Kitchen nook facelift...

Art Mulder

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Location
London, Ontario
(sorry, no before photos...)

This was supposed to be a quick job; Famous last words.

The kitchen nook had moderate quality (and that's being generous) wainscoting in it, from the previous owner. But it was this ugly blue colour that we have never thought suited the kitchen.

The wall was a bland beige.

We decided to go bold with the walls and paint them red ("poinsetta" according to the paint colour chip). There are windows on three sides, plus a skylight, so we were hopeful there would be enough light to not make it seem too dark.

Oh, and the wainscoting? Out with the blue, and in with the white, which we think works real well with the red walls.

IMG_3088.jpg

The chair rail was not great so I ripped it out and replace it with some custom-made pieces that I cooked up in my shop. It was kind of a waste, but I had some real cheap maple, and some old ugly cherry, so I painted it white :eek:, and there you go.

The baseboard was also a horrible job -- butt joints in the middle of one short 8' wall. :dunno: And if that wasn't bad enough, the butt joints were separated by 1" piece that was stuck in to fill a gap. :bang: As the son of a finishing carpenter, that just offended me constantly. Rip it out!

(Actually the new baseboard is going in tomorrow, I'll try to snap another photo then)

Then came some more famous words: "this shouldn't take too long".

There were a couple 3' shelves hanging on the wall where we had cookbooks and the phone and the like. But after the walls were painted, it looked so good, that we really didn't want to cover it up. So we decided that I would make a small set of shelves that were built-in to the corner. (That shouldn't take too long...) The idea was to try and make them look like they were part of the wainscoting.

IMG_3089.jpg

I think it turned out pretty good, but it probably added 10days of part-time work to get to that stage. So much for finishing before September :doh: (which was LOML's request). Still, it was fun making this shelf to exactly match the height of the chair rail, and then have the chair rail wrap around it and have it blend right in to the corner as it does.

Next up, tweaking the window coverings.

After that, back to the fish tank stand project!
And later this fall, do something about the kitchen/nook flooring.
 
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your digging a deep hole for yourself art:) dont be showing her all that you can do or you wont have any time for your own fun:) looks good so far:)

The biggest problem that all of us face is that non-woodworkers just don't realize what jobs are easy, and what jobs are hard.

Fortunately, my wife is fairly well informed and better than most at judging what makes a job easy vs challenging. (ie: she understands that drawers really add time to a job, so a dresser is a lot more of a job than a bookshelf)
 
Looks good, Art. :thumb:

The biggest problem that all of us face is that non-woodworkers just don't realize what jobs are easy, and what jobs are hard...

Not just woodworking, but any fix-it or make-it project around the house. LOML knows very well that no easy job is easy, nor is any quick job quick. Case in point...she bought a new doorbell button and mounting plate Sunday at the LA County Fair. (The mounting plate is dog-shaped, of course.) Should be a simple job -- take two screws out, move two low-voltage wires to the new switch, put two screws in. Should take about three minutes, including going into the shop to grab a screwdriver. But no. First, the old mounting plate had the two screws above and below the doorbell button. The new one has the screws on either side of the button, and it doesn't cover the two old holes. But worse, the last time the stucco was done on the house, they didn't remove the plate, so when I removed the old plate, there was a "footprint" of it in the stucco. So now I get to patch the stucco, paint it to match the existing stucco, drill and install anchors for the new mounting screws, then the 3-minute job can begin. :doh:

One of LOML's favorite sayings when this type of thing happens is "It's never easy, is it?" This has become one of our mantras.

We both laugh at (and relate to) this:

Strife.jpg
 
RED walls :bonkers:

I must be getting old and boring, but I like the basic off white walls

Hey, watch it with those age jokes, Mr I-was-born-the-same-year-as-Art. :stick:

Actually I just figured in my head and the front vaulted entry, the main floor powder room, and the kitchen itself (not the nook) are the ONLY rooms in our house that are still basic beige/off-white.

All the bedrooms are something else, The LR + FR are yellow, the dining room (office) is a beige/orange colour (hard to describe, but it works), and so on...

Actually the powder room, mudroom, and kitchen, are the only rooms that still have never been painted (by us) since we moved in 10 years ago.

Oh wait, I forgot. I painted the inside of the garage a year or so ago, and that one I painted ... wait for it ... Beige/Off-white. :thumb:

... new doorbell button and mounting plate Sunday at the LA County Fair. (The mounting plate is dog-shaped, of course.) Should be a simple job -- take two screws out, move two low-voltage wires to the new switch, put two screws in. Should take about three minutes, including going into the shop to grab a screwdriver. But no. First, the old mounting plate had the two screws above and below the doorbell button. The new one has the screws on either side of the button, and it doesn't cover the two old holes. But worse, the last time the stucco was done on the house, they didn't remove the plate, so when I removed the old plate, there was a "footprint" of it in the stucco. So now I get to patch the stucco, paint it to match the existing stucco, drill and install anchors for the new mounting screws, then the 3-minute job can begin.


Hmmm, I would consider going down to the shop and cutting out a rectangular "mounting plate" from some white oak or other small piece from the scrap pile. Then put that over the footprint, and go from there.

Might not work, depending on the house trim + style, but just a thought.

...art
 
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