Update: Kitchen and Paint Colors

Time to share some progress with you guys. I have been painting my little heart and have made good progress on two rooms and a lot of trim. Today I can give you a little update on the kitchen progress. 

First a little look back to where we started. 

The orange oak trim is EVERYWHERE in this house. 

There was also a strip of super old wallpaper in the dining area. 

This stuff was awful to get down. Brian's hands were actually sore the next day from all the scraping. 

 What we have done so far:
   -removed the wall paper (details here)
   -painted (most of) the trim
   -painted the ceiling
   -added our island (from the last house)
   -painted the walls

Here is our progress picture...

And a wider shot of the kitchen.

Yes we have a partially ripped off

 back splash and no I am not a fan of the island in this house

but I really need the counter space.  

Well you can clearly see we are a work in progress. We have a HUGE list of things to do for the first stage of our kitchen makeover. We are loving how things are looking so far with just a little paint

The paint color in the kitchen is Sea Salt in Harmony by Sherwin Williams. It took two coats to get a nice even color on the walls. The trim paint is just an off the shelf low VOC semi gloss. We use low or no VOC for all of our paint. I am the one that does 75% of the painting and since I am pregnant and home with a toddler and a dog it makes sense to use it. Painting the trim was a bit of a task because the low VOC primer can sometimes need a couple more coats to get good coverage. I ended up doing 3 coats of primer and two coats of semi gloss on the trim and did no sanding before and the coverage is good. 

For the first phase of kitchen beautification we are planning:

   -new light fixtures

   -paint both doors in the kitchen

   -remove the rest of the back splash and paint

   -painting the kitchen cabinets

   -painting or changing the counter tops

   -adding shelving (already on the way!!)

   -new floors?? maybe.

If feels like I have been painting for a weeks straight and we have a lot more to do but I think we can get phase one done by the July deadline.

I also wanted to share the color scheme we are leaning toward for the whole house. We want a beachy neutral cottage palette. I, of course, would paint the entire house white and grey but Brian needs some color so a nice beachy palette is a good compromise for us. Since we can see the ocean it fits the house perfectly :) We are mostly sticking to the colors below and maybe adding a little coral for some pop. 

Our last bit of news is regarding the front door color. We have picked our winner. Thanks everyone for your votes and input. We have decided to go with the second one down. It is a nice bold teal color and I am trying to step outside of my painting comfort zone and go for something bold. I originally was sure it would be the fourth one down but it looks very similar to the kitchen color. Can't wait to get started! 

Happy Monday!