Letters from My Cottage Visitors

It's been a while since I've shared some letters and questions from my blog readers, so I' thought I'd do that today! Let's get started!



Just wanted to know where you found the pretty white curtain above your kitchen sink... ~S.

Well, S., I wish I could tell you where they originally came from, but I found them at my local Goodwill store. And I'll let you in on a little secret...they're not actually curtains! They are really pillowcases that I've hung with curtain rings and a rod. I don't really sew and I would have been afraid to attempt to make rod pockets for these sweet pillowcases, so I just hung them as they were!



I absolutely love your site and the work that you do! Your kitchen cabinet refinish project looks amazing. We are buying a house that has plain oak cabinets with a sort of shiny (ugly) finish. I would like to refinish them with a white antique look. I was wondering if you could tell me if that is a HUGE project to undertake. And the time it may take to do it. Also, what websites or the like would you recommend for instructions in order for us to do this project ourselves? ~K.


Thank you, K., for your kind words about our cabinet project! I may not be the one to ask about how long a project like this can take because as my readers would tell you, it seems to take me a looong time to complete a project. We added beadboard and trimwork to our cabinets, along with undercabinet lighting - and that added time. Plus, I painted the cabinets inside and out (white on the inside, red on the outside) after using a couple of coats of primer. Red is a very difficult color to work with as it usually takes many coats...I think it took four coats for my cabinets. Oh, and the basecoat was an off white - I wanted to be able to sand the edges so that the white undercoat peeked through. I guess all in all, I had about 7 coats or so of primer, basecoat, and actual paint color. I also lined my shelves with wallpaper and added several coats of polyeurothane to protect the paper (still holding up great!). So there may be lots of things that I did that you won't have to do, and white as your planning on using wouldn't take as many coats...it shouldn't take you nearly as long as it took me. But it did take me about 5 months to complete the project. It doesn't usually take folks that long, but we're talking about me here, hehe. I have three kidlets and a crazy household, so I worked on it when I could.

I'm sure that there are many resources on the web for how to makeover kitchen cabinets, but if you'd like to know exactly the steps I used, please see my FAQ page under the Kitchen category. If you have any other questions, please let me know!




Hi Kim

A quick question about your cabinets (that I love, by the way). Did you find that the red color darkened the room? ~C.

Actually, no, not at all. I don't know if you've seen the most recent kitchen photos (since we painted the walls a warm white called "Malted Milk"), but the lighter wall color in combination with the white semi-gloss wood ceilings and trim, plus the light we have coming in, keeps everything light and airy. Also, in the future we will be adding white beadboard to the walls 3/4 of the way up. So everything is is basically shades of white, and the red cabinets are the main focus.

I hope this helps answer your question. Red may not work in everyones kitchen or with any wall color, but I've loved it on my cabinets.


How do you clean the outside of your cabinets? ~L.

I use a warm damp cloth with just a bit of grease cutting dish soap to wipe down the cabinets. To add shine (not to mention a great scent!), I've had great success using Pledge orange oil. I spray it onto a cloth and then use the cloth to wipe down the cabinets. The orange oil may not work for every painted cabinet finish, however, so please use with caution and only after testing in a small hidden area. Also, if you are planning on painting your cabinets again any time soon, I wouldn't suggest using the orange oil.

Here's a great reader tip!

Hi,

I'm a fan of your blog (I found it through The Cottage Nest blog). I especially love how you covered up your popcorn ceilings- just gorgeous. Anyway, I thought you might be interested in a product I recently discovered. It's called Soy Gel (find it here ). It's a non-toxic paint stripper in a gel form. It is completely awesome and super safe. I can vouch for it. I recently bought some to strip an antique bamboo desk that someone painted a lurid green color. The gel was easy to apply and barely smelled at all. I actually did this process indoors- in our guest room! I didn't even have to sand or prep the desk at all. I just slapped the stuff on and left the room for a couple of hours. Then I scraped it off and wiped it with a damp cloth. It was like it was never painted at all.

I thought that since you are working on your house with kids around that you would be interested in a stripper that is safe. Let me know if you ever use it! ~C.

Thank you, C.! I have several pieces of furniture in the garage right now that need stripping and I've always dreaded the task due to the harsh chemicals I thought I needed to use- but I will definitely try using product instead!

and two related questions....

Hi,

I enjoy reading One Woman’s Cottage Life, and especially enjoy the pictures. I absolutely love the canvas above your mantle. I think it’s perfect. Did you paint the canvas, or could you suggest a store where I might find something similar? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks, and keep up the great work you’re doing.

~P.



How I wish I had such talent to create a beautiful piece of art such as the Garden of Hope painting! No, I didn't do the painting... I do share the same first name with the artist, however:) Her name is Kim Parker. Read on to find out more...


Hello,
Would you be able to tell me where you purchased your garden of hope picture? I have not been able to find one larger than a 22 by 22. I have been to several web-sites and even contacted Kim Parker. Her publisher contacted me to let me know about custom glicles, but they are about $700.00. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. ~T.



T., I bought my Garden of Hope digital print on canvas at my local Kirklands about three years ago. At the time, I didn't know who Kim Parker was and wasn't familiar with her work - I just knew when I saw the Garden of Hope art in the store that day that I was in love with the piece. It is about 4' by 4' and was on sale for around $120 I believe. I couldn't believe the deal that I got for such a large piece. And because it is digital on canvas, it really looks like an oil painting! I haven't seen any of Kim's work in Kirklands for the last couple of years, but keep checking in...who knows!

Hi. I was wondering if you painted your tongue and groove ceiling with a roller or did it all by hand with a brush?

My husband rollered the ceiling tonight and it made it look textured and I hate it...I didn’t think about the roller putting a (however slight someone may think) texture on it. ~T.

T., we hand brushed our ceiling planks using semi-gloss paint. I've noticed the slight texture that even foam rollers can leave and I wanted to avoid that. It *is* a lot of extra work, I know, and this wasn't my favorite project. We primed and painted one coat of paint on the planks before we installed them (so when the planks expanded and contracted, there wouldn't be any noticeable gaps), and then after installation, we added another two to three coats.

I just came across your blog while looking for ideas for the cabin we are in the process of building. We are spending our entire budget on the shell of the building, leaving it as a big empty 1100 sq ft room with the framing up for 3 bedrooms, kitchen, bath, dining room, living room…pretty standard. We’re going to be living with wood floors for quite awhile, I was interested in how you did the bedroom floor (specifically how it was finished, what type of paint etc.) ~J.

J., in my daughters room, we just painted the floor (using a roller) with oil-based primer and then used an oil-based gloss white porch paint. It is very durable. You can caulk any seams first (which we didn't do) and you're left with a very pretty floor...yes, even subflooring can be pretty! This is a great solution for those who are tired of their old carpet but aren't quite ready to put down hardwood (like us!). Though this is a temporary solution for us while we work on all the rooms in our house, we went ahead and added a diamond pattern with decoupaged accents to our daughters' bedroom floor. We used regular cheap white latex paint on the rest of the house and it doesn't hold up nearly as well as the oil-based porch paint, though it doesn't do too bad of a job, either. But with three kids and pets, there was no way that we could live through the long drying time that oil-based paints require for the rest of our house. With latex, I could paint the floors while everyone was sleeping and it would be dry by morning time. It was a trade-off, but then again, I wasn't too concerned since eventually we will put down our hardwood and we don't really need a long lasting painted finish.



I hope this has answered a few of your questions and I always appreciate hearing from you!