When Mitch and I moved to St. Louis, we bought a 110-year-old house in Tower Grove Heights, a historic area in St. Louis City just south of Tower Grove Park -- almost 300 acres of running trails, ponds, green space, pavilions and Busch-league kickball.
The house had been completely (and beautifully) renovated by a local company that specializes in restoring historic homes in the area. It had been gutted to the studs, with all-new plumbing, electric, HVAC, and a new roof. By the time they were finished with Humphrey House (as we call it), he was absolutely turn-key and SO handsome, but also totally inoffensive. The house was smartly renovated by a firm, not an individual, and so the details were designed to be as palatable as possible. It was vanilla, is what I am saying, and I am a person who enjoys sprinkles.
So I set out to funk it up. Some of it came naturally as our art and furnishings moved in. The clean white countertops benefited, I think, from the addition of my hippo-head utensil storage. But it needed more. Taking inspiration from this kitchen I saw on Pinterest, I decided to paint the 10-foot island that separates our eat-in kitchen and main living area in a contrasting shade of teal.
Kitchen inspo.
Actual kitchen.
This particular project hovers over a fine line between DAY-I-Y and Daily Do-Over for the simple fact that my priming didn't go quite as planned, but I'm choosing to prioritize success over failure and call this one a win and myself an expert (at pretending things are on purpose.)
Now, the island was originally painted the same high-gloss, factory-grade grey as the rest of the kitchen cabinetry. As such, it needed some boss primer to take any new paint. I was assured this would suffice:
And it did! Three coats around three walls of the island did just the trick, EXCEPT on two thin panels on either side that were extra super duper high-gloss (I assume for cleaning purposes). There, the three coats of primer and three coats of paint literally peeled off like last week's gel mani. Once I got over my initial disappointment, that removal process was actually immensely satisfying.
The entire process took several weeks due to the drying time between coats and the fact that it took nine total coats (three primer, three paint, three polyurethane) to get the thing covered. It's worth noting that the polyurethane is totally optional, particularly if you go for a high-gloss paint, but I wanted to make sure the island was easy to wipe clean as our natural state is ... messy.
If you do decide to include a top coat of polyurethane, it's important to get a water-based version in order to protect the true color of your paint choice. Oil-based polys tend to yellow as they age.
I used simple blue painter's tape to protect the mouldings and the quartz countertop, and then re-purposed a neglected old make-up brush to spot-fix where necessary. I free-handed it with no problem, so you definitely can.
Et voila! I think it looks pretty great. Let me know your thoughts! Be gentle!
