One of the biggest changes we made to this house is one I'm really excited to write about and share with you. Our kitchen, as I've lovingly called '50 Shades of Brown' had a raw cedar plank wall that had aged probably at least half as long as the house has been standing. The planks actually extend all the way down the stairs, and down the basement hallway. It seemed to have trapped some kitchen smells in it, and as a result, in certain circumstances, you could really smell them coming out of it.
I wanted to find a way to brighten up the kitchen, but I wavered back and forth between keeping it raw, and rustic. I mean, a lot of people really love the look of raw wood on walls. Also, if I did paint it, and it looked awful, we'd have to take it down, and I didn't want to ruin it. I thought maybe I could come up with some cool way to keep it, but after leaving it for a couple of months, I was ready to paint. I love the way painted shiplap looks, so I decided to paint it the same color as the rest of the kitchen walls, and went with Behr's Polar Bear.
Since the wood is raw, it took more pressure and detail than I thought it would. I used a much fluffier roller, and also had to press pretty hard to fill in all the little divots and grains in the wood. Then I went back over it with a paint brush for the final touches. I left some of the knots and cracks exposed to give it a bit of a rustic look and love how it turned out.
I love how much brighter the stairs are now. We are in the process of installing new lighting in the basement so it's really dark right now, and having the walls white helps the light from upstairs bounce around the stairwell. It also helps show how gross the carpet is on the stairs. We definitely will be adding "shampoo the carpets" to our list of things to do this summer.
I love how it all turned out, and am so happy that I decided to risk damaging the wood wall and go for it! Now, we just need to finish decorating the kitchen and I can post some REAL after pictures.
It looks so much brighter!! Well done Lana ��Now...on to the kitchen!! Look forward to see those before and after pics.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm so happy with it. I can't wait to get the kitchen looking all spiffied up.
DeleteThat looks awesome Lana! What are your plans for the banister? It's really shaping up!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Painting raw planks is a pain! It's soft wood so it absorbed like crazy. We're most likely going to fix the broken spire on the railing, then paint it dark, and when we put the banister back up, it will be painted dark as well.
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