See You in Hell, Popcorn

Are we finally done with the cabinets? No. No, we are not. We are mostly done- so very, very close to being done, but we're not there yet and I blame my husband for that.
 This weekend was supposed to be easy. We were going to finish up the last part of the cabinet overhaul and spend the rest of the weekend taking it easy. But then my husband got up Saturday morning, and before he'd even finished his first cup of coffee, he decided he could not live with the hideous popcorn ceiling one more second, and started scraping it off. That launched the project from Hell that consumed our entire weekend. It started like this...

 And quickly became this...

I have to take a tiny bit of the blame. Last week, one of the guys that's been working on our house since ToiletFlood 2017 (another saga for another day) came to attempt to hang my foyer light fixture for the third time (yup, a saga in and of itself.). He casually mentioned that scraping popcorn ceilings was "easy," I casually mentioned that to Matt, and this is where we wound up.

And I'll admit, scraping the popcorn off is, in fact, quite easy. Resurfacing and sanding the ceiling is a special type of horrible that I do not recommend ever undertaking without the help of professionals. Seriously, y'all, it was awful and I am unlikely to ever get the sheetrock dust out of my house despite our containment-room precautions. 

The other problem is that my husband has no previous experience resurfacing ceilings, so there are some...flaws. But honest to God, I don't even care. It looks 50 million times better than the previous dirty cottage cheese look, and who spends that much time inspecting your ceiling? We'll live with it because I cannot bear another round of plastic sheeting, skim coating, sanding and painting. Nuh uh, no way, can't make me!!! So the ceiling is done. Too bad it's only half the kitchen, and the dining area awaits! But that is my husband's problem, not mine, so back to the cabinets.

SO close to done!!! I'm finishing up the last two above the fridge, and I have to paint all the crown molding, but that's it. And they're gorgeous! The upper cabinets are painted with Amy Howard chalk paint in Ballet White, and lightly sanded. 

The lowers are painted in Amy Howard chalk paint, color-matched to Sherwin William's antique red. I painted two coats of the red, then covered them with a black wash made of black craft paint and water. I painted it on, let it sit a minute, then wiped it off. It toned down the red, and gave them the aged "old barn" look I was going for.

That's a tiny piece of paper on the floor, not an

old french fry. Though it could easily be an old fry. 

It just happens to be paper this time. 

 I didn't sand the edges of the bottom cabinets because I didn't want to get too rustic. I finished them off with a coat of minwax polycrylic in clear satin, and new handles, and I LOVE THEM. The black appliances that I can't afford to replace blend in nicely, and I love my very patriotic red and white cabinets against the blue walls.The final upgrade was taking down the dusty, greasy old ceiling fan, and trading it for a simple warehouse pendant fixture that I spray painted cherry red. 

The end of cabinet chaos is finally in sight. I'm bound and determined to have it finished before the weekend, despit the fact that it's spring break, and I have the cold from hell. But I've got to get this one finished so I can move on to the next one!!!