La Cocina

After I finally finished my kitchen cabinets, I knew the next step in creating my Mexican kitchen was to paint. I am a neutral kind of girl. I could paint the whole house tan and be totally happy with it. But I'm young, single, and I have a house that I can decorate any way I choose. This is not the time for Better Homes and Gardens and play it safe with earth tones. This is the time to go a little crazy.

After googling photos of Mexican kitchens for weeks, it was time to go to Home Depot for some paint samples. Usually this only takes two trips and two samples. This time, not so much. After four trips to Home Depot, evaluating countless color swatches...

...and trying five paint samples (including experimenting with faux finishes)...

...a decision was made. To be honest, I wasn't even close to 100 percent sold on it, but it was as close to my vision as we were going to get.

This is my kitchen before the painting project.

Growing up I was told that something is better than nothing, but in the case of the baseboards in my kitchen, that is simply not true. The baseboards were terrible, cheap and reminded me of something you find in an office building.

I'm not sure if I am going to leave the kitchen baseboard-less or add baseboards later on (hopefully something unique like tiles) but either way the existing baseboards had to go.

Thankfully they came off easier than expected.

Finally, it was time to start painting. Most of the time it seems the prep work takes twice as long as actually painting. First up was the blue paint above the cabinets.

before the blue:

I had to get a little creative with the light. I needed to take it down, but didn't want it to dangle for fear the weight would snap the wires. The wrapping paper holder and cook books did the trick just fine.

after the blue:

The light above the sink hasn't worked since move-in day. The thing is totally ugly, but it would be nice if it worked until I developed a game plan for replacing it with something a little more Mexican, and eye appealing. I bought some new bulbs and reworked some wiring and vow-la! I was probably more excited about the light then I was the whole paint job.

My freshly painted Mexican kitchen!

Just to recap the transformation of my kitchen so far....

move-in day

microwave install, new dishwasher, and refinished cabinets

removed base boards, freshly painted walls and a working light above the sink

I can't decide if I want to take a break from the kitchen and move on to the living room, or continue the kitchen transformation.

Still on the to-do list for the kitchen: painting the ceiling and trim white, shopping for (and hanging) accent pieces for the walls, purchasing and installing new light fixtures and a new fan, finding and hanging curtains for the windows, and re-doing the backsplash (I'm thinking about doing stainless steel).

What do you think?