French Country enhancements

 Some things I've gotten done over the last few days and/or am in the process of. 

The cove molding I was adding to the kitchen cabinets looked a bit too small....

I ordered and am now painting 1/2" scale crown for this. More pictures as they get done. 

I also was missing a knob for the stove, so ordered a set from Kathleen's Miniatures. They are so cute! I'm waiting on some grates before I glue them on but here's a picture with one placed, and the set.

The stair landing railing had newel posts that were both big and extended into the stairway too much, and I got some narrower ones. Need to get them cut, stained and glued but here's the effect. 

The second floor crown molding is just not grand enough, especially since I added the doorcases. I found a Unique Miniatures trim - came today so I painted and glued it in the master bedroom. I am very pleased with the results and will do the same for the other 2 rooms on the second floor.

French Country Kitchen cabinets finishing touches

 Now that the exterior finish is all done, I've been focusing on the countertop. I had planned on gluing all the pieces together and then finishing it, as I have done in other houses. This makes me commit to the L shaped layout. 

While it was drying I started testing different finishes. I have used Fleckstone spray in both my B&B and Thornhill and have been pleased. I pulled them out, and bought some Krylon that is finer than the Fleckstone. I ended up buying 3 colors...yeah, undecided. I also had a texture paint, and did samples of that too.

The newer Krylon fine texture seemed much better suited to the scale and I used Pebble for this. 

I did like it...but was drawn to the Charcoal color and so bit the bullet and re-sprayed with several coats. Once dry, I coated it with matte Mod Podge. Seemed too flat...added a spray of a bit of gloss sealer. That is what you see below. 

I now needed a better faucet, and ordered it...and promptly glued it on the moment it arrived. I love it! I've ordered some new stove knobs, as I'm now missing one. Will have to see how easily I can get the old ones off without damaging the surface of the silver top.

I've got the cabinets and counters glued together and am retouching paint, especially on the back side of the island cabinet that had less attention in my cabinet painting escapades.

I'm also considering a crown for the top edge of the upper cabinets. I found a tiny cove molding I have and may use that. It's small enough that it fits flush with the top of the cabinets and the cabinet doors will still open. Yes, that one photo shows the cabinets upside down - they were being glued.

French Country Kitchen is illuminated!

 Couldn't wait to connect the chandeliers in the kitchen!

French Country kitchen cabinets finally done

 After viewing the newly yellow tinted milk paint on the cabinets, in the daylight today, I was satisfied. Well almost. I decided that a very light antiquing color wash was in order. I used the Folk Art Chalk Paint antiquing wax, watered down. 

This allowed me to control the amount of wash I wanted to add. Painting it on and then wiping off with a cloth. Voila! I even did the oven door and the refrigerator....all is good now!

Here's the final effect, and I love it! I'm now moving on to installing the chandeliers, drilling holes, gluing on ceiling rose, gluing on chandeliers. Having the wing detached has made this process much easier than doing all with it secured, and my head deep inside the room upside down!

French Country Kitchen cabinets coming together

The good news is that I'm very happy with my Milk Paint Linen choice for the kitchen cabinets. I love the finish on them, way nicer than the chalk paint finish.

I had 2 coats on them, and was considering if I want to do any sort of wash or slight yellow tint to them. I ended up mixing in a tiny bit of yellow into a cup of the Linen and have now painted one coat on them. 

I also decided that the refrigerator and oven door need it, the white is just too stark. 

The range hood has been on my mind also, what to paint it. I got some copper paint and it now has 3 coats. All of this has really warmed up the kitchen.

I captured a shot with the cabinets 'hanging' to see what having one extending over the L counter would look like. I rather like it! 

These photos are really all without that 3rd coat that has a slight yellow tint, so more tomorrow when they are dry and its daylight.

Window boxes

 The Thornhill needs window boxes on the upper windows  (see photo below also) and I found 2 packages of unfinished ones in my stash recently. I could do white ones, but thought having terra cotta ones would look nice. I also stumbled upon another texture paint at the store the other day. 

I painted using this Suede texture paint, and located some terra cotta paint (turns out its "Lawbre Brown", one of the colors I used in my color wash of the exterior of my French Country house). The idea was to play with the suede texture paint...and then color over it with the terra cotta.

Here's the preliminary results:

French Country upper level doorcases

 The grandeur that the doorcases added to the first floor have been rattling around in my brain for a year or so and I have now done a shorter version of them on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Sue Cook's work is so wonderful and I'm very pleased with the results.

French Country kitchen cabinets painting part deux

 So....I'm not happy with the finish on the chalk painted test cabinets. I went back to my work using milk paint and think that finish will much better suit the scale and delicacy of these M&R cabinets. 

I had done some spray painting this fall on a cheap dresser, and decided to apply some milk paint I had from some years ago. I was amazed at how the finish looked just after one coat...had a smooth feel. I am using a different color than I will for cabinets but here's the effect.

Here's a secretary I did years ago with milk paint, and the color is linen. It is very close to my pot board and I did my first coat of it on my test cabinets today. (the double cabinet was stained first and does have a rougher finish than the drawer cabinet - lesson learned - I won't stain my M&R cabinets first, just go right to paint.)

This shows the comparison between the more yellow chalk paint on the island with the more off white linen color of the milk paint.