Home Improvement stories and advice

[8m57w6]

Your house sounds lovely!!!! I wish we could put sparkly bits into our paint, but my dad would never go for it. Heck, he doesn't even really go for any painting at all. We did my room and my brother's room after we moved in, just painted, but other than that we haven't done anything except buy a bunch of new furniture.

However, we are about to redo the kitchen. Right now it really is, well, it's just ugly. We have formica counter tops, and they have a bunch of little nicks and stains all over them, plus they are loose and peeling off in several places. The color is not that great, either. The cabinets are a very dark wood, and while it does match the trim and such in the rest of the house, we just don't like it. The lamps that are currently in there are being replaced as well. The one that is above the table in the eating area is very large and uses 6 or 7 bulbs, and where it is hanging, if we want the table centered under it, we are very squashed against the sun room doors. The other light is attatched to the ceiling fan, and my dad thinks the whole unit is cery cumbersome, plus the light part has electrical problems, and we are constanly having to replace the bulbs. The backsplash right now, for some reason, does not meet the bottom of the cabinets. I'm not sure if that is common, but it looks weird. The tiles for it are beige, with every so often one with a leaf pattern. Also, we got a new stove/microwave unit about a year ago, and when it was installed, there was a huge gap, because the old one had some sort of metal sheet connecting the two. So my mom painted in there with some green paint from my room, and while it's a nice color (I think so anyway...) it really doesn't work in there.

When we redo it, we are getting probably blck or dark green/blue counters, likely made of a manufactured stone. My dad is very particular about every thing, and likes the look of granite, but not the porosity, and doesn't want something we have to treat all the time. So manufactured it is. The new cabinets are going to be a medium goldish color; I believe the official color is Autumn. I'm not sure what style they eventually agreed on, though. The backsplash is probably going to be something custom, a neat geometric-ish stone pattern, which I think will look really cool. And that's about as far as we've gotten!

[Quickquill]

Originally Posted by mac_attack

I saw this Extreme Home Makeover where Ty found these washable wall paints for the little girl's room because she wanted to be an artist. She could just paint all over her bedroom walls and it would wash off with soap and water when she wanted it off. Does anyone know what that stuff is called or where I can find it?? I'm going to do a mural on my bedroom wall, but I change my mind constantly so something like that, even tho its supposed to be for kids, would work really great!

I would imagine that any Acrylic wall paint could be used that way. I agree that a gloss finish might be easier to clean, but it's not really necessary. But if you're going to paint "temporary" art on it, make sure you're using a water soluble paint for your temporary art.(tempera paint, chalk, etc.) Acrylic is soluble in alcohol, although impervious to water after it's dry. Your other option is to use an oil based paint. Then even acrylic paint can be removed easily since it won't normally adhere very well to oil paint.