When we bought our *previously loved* home about four years ago, it was mostly white. I REALLY don’t like white walls! The only 2 rooms that were painted were the Master Bathroom and it was SALMON. Yes, ugly, peach! {shudder} The Study was/still is a “lovely” shade of gray with, you guessed it, wallpaper BORDER! (I think it’s been there a while). The Study will be my next room to conquer!
Since the kitchen is the heart of the home, I wanted to make it warm and inviting. The only BEFORE pictures I have is of the kitchen. 
The Breakfast Room had very outdated wallpaper. Don’t you just LOVE that border??
I decided to tackle this room by removing as much of the wallpaper that would come off easily by just pulling. Then, I used Joint Compound that comes in the big 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot or Lowe’s.
I spread it over the walls using a cake spatula and flat trowel. It’s just like icing a cake. It’s very forgiving.
The Joint Compound goes on gray and as it dries, it turns white. You must let it completely dry for at least 24 hours.
I wanted my kitchen to be red, but since the plaster was very white, I needed to put a dark gray paint on first (didn’t get a picture of that, sorry)
I then painted it a great brick red. You can see the texture if you look closely.
Once the red was dry, I used a dry cotton cloth and rubbed antique tea stain glaze on top. It clung to the grooves and created depth. I love it!
The light fixture was very dated with the brass ring around the globe. I painted the ring with oil-rubbed bronze craft paint to buy us a little more time before replacing it. It works for now.
It was then time to tackle these….
The cabinets were “pickled” pink. Hmmmm.
I cleaned them really well with Krud Kutter (available at any home improvement store and Walmart) until my cloth was completely clean. Then, I mixed an oil-based honey colored paint with an oil-based glaze until I had it to the consistency I wanted (sorry, I don’t have measurements for you).
I think it warmed up the kitchen quite a bit!
I wanted to “antique” them a bit so I mixed regular black craft paint with the glaze and painted it in the grooves.
Added some nice hardware that I bought off of Ebay and voila!
My new kitchen!!
P.S.: We want to put new flooring in the downstairs and I think it will clash with the cabinets. SO, I’m going to be painting my cabinets black with an antique finish. Tutorial will be coming soon!! You know, it’s already been 3 years since I painted them the first time. It’s time, don’t ‘cha think??
Blessings,
Sandi
