Last summer when we bought this big ole' house known as "The Lefere Mansion", we got ourselves in deep! I had to make quick decisions as to what I wanted, and some of them I regretted! But thankfully, a few of those decisions could be fixed with paint! :)
Let's take a look back at what the backsplash (and the rest of this lovely kitchen) looked like a year ago:
I originally bought some Perma White to paint the existing backsplash but our electrician need to do some new wiring and handed me a crowbar with the instructions - get ride of it! (I ended up using the Perma White paint to instead paint the granite around my fireplaces which you can see HERE.)
So I headed in to Lowes and bought my countertops. I had about one day to decide what I wanted. Not a good idea to rush on stuff like that. The brown tones in them does not really match my home's style.... but for now that's what I need to live with. I bought the square of faux copper PVC squares in stock at Lowes for the backsplash.
Can you believe this? I still hardly can as I type this. One morning as I'm feeling overwhelmed, I get a text from two sweet girls out in Wisconsin who I have the privilege of knowing and said they were on their way out to help with whatever I needed help with!!!! God bless their wonderful souls. They drove to Michigan and rolled their sleeves right up. Abigail, in the pink shirt, is a bit brainy. So with her math skills, I set her to work cutting and fitting the tiles on the wall. Heather (pictured on the right) was her trusty sidekick and they did an amazing job!! Jennah Sailor from just down the road heard her gal pals were here showed up for fun, but she rolled up her sleeves and set right to work, too! What a wonderful circle of people I know!!!!
Here is their work completed! Luke Kember, another pal of mine, cut off the scallops on the board that goes over my sink. Wasn't a fan of those. Yes, put your sunglasses on, those outlet covers are seriously blinding! I went to all the trouble of spray painted them to blend in with the new backsplash with a hammered copper metal spray paint. It worked GREAT and I was even going to blog about it.... but alas, my "copper" didn't stay "copper"! I supposed I could still blog about it, since others might want to try it!
The "copper" looks okay. But just "okay". My home is full of grays and whites and airy, light colors. I'm not a "brown" girl. This screamed "LOOK AT ME! I'M BROWN! AND I STAND OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB!!!!"
Don't you think? Or maybe you love it! To each their own. :)
My mother agreed, even though she's a "brown" warm tone person, and since she had the paint on her brush from another project, said "Kammy, it's time!" So not even up a whole year, and we're already giving the backsplash a makeover!!
Oh yes, take note of the cabinet hardware. Do they look a little "heavy" to you? Pay attention as you scroll through the next few photos to see if you notice a difference....
Even little munchkin had to help. :)
Well, what do you think??? So much fresher and more airy! I love the look. Now if only I hadn't chosen those brown countertops......
Oh, and do you see the difference in the hardware? Comment if you can tell what we did to make them "lighter".
Mom helped me arrange a little vignette in the open space above the cabinets, too. I love how the bird ties in with the color of my light fixture (which I don't know where it originally came from, just that I took it from our old house! Someone will inevitable ask).
And there you have it. Don't like it? Paint it! :)
(Including the chalkboard frame - did you notice that also got a paint job?)
We used a semi gloss trim paint by Dutch Boy from Menards.
Would you have painted or left it?
Do you make quick decisions on semi-permanent decor and regret it?
I'm curious to know your thoughts!
One last question, do my cabinets look too creamy now with the ultra white backsplash? Do they need a dose of white on them? And what color would you paint the walls? Can you believe I haven't painted the walls yet? I would love to hear your input!!
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