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Sorry, no big reveal photos of the kitchen yet, we haven't even started painting it!  Here's what we accomplished since my last post:

Sanding- Check. The walls are as smooth as a baby's bottom.

Cleaning- I did my best. Even with tarps, after blasting the rough walls with our electric sander there was a fine film of dust over everything in our entire downstairs.  I've mopped, dusted, and vacuumed and it still looks like someone dumped flour all over my house.

Priming- Done. The walls are blindingly white and ready to soak up their new paint color this weekend.  Which brings me to...

Choosing a paint color- Finally settled.  This was ridiculously difficult.  I think I looked at too many gorgeous designer kitchens for inspiration with shiny new appliances and crisp white cabinets, against which any color (lime! aqua! pale green!) looked fresh and modern and I somehow thought if I picked those same colors, my kitchen would also feel modern.  We bought seven different Valspar samples from Lowe's.  Nothing looked good under those old, dark cabinets.  Because of the layout of our house and the way the stairs  and several other rooms lead into the kitchen, we also felt extra pressure to pick the right color since it would in a way determine the palette for the rest of the rooms we want to paint.  Think of any color family and I guarantee at one point this weekend we debated using it.

Once I realized my vision of "light and airy" was impossible until I painted my cabinets or got new ones, we went an entirely different direction- "warm and cozy."  When we started painting the sample color I was honestly surprised at first that I didn't hate it next to the brown.  Then we stared at it for a day, and by the end of the weekend we were both relieved and excited that we had found a color we liked.

Even though we painted a section of the wall with the sample, I still can't quite picture what the room will look like finished.  I guess you all know how I'll be spending my three day weekend!  You'll have to check back next week to see what we chose and how it turned out!