Cheers For Champagne Pink

Paint gun happiness continues. I spy a rockin’ theme for the upcoming fall header image.

The real reason I bought another honkin’ gallon of primer (upping my count of gallons of primer to 4, which even to me seems like painters overkill) was that I had planned to upgrade some IKEA cabinets and shelves with, no shocker here, a fresh coat of paint. Most every tutorial I read that pertained to painting IKEA furniture (whether it be laminate or melamine surfaced), recommended that I start with dose of high-quality, and high-adhesion primer.

I now re-introduce you to a high-classy Zinsser.

It’s the primer that I used when I was first painting the pegboard, and at $32, it’s also the most expensive primer I’ve ever bought. I hoped it would be well worth it.

Just to share, before I splurged, I did experiment with two other primers that I had on hand, testing both brands on a sanded and un-sanded surface to see how well it would adhere. How’d it work? Scratched at the gentlest touch, both when sanded and not.

Onward with putting my new, expensive primer through the ringer.

With the shelf outside (balanced on cardboard to protect the grass and secured with two well-positioned 2x4s to prevent tippage) I sprayed the whole thing down with the 100% acrylic latex primer in a quick half-hour. It only took one coat, which surprised me, and left me with a great painting surface.

As for the paint? By recommendation from a commenter (thanks Gin!) I decided to check out the Ultra Premium high-gloss enamel by Valspar at Lowe’s. And at just about $15 for a quart, it would be just enough paint at a reasonable price.

Side note: I looked high and low for a quart of CabinetCoat, but the local paint stores only sold it by the gallon at $55 a pop, and I knew a gallon was way more than I needed for the single cabinet… and god forbid I decide to do the other cabinets that are in the guest room a different color. Also, contrary to their website, no Home Depot stores in the area actually carried the product. A second option that crossed my path was the cabinetry paint by Ace Hardware’s brand, but hadn’t made my way down to explore the nearest Ace to check it out for myself. You might want to explore it if you’re in the market because it did have lots of good reviews.

The plan all along was to paint the cabinet a color complementing the house palette but also serving as a pop of color in the otherwise white-walled office. Pulling inspiration from the hues in the Anthropologie knobs, I landed on a shade of soft pink, specifically Champagne Pink, and began applying it whilst I contemplated the last time I had a piece of baby pink furniture. Verdict? I was probably 2 years old. I’m embracing it again. Or reverting.

But according to fashion magazines (you know, the ones that might scoff at me painting so casually in a free 5K road race shirt and paint-slathered jeans with natural holes in the knees), pink is flattering on everyone.

I extend this to mean everything. And this may officially have made our office from unisex to uber-chick-tastic, but… well, what can I say. Pete would look good in pink too, but that’s another project all together.

I managed two coats of paint with the single quart, and even have a little left over if I ever need to do touch-ups. We carried the shelf back into the office, re-knobbed, and filled with assorted accessories for the time being. Just so I wasn’t taking a photo of a totally empty shelf, since I’m still heavily in the office organization process.

I’ve also been working on another somethin’ somethin’ in the office – painting the radiator. I’ve run through that DIY tutorial once before (you can read about it here if you’d like) but the process was very similar and easy with Rust-Oleam oil-based Aluminum paint. It’s the kind of easy upgrade you can do too if you have the patience for multiple coats of paint and access to plentiful ventilation. Anyways, what was once chipping ivory, is now officially sleek and silvery, which happily matches the legs of the desk chair that I recently refinished.

And, back to the shelves.

So fresh and pinky-pink.

Pretty with the blue ceiling, and although it’s not shown because it’s on the opposite side of the room, it’s really nice against the bold pegboard.

What do you think? Too femme? Wouldn’t Pete look good in a soft pink? And how great do those faux-peonies look on display?