Powder Room Update

We've been both cold bound and snow bound lately,

so I've been itching for a little project.  

On Sunday, I talked Mr. Grand into painting the vanity in our powder room.

It was a good test to see how much brighter the room would be with white cabinets.  

Sort of a test drive for - wait for it - remodeling our kitchen!

We have a lot of eighties oak cabinetry in our house.  

I plan to replace it all with white cabinets,
hopefully before the pendulum swings back to dark woods again! 

I have seen that pendulum swing several times in my 25 year kitchen design career.  

Twenty five years ago, oak was king.
Then along came cherry, then white, then maple and all kinds of washed and pickled finishes,
returning again now to white. With a vengeance.  

I have been pinning lots of gorgeous white kitchens lately 

and you can see them here.  

We have been weighing the pros and the cons of replacing our current kitchen cabinets 

or repainting them and going to Europe, buying a new car and replacing the roof, 

all of which could probably be done for the price of re-doing a kitchen these days!

We are still vacillating.  

To get an idea of what white could do in our house, we decide to start with the powder room.

One little vanity cabinet.  Really just two doors to paint.

Easy Peasy.

You may remember this post from a while back, called Powder Room Peek...

Not as naughty as it sounds....

Anyway, I didn't show you the vanity cabinet in these pictures, 

probably because I was already tired of the oak.

 Here is what the vanity looked like at about 2:00 on Sunday.

And by Sunday night, look at the difference!

Again, the Before....





And the After.

A close up of the paint finish.
One coat of primer and two coats of  Acrylic Alkyd for smoothness.
The paint color is Sherwin Williams-  Crisp Linen.

You can still see a bit of the oak grain but I don't mind the texture.

The granite countertop is Absolute Black 

and the toile wallpaper is by Thibaut.

What a difference a coat of paint makes!

I love it.


Imagine what white paint or new white cabinets could do
for the dark hole that is my kitchen right now....

and let's not even get started talking about the old wood edged countertop
or the soffits.

Hmmmm.....




Linking to:
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Winter Blues Wednesday at DIY by Design
Wildly Original Link Party at I Gotta Create
Thursdays Are Your Days at 52 Mantels
Inspire Me Wednesdays at 733
Treasure Hunt Thursdays at From My Front Porch to Yours
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustaard Seed
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage