paint Archives - McCormick Interiors

This post was originally written in Nov 2011 but has been updated for you today.

My brother and sister-in-law’s new kitchen!!! Before and after!

Via the internet from California to Connecticut! Utilizing, my favorite tool, our iPhones!!!

My brother and sister in law bought their house 15 years ago and wanted to add on a family room with a garage under it off the kitchen. They did that, and they thought they needed to remodel the kitchen.

Having been paid for so many years for my advice; I just assume everyone wants it! (guess what? not everyone does!) Well, I suggested all they needed to do was to paint the cabinets; the walls and the floor! My sister-in-law didn’t think that would do it; so they did the family room and other things in the house waiting to redo the whole kitchen.

Then the children grew up and flew the coop and they decided to sell the house!

The kitchen looked tired; had a yucky tile floor; and kind of insipid pinkish color stained wood cabinets. It did not “show” well!

I suggested again that “Paint magic” was all it needed! The cabinets looked “stuck on” the yellow walls, and weren’t tall enough to reach the ceiling, but they had attractive lines and the plan was practical!

Borrowing from my friend Brooke Giannetti’s weekend house makeover; on her blog “Velvet and Linen”; (the most dramatic I have ever seen!) I suggested the color “Hardwick White” from Farrow and Ball for the walls and the cabinets. Then, the cabinets would not look “stuck on” and the color (which is not white); looks really good with Stainless Steel appliances!

“Oh too dark! Cried, my poor sister-in-law”. Relentlessly, I nagged and needled; and explained and nagged some more and sent more pictures of Brooke’s kitchen,; and she reluctantly went ahead!!

She was scared to death! (This poor woman; in her last house she took our daughter’s water-skiing and when they came back; I had rehung every painting and picture in their house!) You either want or don’t want, a decorator in the family! I think they liked them there! (Or every time I visited they moved them back!)

Here we go!!! “Paint Magic”! My sister in law did all the labor, and we used our iPhones to send pictures back and forth!!!

I suggested that the black microwave and the black ovens needed to go. She ( “she” henceforth is my darling sister in law)! found some reasonable stainless steel replacements that fit!

A refrigerator that fit in a “Sub-Zero” space, and an oven with a broiler that fit where the ugly black thing resided! And a stainless microwave!!! (I must give her all the credit for accomplishing this feat!)

She did all the painting work herself; I think my brother supervised! He may have been sitting in a chair at the time! ( I cannot be a witness……I am all the way out here in California!!!)

See the icky ceramic tile floor? Is” insipid” the right word for the color of the cabinets? YUCK.

I suggested the baskets to mask the fact the cabinets did not go to the ceiling; nor have any finish molding! Rectangular baskets in different natural colors……filled in the space! She found them! I emailed pictures to her! She found them within an hour!

The finished kitchen with the icky tile painted (they make paint that works on tile!!!!) and the walls and cabinets “Hardwick White” (and don’t believe the paint store when they tell you they can match Farrow and Ball paint with American paint. Not true. There are way more pigments; and the difference is vast!)

Most of the cost of painting is in the labor; so it is a fallacy that this paint is outrageously expensive. It isn’t! Worth every penny! (Says Penny!) In this case, my sister in law…….and I hope my brother, was the labor! So the paint cost more, but look!!!)

Waiting for the microwave…and a close-up of a basket!

This is the original ceramic tile floor! This would be expensive and difficult to remove and replace. So we painted it! (My sister in law did) It needed a bit of sanding, a primer and then painted with an alkyd paint.

Pretty darn great, if you ask me!

We found very reasonable seagrass rugs (they are all over the internet; the most reasonable were at Overstock.com) Less than half the price of many others!