Welcome to My New Purple Kitchen

So I have a feeling that when I mention that I painted my kitchen purple, most people usually think PURPLE. You know...Royal purple...Grape juice purple...Minnesota Vikings purple...Dimetapp purple...Crown Royal purple...All things-that-I-don't-like purple. It's easy to see why so many people have negative connotations toward the hue. I mean, just look at that list. Yuck, right? But the purple I chose is more of a fuchsia-y tone, and I couldn't be more pleased.

I had been set on re-painting for a little while now, but always leaned in the direction of slate blue. The first time around didn't turn out as dark and chalky as I had hoped, and I kept envisioning this beautiful slate blue wall to frame the view into our long, snowy Wisconsin winters. I thought the contrast between the slate and the snow would be pretty much perfect.
But then one evening after work I was sitting at the kitchen counter, dragging about being in such an anti-cooking funk that had started sometime around the melting of the snow. I remember staring at the walls for a while and thinking that it was to be blamed on my summer schedule. I don't get home from work until 7 or 9 in the summer, and by that time concocting a full meal sounds less than appealing. The problem with this idea was that my summer schedule had gone through the yearly rotation and I had recently transitioned to my winter job. The latest I'd get home from work would now be 4:30 or 5. 

So I decided that I'd get some new wooden spoons and a couple other things I'd been wanting, paint the room slate, and then I'd be good to go. Of course, I would have to start planning meals again but that was fine. And then it occurred to me. Changing from "steely blue" to "slate blue" was the furthest from what I actually needed...I needed a color that was fun and bold. 

While I do appreciate and even envy color in other people's homes, it's something I've never had an easy time with in my own. Our house is in a quiet town. It's rare to see more than 20 cars drive by in the day. Whenever I come home from Madison, it's like I dip into this mental valley of somber. So after driving through the golden flats surrounded by beautiful rolling hills, and pulling into my driveway to see the pale blue facade of my home, the last thing that would feel right would be to walk into a house filled with oranges, yellows and reds. 


I knew that purple would be zingy enough to wake me up and would hopefully give me the energy I was seeking. It's still on the cool side and it matched the tone of my living room quite nicely. Rather than spending a lot of money on paint, as I naively did in the past, I read some terrible reviews on the paint I had found, cringed a little, and decided that I was going to try it anyway. Something I never, EVER do if I read bad reviews. But something told me I'd be okay. So off I went to get a gallon of Behr Forest Berry. It's a paint and primer in one. I know, something you should never use, right? Well, whatever. It worked just fine for me.
 




































And I love it. I think I danced around Joe and sang how much I loved it all week long. It's fun and refreshing and so much more lively. It fits my recent mental status perfectly. And the funny thing is, I hadn't realized how depressing the blue was until after I painted. It's made a huge difference in my mood when I'm in there and has even prompted me to be a little bit more okay with color throughout the rest of the house. The color makes me feel like I can add more warmth in the living room...I've been thinking about a new rug so I can move the flokati into a different room.  But before I get off topic, especially since I've already typed your eyes out, here is what it looked like before:





































So so much better, right? Yeah. I really love it. A ton. Although, I must say, the blue was a huge improvement from what it looked like when we moved in. Ugh, that was just terrible. Here's a quick photo for kicks:

So yes. There is still a lot I want to do to the kitchen, but for now I will try to be happy with what it is rather than what it is yet not.