Committing to Reverse Trim in the Kitchen

For awhile, I’ve had the maybe-crazy idea of taking the green cabinet color on the bottom of my kitchen cabinets and using it on the trim in the kitchen and sunroom. I’ve been reluctant to take action because it feels like such a bold choice, and once I’ve not made in the past.

But yesterday, I finally went for it.

And I’m so glad that I did!

Full disclosure: There was about a 60-minute window where I honestly thought I had made a mistake. That always happens to me on that first coat because it looks so awful. Had it turned out that the color was a mistake, it wouldn’t have taken much to fix it. But I would’ve been irritated.

While I’m really excited about painting the kitchen, just this simple window reminds me of the amount of prep work that goes into preparing a paint job in that particular space.

In most kitchens, even with great vent hoods, grease will naturally build up. However, in our kitchen, with only our 1950s exhaust fan, the grease buildup is probably a bit higher. I used Krud Kutter prior to painting, which always does such a fabulous job of creating a grease-free painting surface. (Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

The rest of the prep involved scraping old paint off the window from the last paint job (completed prior to our purchase) and then taping off the edges.

Painter’s tape is both a blessing and a curse. It can really help cut down shaky hand errors, but there is a magic window of time that one must remove the tape so as not to destroy the paint job. And there’s some extra steps to take to try not to take off the paint in the process.

And despite knowing this fact, I still left the tape on just a bit too long when I took a garden break and had to come back and touch up a few areas.

One of decisions I had to make before painting was what to do with window cranks. The prior painter slathered white paint all over it, which always bothered me but not enough to fix outside of an entirely new paint job. There was no removing the paint, so I just painted the entire thing to match the trim. And it honestly looks just fine. Would I have done that if it were someone else’s design job? Probably not. I probably would’ve taken the time to remove the paint properly. But we’re the only ones who have to live with this choice, and it really wasn’t worth the time and effort to do anything else.

Now that I’ve had the chance to see what this color looks like apart from the kitchen cabinets, I’m ready to commit to using it around the entire room. The next decision I have to make is what to do about the already-painted door hinges as well as how to approach the curved swinging door that leads into the library.

I hope you’ll continue to follow along over on our social media channels as this project progresses!