Green kitchen to come! (Or, Painting woes may be at an end)

Hooray! We've finally thrown in the towel!

I know it's unusual to celebrate defeat, but I'm doing just that. Our kitchen, lovely and wonderful as it is, has been the source of much frustration in the Henschen household as of late. We tried to paint the walls of the kitchen a golden yellow, and we tried two different shades: Behr's Goldfish and then Behr's Yam. Both went on the wall with as much ease as you'd expect when you try to lift a 300 lb greased pig. Yep, you get the idea. It looked like pooh.

We gave up once and went back to white primer, instead of going forth with our golden mess. It was around this time that I started dropping strong hints that I wasn't sold on the gold. It just didn't seem to flow as well in our color scheme/design plan as we had orginally anticipated. It seemed too bright, too off-palate. It did not go at all with the painting we used to select the other colors. Josef has had a lot of travel for work, so I've been on my own with the kitchen being out of sorts. I decided to give the paint color one more try, just to see if maybe it would mellow out and blend well with the other colors in our house. I applied two coats very quickly, then a third and fourth over subsequent days. The paint still looked bad. It was going onto the wall a whole lot better, though, because I got a roller with a 1/4" nap.

5 coats later, and the paint still looks bad. Josef got home last night from yet another work trip and I leveled with him: I hated the paint color. He asked what I wanted instead, and I told him I wanted it to be green. He, in exhaustion from travel, shook his head, told me to pick a paint color, and go with it. Later on, though, we did agree on Asparagus by Behr, and that I shall buy on my way home. I'm very excited! I think it will look a million times better AND go on to the wall better because it won't be a yellow color. We and other friends have had trouble with yellow paint. We painted three walls of our living room Kayak yellow by Ralph Lauren. Yes, it felt snooty to buy Ralph Lauren paint, but the color was the absolute best color choice for the room and the painting contains it. We used it first, and though it turned out a million times better than the gold in the kitchen, it did take several coats of primer and paint to get it looking the way it should. Then we painted the fourth wall of the living room - an accent wall - the same sky blue that is in the painting. It was Behr paint, but I don't recall its name at the moment. It went on like a dream! It took less paint and less fuss, and it looks gorgeous.

We also painted the front entry way, front tv room, and hallway to the kitchen a rich dark blue that also goes well with the painting. We did this at the same exact time as the kitchen paint, using the exact same paint base, and yet the dark blue went on as beautifully and with as much ease as the sky blue had. Amazing. So, here we find ourselves sick of painting, but more knowledgeable than we were when 2008 began. :)

On to a green kitchen! I can't wait to see it when it's done and I can have my kitchen back!