A Yellow Shelf & New Kitchen Paint

Last summer I bought 2 shelves from KSL (an online classifieds thing here in Utah... similar to Craigslist) with the intention to repaint them. 

It is now March. And I just finished one. Go me!

I fell in love with these shelves when I saw them online. They had a lot of character with the crown molding and planked wood in the back. And they were even REAL wood! Hooray! The set came with this one you see and a horizontal shelf that is upstairs in the office... still unfinished. One step at a time people. Part of me was hesitant to repaint over the beautiful wood grain, but there were some minor scratches (as you can see below) that I wanted to disguise. 

I used Kilz to prime the shelf. I love this stuff because you don't even need to sand! Now if that isn't music to my ears I don't know what is. I loathe sanding. I ended up applying almost 3 coats, however, because the primer just kept getting soaked up into the wood. But once it was sufficiently primed, I only needed to do 1 generous coat of color.

My original intention was to paint this guy a turquoise/robin's egg blue color, and then with advice from my Mom and Russ who both thought there would be way too much of that color in the kitchen/living area especially due to my wallpaper, I went with my next favorite color -- yellow! The color is "Bees Wax" by Sherwin Williams. It's a really pretty buttery yellow. I had originally bought a color called "June Day" that was a punchier yellow (aka WAY TOO BRIGHT), and because Sherwin Williams is the best paint store ever, they gave me a new gallon with the "Bees Wax" color that turned out to be perfect.

Oh yeah, and I also painted the kitchen last Friday evening (nothing like a hot date, right?). I wanted the subway tile back-splash and the molding to stand out a little more, but still wanted to keep the kitchen light and bright. The living room is painted "Cobblestone" by Martha Stewart, which is the perfect "greige." I  wanted the kitchen to be in the same color family as the living room since they are practically one room. One thing I need to work on is my paint-picking skills. I'm terrible at picking paint. But after almost picking another color, I ended up going with "Crushed Ice" by Sherwin Williams (at 75% strength). I couldn't be more happy with my choice! {queue sigh of relief}

I think this little corner is one of my new favorite areas in my house. I am slowly accumulating fun serving dishes, bowls (such as the West Elm modernist bowls I purchased a while ago), and cake platters to display. They just make me happy. Not to mention that letterpress calendar by Snow & Graham. It really is the little things in life, right?

Finally, here is a view of the corner from the fridge area of my kitchen. And yes, I still have my Valentine's hearts up in the window. Don't judge.

So how about you? Have you worked on any refinishing projects? They are always pretty time consuming, but oh-so-worth it!