On impulse (as is usually the case with things like this), I decided to paint my kitchen. Most of my apartment has already been painted. The walls of my living room are a creamy, custard orange and the wall against which my bed rests is a bronze color. Tim had painted the living room and a few months ago I decided to paint that other wall.

Selecting the Paint Color and Sheen (Finish)

When we first moved in, the walls were a neutral off-white as most apartments tend to be. The finish, however, was out of the norm; it was flat, or matte, even in the kitchen. Though it may look nice, a flat finish is horrible for high traffic areas and disastrous for a kitchen. The paint isn’t smooth and easily prone to scuffs and other marks which are very hard to wipe off. It’s like the difference between trying to wipe chocolate sauce off a paper bag versus a plastic bag. Paint comes in many different finishes, or sheen, so I don’t know why they decided to pick the flat finish for the kitchen! Whoever was in charge of that decision must never spend any time in one.

When we repainted in the orange (”Ovation” by Glidden) and bronze (”American Bronze” by Glidden), we choose a satin sheen. It’s in between flat and glossy, managing to look elegant while offering durability and scrubbability. I had considered going up one to semi-glossy for the kitchen, but decided on sticking with the satin because the kitchen is open and visible from the other areas; I wanted the sheen to match.

The toughest decision wasn’t the sheen, however, but the color. I wanted something that complemented the other wall colors but wouldn’t make my small kitchen appear smaller. In the end, I decided to go with a shade of red because (1.) I love red and (2.) I have many red elements in the kitchen such as pots, the dish rack and my microwave.

So after some perusing of the color chips, I picked out a shade of Glidden brand paint called “Red Delicious.” I brought it up to the paint mixer at Home Depot who took a hard look at the color card, stared at me for a second and then said very seriously, “Red is the most difficult color to work with. It’s very hard to get even coverage.” Oh, great.

I just smiled and said that I know all about it (sorta, Tim had painted an old apartment a “Bold Terra Cotta”) and 10 minutes later picked up my gallon of paint. They always put a drop of the paint on the top of the can so you can make sure you pick up the right can from the counter. I looked at the still wet circle of paint and frowned. This wasn’t the deep red from the color card. It had hints of purple and leaned towards a mix of red and fuchsia. I double checked the label: Red Delicious. It was my paint all right, but why did it look so different? After also buying a small edging brush, I walked home a bit troubled but told myself hat paint usually looks different once dried.

The Preparation

Once home, I washed and dried the walls using a soapy sponge and rag. I wanted the paint to go on my walls, not on dust or dirt. Then it was time to tape off anything I didn’t want painted. When I had painted the bronze wall, all I needed to tape off was the edges between the ceilings, floors and adjoining walls. This time was a different story. There were tons of cabinets and counter tops, light switches and outlets.  There was even a window to work around. I definitely underestimated the amount of work this painting project would require!

I removed switch plates and taped off the ceiling and floorboard edges with blue painter’s tape.

Switch plates removed and edges taped off.

I attached a plastic drop cloth to the edge of the tape for the floorboard before sticking it to the wall to capture any drips.

Protection for the floor against paint drips.

In my past painting experiences, I was frustrated with having to make sure I didn’t roll up too high or else the top of the roller might touch the ceiling and transfer a bit of paint.  I didn’t want to have to worry about this so I decided to protect the ceiling with ripped out sheets from an old catalog.  I made sure the pages were relatively thick and glossy so any transferred paint wouldn’t soak through.  It made a huge difference being able to  roll all the way up, though as expected, I still had to cut in the very edge with a brush afterward.

Protection for the ceiling against high brush rolls.

The Painting

When I was ready to paint, I got out my tools: a wide roller brush, a smaller roller brush, an edging brush, clean-up rags and a damp sponge.  I changed into an unwanted, oversize t-shirt and, after stirring the paint, set about painting my largest section first.  The wide roller took care of big areas, the smaller one was for narrow sections and the brush was for edges and even smaller nooks and crannies.

When I painted my other wall in the bronze, the paint went on like butter and one coat was enough to get an even, smooth coverage.  Painting with this red was an entirely different story.  I don’t know why, but red truly is the hardest color to work with, especially a dark red. (Dark colors in general are difficult to work with.)

My walls soaked up the red like a sponge and what had gone on thickly dried thin and speckly.  Overlaps and streaks were obvious and did not blend easily.  Small corners and narrow sections were hard to navigate.  I frequently grabbed my sponge and rags to clean up accidents on counter tops and cabinet doors.  This was a nightmare.  I knew immediately that one coat would not be enough, maybe not even two.

End Result and Clean-up

Two days and three coats later, I am pretty happy with the result.  It’s not perfect, but it’s much better than it looked after one coat.  With my bronze, I had used about a third of the gallon I had bought.  This time around, I painted nearly the same total amount of wall space and needed most of the can.

My kitchen is a mess and there’s so much out of place.  I’m waiting for this final coat to dry before I pull off the tape and put the switch plates back.  I have enough paint left for any touch-ups and I will need to scrape off any drips I had missed.  Luckily, dried paint comes off easily on my non-porous granite counter tops and polished concrete floors.

After all is said and done, there’s the fridge to push back along with all the miscellaneous items that were on the counters before.  There are the brushes and tray to clean, along with all the rags and crunchy red paper towels strewn on my floor.  It looks like an elephant had a massive nosebleed or something.  Oh! Speaking of which, the color dried exactly like the color card in the store.  There’s not a hint of fuchsia at all - whew!  The name “Red Delicious” was spot on.

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I’m really looking forward to putting the kitchen back together and my dogs are looking forward to not being yelled at for coming near the area.  My dogs are like kids; you tell them they can’t do something and it ends up being all they think about.

Lastly, would I do it again?  It was a lot more work than I anticipated.  There were times, like halfway through the first coat, after the first coat, after the second coat, every 15 minutes, etc., that I wanted to kill myself, but seeing the end result now, it was worth the effort!  So yes, I would do it all over again, though I may use a primer next time to help the paint go on easier.

Final pics will be posted soon.

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