My New White Kitchen

 

This was a bit more of an experience than I'd hoped.  I love my new white kitchen. I love it a million times more than when it was dark--- I pretty much love everything in my home lighter brighter and whiter right now.  BUT I did learn a few lessons that I thought I'd share.  Please don't mistake this explanation for me being negative or ungrateful!  But I've alluded to my kitchen dilemma and figured I should share.  Clearly I would have wanted to know.

I chose White Dove by Benjamin Moore... My painter had it matched somewhere.  He brought in a cabinet door after he sprayed it to get my ok and it looked lovely.  However, if I'm being honest, I wasn't exactly looking that hard. I trusted my research and it looked great.. I wasn't expecting anything else.  But after he took my cabinets and painted, then put them back on.  My heart sank.  It didn't look like that nice thick soft white kitchen.  It looked almost just primed.  Kinda...... blue.

It took me over a week to get up the nerve to call him back.  I figured it was my fault and I'd chosen the wrong color--- and I was just sick about it.  But then I went and picked up a can of white dove myself, painted a board and compared.  It was So so so so different.  The white I chose had some yellow in it--- in fact, if anything, MORE yellow than I thought I'd want.  It looked more yellow than my swiss coffee mantle.  The white on my cabinets looked blue.  It was a totally different color!

Luckily when I called him, he assured me he'd do what it took to make me happy (!!) --- he came back, agreed that it looked like there weren't enough coats.  That must be the problem .  I really considered changing the color completely, but felt like I was pushing, as it was.  And he seemed confident that all it needed was a few more coats.  That it was the hint of dark wood coming through that dulled the white to a blueish grayish shade.

So now it's done.  And it is an improvement from the first time, and I LOVE it.  But I knew right away that it wasn't perfect.   I still saw the hint of blue.  But this is what he ended up explaining to me when he brought them back.  Had I known this I WOULD have chosen a different color.

He explained that they have to dilute the paint with lacquer to spray it on the cabinets.  Depending on the size of the spray gun, they dilute it more or less, so it comes out nice and smooth and doesn't clog the gun. That completely changes the color.  He said it would never match the color painted on by hand.  He didn't feel like he needed to explain this to me before because he sprayed the sample before hand, but he accidentally used a different gun to spray my sample so I got one version on the sample and a more diluted version in my kitchen.  He was the nicest guy--- totally happy to do the WHOLE job again for free to make me happy.  And I would actually use him again--- now that I know this.

My sister had told me that she chose swiss coffee for her cabinets and feels like they just grabbed a can of pure white because it looks too stark.  Now it all makes sense? Is this what happens to everyone who paints their cabinets?

WHY wouldn't they just explain it all before, so you'd choose the color accordingly.  A more saturated warmer white?  OR why wouldn't they have a formula where they buy your color at a higher opacity to compensate for the diluting process????  Why wouldn't they tell you that while you spent hours researching and sampling to choose your white, you'll just be ending up with watered down elmers-glue white?  I just don't get it. But in case you're in the market for having your cabinets painted... I would ask your painter if this will be an issue... and how you can be sure to get your color.

Hopefully you saw the photos and thought... what is she complaining about? And don't see the blue and just think I'm obnoxious.  Or maybe you're impossible to please and see every flaw like me. :)

So, do you remember the before? Of course this is all I could come up with.  The one I snapped with my phone after they took  the cabinets off.  I realize it's not a fair comparison since it's under construction, and there's junk everywhere... but you get the idea.