At the beginning of March I had Tweeted that the tiles behind our stove top had ALL fallen down. All 4 16" X 16" tiles. Plus 5 smaller ones.
I've left the wall as is, not quite sure what to do with it. I didn't have the supplies to put the tile back up, plus a couple of them broke and I had no extras to replace them.
So for the past month we've been living with a wall that looked like this:
Lovely, huh? Very dirty and probably why the tiles fell off.
Sean suggested I paint the wall, which I thought was a good idea since I already had the paint.
But before I could do anything, it had to be cleaned. (Why I didn't just clean it before, I'm going to chalk up to laziness.) So I took a trip to the Wal-Marts to get some cleaner. I needed something that would tackle the dirt as well as the grease. (Another reason the tiles probably didn't stay put.) I was going to get some good ol' Clorox All Purpose cleaner, but for just 20 cents more I could get some Clorox Green Works. I figured since it's environmentally friendly, I'd try it. Let me tell you, this stuff works great!
So last night I scrubbed the wall clean. Between the dirt, grease and stuff the tiles are stuck to the wall with, (that was still stuck on the wall) it was a workout!
Under all that dirt and grime was a piece of Formica board. It was very ugly. And very 60's.
When Sean saw it he said it was pretty and we should just leave it. Ummm. No. I'll paint it. Thank you very much.
This morning was painting day. The paint I had was too dark for under the cabinets, so I had to mix up the color I wanted. R calls it Vanilla Moca Chino.
Because if you watch any HGTV, you'd notice that all the colors seem to be named after food.
It didn't take long. Maybe an hour and took only one coat. Now we have a snappy looking wall behind the stove top.
Okay. Maybe saying the color is snappy is a bit far fetched. But it sure looks better than the dirt. Or Formica!
After I got it all painted, I stood back to admire my work and noticed something I never noticed before. The same dirt that was on the wall was also above the cabinets, only not as dark. When I looked even closer, I could see it was also on the cabinets themselves and someone did a poor job of wiping it off. So, it looks like maybe a previous tenant had a stove fire and didn't clean it all up.
I just wonder if it somehow got behind the tiles, or the tiles were put up right over the soot?
I may never know.
I had some extra paint I was itching to use. I was tempted to paint above the cabinets, but I don't have a step ladder to reach. Plus, I wasn't all too sure I wanted more Vanilla Moca Chino in the kitchen. Especially above the cabinets. Unless I painted them another color, I felt it would make the kitchen look really bland. Like I was cooking in a Starbucks Plenta cup of Vanilla Moca Chino!
So, to satisfy my painting itch and use up more of my leftover paint, I painted the back door! I think it looks pretty good:
I have just a bit more leftover and am racking my brain as to what else I could paint.
Because I really love to paint.
And I really love the smell of paint.
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