Prime Cabinets and a (Mostly) Trim Bathroom

Hello again! It's been a while since my last post, but I've done several things since (and probably not quite as much as I should have), which I'll be talking about this evening. To begin, I've finally gotten around to priming the base cabinets in my kitchen. I've only done those from the sink to the water heater closet, since I will most likely be cutting out the cabinets under the stove top so I can put in a full size range. The cabinet that holds the ancient wall oven will either become a pantry, or will be removed so I can put my refrigerator over there. Those decisions are still up in the air at this time, but they will eventually be decided.

That countertop is so junky right now! Hopefully as things progress, that junkiness will quickly go away. In any case, the base cabinets, at least, are now ready for their first coat of paint. I just have to decide what color that coat will be! One thing I'm going to have to keep in mind is that since my bedroom and the bathroom both open off the kitchen, and both have rather bold colors now, the kitchen will most likely need to be a more neutral tone than I had originally intended. And that's fine with me, since the kitchen has just one tiny window and will need something lighter and more neutral to brighten it up somewhat.

As for the bathroom, I finally decided on colors for it. Yay! The main color is a shade of brown called Irish Tea, while the trim color (which was originally going to be white to match the vanity, fixtures, and ceiling) is a shade of pewterish-beige called Dust Bunny. Originally I had planned to paint the bathroom a shade of green or khaki-green, but I felt drawn to brown, especially since my both my sister and my friend suggested brown would perhaps be a more compelling (and complementary to the porcelain tiling) base color. So I then went through all the shades of browns that I have on color cards and narrowed it down to a few shades. But the Irish Tea is the shade that spoke the loudest to me, so it's the one I finally selected. My friend and I went through various color combinations last Sunday for the trim, and finally we decided the Dust Bunny would be a very good shade for the trim.

Sunday also saw us measuring and cutting the baseboards for the bathroom, although we just put them in place rather than nailing them down. We knew we were going to have to do some more measuring and trimming once we were ready to go, so there was no point in nailing them down at that time. We then went and purchased the paint, as well as trim for the corners, and the corner blocks for the crown moulding. However, we were unable to find the proper size of corner block for the single outside corner, so we figured we'd worry over that at a later time.

Monday found me applying the initial coat of paint to the bathroom walls. I was so eager to get started that I had to rein in my enthusiasm so I would take the time to prepare for what I was doing rather than rashly jumping right on in. Of course, my enthusiasm still got the better of me, so I ended up having to stop in the middle of painting to take care of a few things (such as remove the temporary light switch cover). By early afternoon, the first coat was laid down, and it was looking good!

The true color really only shines through in the last picture above, the one that features the vanity. It felt so awesome having that first coat of paint on the walls! And it was looking so good! Although I could see the necessity for the upcoming second coat. In several areas, the primer was shining through like a white rash. So, once the first coat was on the walls, I collected the baseboards I had removed for the wall painting, and then opened the pail of trim paint to paint those. I laid them across several plastic tubs in the laundry room and painted them there.

I had thought these were hard to paint, but I'd find out the next day that doing the crown moulding would be much more of a challenge!

On Tuesday, I went ahead and applied the second coat to the bathroom walls. It went a bit quicker than doing the first coat. Once that was done, I then painted two of the flat wall trim sections, which would be the same color as the walls. I then had to take a break to drive a neighbor somewhere to drop off some items she was donating, then later that day I took the five sections of crown moulding and put them on the plastic tubs in the laundry room where I had painted the baseboards. I then gave them a coat of the trim color, waited for them to dry, then gave them a second coat. (I forgot to take a picture of them as they dried.)

Today, we set to work to put the baseboards in place. They were a bit tricky, as some sections needed to be cut off to fit, since not only were we installing the baseboards but also installing trim around the lips of the tub/shower unit. Since that trim reached to the floor, the baseboards abutting them had to be trimmed back to accommodate the extra sections. We weren't able to fit all the trim around the shower unit, but we did get the important pieces in place (those along the outside that reached to the floor). We then nailed the baseboards in place, then began the task of installing the crown moulding. First, we put up the four corner blocks, then did the moulding in between them. This became a little interesting, since the two longest sections of wall were longer than the sections of moulding. It became a bit of a challenge, but we also weren't able to complete all the crown moulding, since we're missing the one outside corner block as well as having to decide what to do around the window we installed over the shower. But, most of it is up, and it looks great! Next, we then installed the two sections of flat moulding over the seams where two sheets of luaun meet up; these sections weren't long enough, so of course we had to merge them with smaller sections from a third piece. It looks rather funny at the moment with most of the flat trim being painted while the small lower sections are still unpainted lol.

Some of these pictures are a bit blurry because my camera doesn't like taking pictures in the bathroom. I guess it's too small and dark for it to focus lol. But you can get the general idea from the pics. The bathroom is well on its way to looking sensational! Still going to have to decide what to do with the light fixture as well. Since I've chosen a darker shade for the bathroom, the light fixture is going to have to be a bit stronger than I had really planned on. Or we may end up going with more than one light fixture in the room. In any case, I also am going to have to paint the ceiling. I had hoped that would be unnecessary, since the beadboard we put up was already white, but it's showing some wear and tear from the installation, but shouldn't be too bad to paint.

In any case, this is one more step towards having a completed home!