Lighten Up - part 2~

Yesterday I shared with you step 1 in my plan to lighten and brighten this little corner of our dining area. Today we're moving on from the lamp to the little buffet it sits on.

This buffet was pretty in black, but it sucked up all the light in that corner of the room, and with our large chalkboard on the adjacent wall...there was altogether too much black going on over there.

I had been thinking and thinking about what color to paint this buffet, but I was coming up dry. That is until we painted the pretty blue dresser for the living room. "Aha!" thought I. Blue is the answer. Now lest you think that I am going to have painted-blue-furniture overkill going on in my house...let me just say that the rooms are adjacent, but the pieces are far enough from one another that they just help to carry a color scheme from room to room rather than seeming matchy-matchy.

So I painted the little buffet Cafe Blue by Valspar in semi-gloss. I. love. it.

There are about 124802384092809482340 tutorials on how to paint furniture floating around cyberspace...and since I don't claim to be an expert on the matter, I'm not going to add another one. I will give you a couple of pointers that I've learned along the way, however.

1. Primer is your friend! As you can see, I took this piece from a darker color to a lighter color. To make the transition easier, I started off with a coat of Kilz primer. The blue paint took much easier this way, and I only needed 2 coats. (If you've ever tried to paint over black, you'll know that 2 coats doesn't usually work.)

2. NEVER accessorize a piece of furniture until it has had a full 24 (and usually more like 48) hours to cure and dry. You will inevitably have a patch of paint that peels up if you do. Even if you used primer. It always makes me wonder when I watch those one-day makeover shows where they paint the walls and the furniture and then accessorize everything. I'm sure the homeowners end up having to do a lot of touch-ups after that!

3. Don't be afraid to try a color. If you don't like it, you can always repaint. That's the beauty of paint!

So here is the space as it stands now. I've given you a little run down of my plans.

Looking at this photo with my plans all spelled out on it, I wanted to share a little more "wisdom" (if you can consider me wise.) So here's another little something to keep in mind. Don't worry if your original plan has to be altered a bit. I say that I will "most likely" put plates on the wall. And I "most likely" will. But that could change. Sometimes things can work on paper, and then when you see them in real life, you realize that it just doesn't look the way you thought it would. And that's part of the fun of designing. Letting the space be your guide. Go in with a plan, but don't be glued to it. And then you'll end up with a space you really love.

I'm hoping to get to the accessorizing step this week...so look for Part 3 to come soon.

Have a great day~