When we first moved into our Boston home a couple of months ago, I was instantly itching to redo the kitchen first. Beyond the cosmetic issues, we went from having a ton of space and storage in California to having very little in Boston. I really missed my old kitchen setup, which included a hanging post rack, knife strip, butcher block and spice racks that helped maximize the space and put everything I needed nicely into one spot, so I decided to incorporate all of that again here.
See that final color? It took a little trial and error to get there, but we did. More on that below! It’s Silver Bullet by Behr, which is a beautiful grey with no purple, green, yellow, brown or red undertones—just a pure grey. Worth the hassle, because we loved the final result.
The pot rack we used is here.
The butcher block is from IKEA, although I’m not sure they sell it anymore.
First step was to spackle, sand and prime.
One coat later, we knew we were stuck with doing at least three coats.
Four coats later …
Now here is where we ran into trouble! I had impulsively picked out a pale blue paint (Monet by Behr) that looked light purple at some points in the day. Not the look I was going for.
I kept trying to make it look less purple-ly in my head. I looked it with one eye closed. Still purple. I added some red and navy accents throughout the rest of the kitchen. Still purple. I drank a beer and took another look. It was still purple!
After a few days of trying to convince myself otherwise, I knew this was a disaster. It was definitely not the kitchen I had in my head. This space was supposed to feel cozy and welcoming, but ended up starting to make me feel legitimately angry every time I went into the room.
So I went back to the drawing board, looking for a blue that wouldn’t have a hint of purple in it. It was really hard and I agonized over what to do!!
I hopped to browns and then grey, choosing several samples before I made my choice.
Silver Bullet was the winner!!!
I’m so looking forward to getting back in the kitchen to cook and blog, and love the warm space we created. I’ve shined it top to bottom, and am keeping it that way! Now I have the entire rest of the house to repaint, woo!
