in primary colors:

BEFORE...Now I feel I must say something to justify the horrific tablecloth in this picture. I'm well aware of the fact that it totally clashed with the walls. What's even worse - and if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't even know, so watch me open my mouth and insert my foot - it's vinyl. I know, I know. But I have little ones, and someone long ago painted this table in such a poor manner that food sticks to it like crazy. So it's much easier to clean if I keep a vinyl tablecloth on it as much as possible. Horrible, I know. But I'm a firm believer in having a house that is livable and realistic. And until we can get a new table, this is how we have to live. Scary.

AFTER...
Ah. That's better. It's now a very restful sagey-green color. It's got a tinge of gray in it which makes it almost a neutral - but a little more interesting than a complete neutral.

BEFORE...

AFTER...

Another reason it doesn't feel finished yet is that I have yet to accessorize it at all. I'm a little undecided if I want to keep the accessories to a simple white or throw in a few touches of orange to liven things up. (I'm talking just a few touches of orange.) I have seen several things on Etsy that I would love to buy for the walls, but alas, I'm afraid my recent spending sprees are over. I don't know, something about the complete financial ruin our country seems to be in, and my husband says I can't shop anymore. The nerve! Ah well, I suppose I'll have to be creative and use what I already own. Hmmm, if only I knew someone who was an expert at that sort of thing...

This is obviously the little dining area in our kitchen. I couldn't show you the rest of the kitchen yet, because it's too messy. I'm not kidding.

But for now - Auf Wiedersehn to the crazy navy blue and red scheme, HELLO to restful green. I choose this color because it coordinated nicely with our floor tiles (sorry, I didn't think to take a picture of those) and it's neutral enough that I shouldn't have to re-do it if we put our house on the market in a couple of years. And it's just plain lighter than what I had before. Apparently five years is my limit on how long I can live with the same paint color in a room. Unfortunately, since we painted every room of our house as soon as we bought it five years ago, I'm now ready for new colors in every single room. Ouch! Baby steps, Courtney, baby steps.