Pretty In Pink

Since buying our house 2 years ago tomorrow (!!!), we admittedly haven't done much to our dining room. We stripped the wallpaper in summer of 2010 as mentioned here and made/hung curtains here. We have several other projects going on in other rooms of the house and are trying to wrap those up before opening any new cans of worms. But...since I had a 4 day Easter weekend I decided to undertake a mini project. Behold, our dining room built-in.

I've been telling Stuart for months now that I really wanted to paint the inside a fun color. The previous owners stained the original wood a mahogany and it was just so dark. Something that holds china and crystal should be a little perkier, no?

Ultimately, this room is going to be the same Bone White that we painted our upstairs hallway (which is really a beige and will also be the color of our downstairs hallway once we get around to it) to tie some of the spaces of our house together. Our living room is blue and you can see the foyer/hallway as well as the dining room from the living room. So we are thinking that if those two areas are the same color it will tie spaces together with the living room as their connector. Are you with me?

That being said, we (I) wanted a fun color that would pop in the dining room once it is painted Bone White. So I looked to our existing curtains for some color inspiration. Basically the options for the cabinet based on the curtain colors were green, a goldenrod-y color, or pink. I didn't care for the goldenrod--not enough pop against the soon to be Bone White. And the room is currently green, so that would be no fun. So ding ding ding, pink was the winner!

We cleared out the cabinet and wiped 'er down. Don't you love that original beadboard detail?

Who knew all of this could fit in that tiny little cabinet? There are 3 more cabinets filled with china and crystal overflow--yikes!

We primed with an oil based primer. I'll be honest, oil based paint is no fun. It goes on very thick, is very smelly, and is VERY hard to remove from paint supplies and most importantly, your hands! But we went with the oil based vs. water based/latex paint to get better coverage and to prevent any of the wood stain from seeping thru. We didn't worry about painting it on too thick--just enough to cover the surface.

And ta-dah! Here she is in all her built-in perky glory. I'm don't much gravitate to pinks (or any warm colors, for that matter--I'm a cool and neutral color kind of gal), but I'm loving this unexpected pop of color.

I really like this view below with the doors closed. When the doors are open, the pink is kind of in yo' face pink, but when the doors are shut (which is how they are 99.6% of the time), the pink is a lot more subtle, yet still a fun, unexpected pop of color.

And here she is with all her goodies back inside.

Mini project complete for only $13 (the cost of the paint). Once we paint the dining room walls, we will finish out the exterior of the built-in with high gloss white to match the molding/trim/doors throughout the rest of the house. But for now, this little lady is pretty in pink and that's enough!

And PS, if the red bowl on top of the now pink cabinet bothers you like it did me, you can rest assured it has been relocated since these pictures were taken!