A Lick of Paint (and Then Some)

When I moved into my cabin a couple of weeks ago, my land lady casually mentioned that if I wanted to repaint, she would pay for the supplies.  I couldn't get the idea out of my head (actually, I have mentally renovated the kitchen over and over again) and came up with all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't, but then went and did it anyway.

Here's a before shot of the kitchen area:

The dirt-coloured paint did a good job of hiding the dirt, but it was rather dull to look at, and I expect would be rather depressing when we get only a few hours of daylight in mid-winter.  Other walls in the cabin are painted white, and are scuffed, full of old nail holes and draped with cobwebs.

The worst part (or, one of the worst parts) has been getting things clean enough to paint.  This is what it looked like behind the stove and refrigerator:

Another difficult part is dealing with the poor job that the previous painter did when she put up the dirt-grey:

Hiding all the poor edging is taking a lot of work because one coat of white isn't fixing things.  And unfortunately I am not the kind of person who can let it go.  I have been crawling into the cupboards wearing my headlamp in order to do a good job of even the least-visible corners.  It's not that I'm a perfectionist--I just have high standards (and a sore right shoulder--good thing my yoga classes started up again this week).

Here's what it looked like after one coat of the new colour, Nasturtium:

The colour is absolutely gorgeous--very much worth the absolute chaos that has reined in the cabin since I started this project.  Everything that was in the cupboards is now on the table and even simple meals have been a challenge.  I have also been painting the pony-wall that separates the kitchen/living area from the bed"room" (the cabin is pretty much a one-room deal), which made a mess of my closet space, too (and by closet space I mean a dowel hung from the ceiling by two chains and a large plastic bin).

Yesterday I put on the second coat of Nasturtium, and was able to move the fridge and stove back into place.  Today I painted the cupboards and trim on the pony wall--fortunately it is just a matter of a single coat--and now am just going to wait a couple of days for the paint to cure before I restore the kitchen.  And then it's on to the rest of the space.  I started with the hard parts, and am hoping that the remaining three walls will be a little easier, at least in terms of stuff in the room--less to move will be good.  I will also be repainting the bathroom, but as I start working full-time as of tomorrow, the repainting may be a longer term sort of project.