No, diamonds are not a girl’s best friend (a.k.a. You really CAN paint anything!)

If someone told me I could only have one thing available to make my house a home, it would be paint.

Because paint, my friends, is truly your best friend when you want to create the home of your dreams

without having the financial resources to buy new things or (gasp!) hire a designer or contractor.

I can safely say I have painted just about everything (over and over again) in my ever-changing giant art

project I call home.

Yeah, yeah, wall color is obvious. Same with kitchen and bathroom vanity cabinets. I change that all the time. But then, I want to change everything else to go along with it.

If you’re a mom, you’re probably familiar with Laura Numeroff’s adorable series of children’s

books beginning with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. In my house, I am Mouse. Whenever I start a new

project, my husband and daughter roll their eyes and say, “If you give a mouse a cookie…” because they

know that project will lead me down a rabbit hole of rearranging, repainting, and redoing everything

else.

A bit of backstory, and why I’m the Mouse of this house: When we moved into our very small fixer-

upper (It was REALLY a fixer-upper. When we moved in, most of the walls were shades of purple and

hot pink; WTHeck?!), literally everything needed to be updated, and it was going to be a long process.

That’s why you can always, ALWAYS start with paint.

Yes, you can paint appliances!

Back in the early 2000s, I was totally into red accents in my kitchen – toaster oven, can opener,

microwave, Kitchen Aid mixer. Now, I like very vintage muted and neutral tones, but there’s no way I

could buy all new stuff. Especially a new mixer -- those things are ex-pen-sive!! (Mine was a gift long

ago).

I’ve used anything from heat-resistant automobile touch-up paint, to enamels and everything in

between, but I usually turn to Rustoleum for metal, and that’s what I used to paint my Kitchen Aid, can

opener, and other small appliances since.

I started with black a couple of years ago until I entered my aforementioned warm-toned, copper-

accented old farmhouse phase, so I used a hammered copper paint by Rustoleum to recently (re)paint

my Kitchen Aid mixer. And I love it!

Then there’s the refrigerator that came with our fixer-upper house – nice and works fine, but over time,

the water and ice dispenser has dripped down and caused ugly, bubbly, rusty patches underneath.

I sanded just that small area down to the bare metal and used an appliance epoxy. If you get up close,

you can tell it’s repainted, but it’s a darn sight better looking than a giant bubbly rust spot on the main

appliance in your kitchen.

Yes, you can paint upholstered furniture!

You know how it is when you have kids and pets. And husbands. Every soft surface in the house gets

stained, torn… downright ugly after a while.

I had painted just about everything else I didn’t like at one time or another, so I decided to paint my

mismatched - and disgustingly stained - home office chairs.

I’ve really started liking leather furniture - you know, like a classic academia kind of vibe - but ain’t no

way I’m ever getting the real thing.

So off to the home improvement store where I found several colors that looked just like leather. I chose

one that was a cognac color and set to work. Here and there where there would be normal wear and

tear (wow, that’s a tongue-twister), I rubbed in some dark brown (even a little black) paint to the

crevices, arms, etc. and blended it with more of the cognac color.

I was really happy with the color change (and cleanliness) of the newly-painted “aged leather” chairs,

but they were a bit dull. They looked painted.

So I turned to an old trick I’ve used for decades to antique or tone down a paint color – wood stain.

Yep, I wasn’t turning back now, so I painted on a golden oak stain over the paint. On upholstered

furniture.

It added that little bit of shine I was looking for in trying to recreate leather, and it toned the color down

just a bit to make it look like it had always been that way.

I loved this project so much, I’ve painted a bunch of other furniture, including our used-to-be-blue-but-

I’m-not-into-blue-anymore sofa and loveseat. I didn’t bother telling my hubby of my plans ahead of

time. I knew I’d love it. And, hey, paint can always be repainted if it all goes downhill.

From Small Projects to Jumping Off a Cliff

When we moved in, the worst of the rooms, and the one I’m in the most, was our kitchen.

It had some gawd-awful 80s white ceramic tile with filthy grout and accent tiles with little fruit bowls

and flowers scattered throughout and builders’-grade oak cabinets with no hardware. Also a rusty,

filthy oven vent cover (more on that another time).

Initially, I used some white ceramic paint to cover up the fruit and flower tiles. That was okay to start

with because there were other more pressing projects, like getting rid of hot-pink walls.

After about five years of desperately trying to clean the grout, re-grouting the tiles, begging my husband

for new countertops, and covering them with numerous large cutting boards, I couldn’t stand it

anymore.

The white was outdated and jarring with my desperate desire for a warm and cozy kitchen, so I decided

to paint the countertops. I’m usually pretty fearless about painting stuff. After all, you can always paint

over it again if it doesn’t turn out. But this time, I have to admit, I felt like I was setting myself up for

failure. And I knew my hubby was skeptical - he usually is with my hare-brained ideas.

Instead of using one of the expensive, complicated and toxic-smelling countertop refinishing kits,

especially since I didn’t like any of the finishes I was seeing available, I used a product I had tried on

many pieces of furniture - Retique.

I’m obsessed with Retique because, well, I love changing the look of things all the time, I love the look of

wood tones to warm up a room, and it’s easy and doesn’t involve a messy, exhausting, toxic process like

stripping wood (which I had done numerous times until I found this product!!).

My one and only thought had always been to have butcher block countertops. Alas, that was not in the

budget, so I decided to try to make them look like wood. I used a light wood Retique and covered with a couple of

coats of an oak stain with polyurethane in it.

I couldn’t be happier with the results (unless, of course, I could get real butcher block). The result is

kind of wood-meets-terracotta tile. It completely changed the whole look of my kitchen, and it’s now

much closer to what I always envisioned.

Then my husband bought me some copper pots, pans, and mixing bowls last Christmas, which were just

the icing on the cake of making my kitchen look like a farm kitchen of the past.

[Full disclosure: It’s held up pretty darn well for over two years but does sometimes chip. I just keep a

bit of Retique and the stain I used on hand for any touch-ups. And, no, I’m not receiving anything from Retique or Rustoleum for mentioning them in this post.]

So, the bottom line is, PAINT is a girl’s best friend. And I haven’t found anything yet I couldn’t make over

with a can or two.

Be fearless with your creativity. There’s always a bit of risk to reward.