Painting the Kitchen…

how quickly I forgot how much work that is. Here's the before picture of what will become the blue wall. The pantry is already turquoise. And it's beautiful! The rest of the kitchen will be white, and on a whim I went to the Free Library and picked up a bunch of books of art nouveau and Islamic design clip art for a border I will stencil up there - later. So far I haven't found quite what I'm looking for.
But back to how much work it is:
I spent yesterday supporting the economy. I will, once again, personally ensure that Home Depot will not go under. (sigh) Let's see - I bought more primer, four rolls of insulation (to do the basement), staple gun and staples, turquoise paint, plastic, spackle, masks, and bull nose shelving. At Christmas time, my dad shared with me the secret of their beautiful shelves. They use stair tread for the shelves which has a beautiful bull nose on the one side and is natural wood so that they can stain it. Ha-HA! This was the plan for the replacement shelves in the "pantry." However - I found something better (for me anyway). There is bull nose shelving made of compressed wood that is actually lighter than stair tread. Since I'm painting it and it's half the price, its a win-win situation!
Last night I started prepping the walls. Man-o-man this is the worst part of painting. Holes have to fixed, stuff has to be removed, stuff has to be primed, then there's drying time - it's never ending!
Turns out behind the refrigerator there was a lot of damage. I had to rip down this fabric stuff that was holding the plaster up. I hope to god it wasn't more asbestos paper. It didn't look like it. But it ripped off half of the wall, so now there is more spackling to be done. However, yours truly has finally found the right tool for that!
Lookit that putty knife! Doi - if you use the right tool it makes everything easier. I was watching Bo do some spackling on my walls last Wednesday and he was using an enormous putty knife. When I was going through my painting stuff trying to find paint brushes last night, what to my wondering eyes should appear? but this beautiful putty knife. Holy cow the official "piece of crap" plastic 1.5inch putty knife I was using has been fired. I think I will try using this on the doorway downstairs. Maybe it will get the job done the way I want it done. :)
I was trying to be efficient by priming then spackling, then priming again, then painting shelves, then sanding drywall compound, then sanding spackle. The end result is that I did get the pantry finished. Then I was so excited this evening to put the shelves back in, that I did that before planning ahead. I've still got to paint the archway blue, which will be much harder now that there are two shelves in the way. And the shelves are just that much too long to be able to get them in easily. I think an eighth of an inch shorter would make them perfect. Ah well, that's what rubber mallets are for, and these shelves? are never coming out.
It looks particularly beautiful in daylight, I'll be sure to get a picture tomorrow before I paint the blue wall.