I had various plans for the second national lockdown last November which involved several small makeover projects around the house. As a result, PP laboriously painted the stair banisters, which is a dogalmighty awful job, plus the downstairs hall. I did the upstairs landing. Despite displaying initial bravado, PP eventually balked at the stairwell, which has double height walls, and when it's safe to do so, we'll get someone in to do it.
Well, I say she balked at the stairwell. I threatened her with repercussions if she even attempted it.... describing how, if she fell off the ladder and was lying sprawled on the floor in a swastika shape due to multiple broken limbs, that I wouldn't be able to visit her in hospital and as a result she'd have to eat hospital meals.
That did the trick.
Anyway, at the time, when we were all gung ho and because it was on special offer, we bought a 10 litre tub of white paint. In old money that's the equivalent of 17.5 pints, or just over 2 gallons. It was so heavy it took both of us to lift in in and out of the car and carry it into the house. I don't know what we were thinking, except that it was a very good deal and I rashly suggested that as we'd still have loads left after doing the hall and stairs, the kitchen was in need of a coat of paint too.
That was last November, and since then our enthusiasm for anything approaching hard work has waned considerably. I gave it half-hearted consideration a few times but thankfully sanity prevailed and I demurred.
Our kitchen is literally at the heart of the house.... it sits bang in the middle of the ground floor and is our primary route out to the garden, so it gets a lot of traffic. It looks out over the patio and garden to the woodland beyond. We last decorated it after the Great Steam Cleaner Debacle, following which we had to get a brand new kitchen, and it's gradually become unloved in the intervening years. It never gets direct sunlight so it can feel a bit gloomy at times, not helped by the wall colour which is a sort of creamy,ivory parchment. We should just have gone for white from the get go, but at the time we thought it would be too clinical. The pretty bunting I made for over the window a few years back is now a sad and sorry sight and all the paintwork is decidedly grubby.
So, possibly because of the imminent onset of spring, I had a rush of blood to the head yesterday, and decided that the time had come to give EVERYTHING a thorough deep clean and refresh the walls with a coat of paint, courtesy of the humongous vat of matte white emulsion up in the shed.
Kitchens are a bugger for dirt and grease. Steam generated by cooking rises, carrying it with it tiny particles of cooking oils which settle on surfaces and congeal. Those which are easy to get to are obviously simple to keep clean on a daily basis, but when was the last time you cleaned the top of your wall cupboards and high level units?
Ah. Right Just me then.
Anyway, yesterday I endured several sessions of navigating round the room by way of standing on the worktops to get to the top of all the units. It was hard work, made even more unedifying that nobody except me would ever see that I'd cleaned off several years worth of sticky, greasy grime and restored them to a pristine sparkle. I won't go into gory detail about the spider webs, transformed by the sticky amalgam into structurally sound constructs. Or the woodlouse graveyard I found behind the fridge.
I do have one piece of very sound advice though, if you're thinking of moving white goods in order to clean then paint behind them.
Don't.
Just leave them in situ and paint round them. Honestly, you'll thank me.
Kitchens are also a bugger to paint, due to having to cut in around the multiplicity of units etc. In terms of surface area it doesn't look too bad but it's difficult to get right to the back of high wall units, and if you factor in window and door reveals, part-tiling, extractor hoods etc, it will invariably take much longer to do than if the same room was entirely empty.
Today I managed to get a first coat of paint on half the room, on the most easily accessible walls at the dining end. Also a second coat on the area behind the fridge so that we could move it back into position from the middle of the floor. That leaves the worst bits by the door, window and around the hob extractor and oven housing unit to do tomorrow, hopefully along with a second coat on the easy bits. There are hardly any visible skirting boards so I'll give them a lick of paint too.
It's not fun, but it will be nice when it's finished as it should look bright and fresh again. *fingers crossed* I'm going to replace the window blind and make a new door curtain, along with some new bunting for over the big mirror at the dining end. I've bought a snazzy new clock and will be jooshzing things up with some colourful accessories and a few, new framed prints.
My hopelessly optimistic deadline for finishing is Saturday afternoon, after which I will be having a lie down in a darkened room for the remainder of the weekend.
Also this. In my dream kitchen, I absolutely need THIS....!!!!
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