After finally deciding on a color in my kitchen (a bright sunflower yellow), I was anxious to tackle what I was calling my kitchen makeover. Being on a tight budget, cabinets and countertops aren't an option right now, but paint, flooring and knobs are fair game! (the deep red walls are the "before" pics)
On Friday evening I was bitten by the bug and on a whim decided to start tackling the kitchen by starting with the wallpaper border. My dear mom and sister put it up over Christmas while they were visiting, just in time for me to decide I wanted something different in the sprin
g. lol I made it halfway around the room before "the omen" - as I pulled a piece of border down, a large chunk of paint came with it. We're talking at least 5" x 7". The edges where that piece tore off were loose, so goober me decided to tug and see what happened....Fast forward to Sunday.... I just finished priming the walls, whew! For an unknown reason, the flat paint in the kitchen peeled off in large sheets all over most of the room. I'm very lucky to be in touch with the awesome woman who used to own this house, and after swapping emails, we don't have any definite explanations, but I'm thinking the old paint was either oil based, or semi-gloss, and the flat paint didn't stick.
** DIY Lesson: You can go "up" in paint sheen without priming, but can't go down - so if you're going from semi-gloss to flat, you MUST prime... flat to glossy, you're good to go!
So I spent the later part of Friday night, most of Saturday, and some of Sunday morning (ok, I admit,
early afternoon after sleeping in) scraping off paint, patching plaster, sanding and cleaning the wall surface. (if you've been sanding, always wipe down a wall with at least a damp sponge and allow to dry before painting - otherwise the sanding dust will prevent the paint from sticking and you'll be peeling paint later!) Now it's Sunday night, and two of the three walls that need done (the 4th wall is all cabinets and tile) are finally primed, an
d the 4th will be done tomorrow evening after work. After that? COLOR! :-)On a side note - to the man at Home Depot... when I asked if that item could be used on my plaster wall, I truly meant PLASTER... NOT drywall, when you said, "Plaster? You mean drywall, right?" WRONG... Just because I have a certain type of female anatomy, and I dress darn cute when I shop at Home Depot (hey, lots of handy single guys!), does NOT mean I don't know what the walls of my home are made of. But I greatly appreciated the taken back look you gave me when I said that my house was built in the 50s and I have a PLASTER wall with sheetrock behind it, thankyouverymuch! :-)
