Last week, I quickly walked through my plan for the kitchen, and one of my top priorities was that giant-sized brick fireplace. Remember what it looked like?

Yeahhh.

Painting this beast seemed like a totally do-able task. I planned on one day for cleaning and priming, and a day or so for actually painting–easy peasy weekend project.

Hahahahaha.

What this photo doesn’t show very well is that the mortar is recessed about 1/2″, which means in addition to painting the face of the brick and the mortar in between, I also had to paint the 1/2″ edge around each brick.

I started cleaning the brick and priming the day after we closed on the house, a Thursday. Here’s what it looked like by the end of Day One:

Progress!

Sort of.

The biggest mistake I’m making here is trying to prime every centimeter of brick, including all the recessed mortar, those pesky 1/2″ edges, and every ridge and dent in the brick face. Giant waste of time. On the up side, it already looks SO MUCH BETTER.

By the end of the weekend, I had stopped priming all the mortar, and the fireplace was looking way cleaner and fresher. But then I had to leave it for a week while I went to California for work. When I came back, I got right back to it.

The color we picked, after much deliberation, was Benjamin Moore’s Soot. It’s a pretty popular color, I guess–I’ve seen it on Door Sixteen, Manhattan Nest and Project Palermo–and after spending a lot of time with about ten different shades of black paint samples, this was the one I kept coming back to.

It was definitely a good choice. I could see that right away–

Notice how, as the painting progresses, the kitchen/living room/dining room become messier and messier, until…

Awwww yeahhhhh. Even surrounded by dishwasher, fridge and much miscellaneous junk, the fireplace looks damn good.

I apologize for the awful photo. Still, you have to admit that’s a great looking fireplace.

It used to be a wood-burning stove, but was replaced with a propane insert 10 years ago or so. Since we have access to all the fallen trees in our eight-or-so acres of woods, we’d like to convert it back to wood-burning as soon as possible. Especially in this climate, with our wet winters, wood is a great heat source because it really dries everything out. It might be the only thing that can take the chill out of the air in the Pacific Northwest in January. But for now, I’m awfully happy with this hearth.

Next up in the kitchen: installing new floors and painting the cabinets.

We decided on Benjamin Moore Simply White for the upper cabinets, and Soot (again) for the lower ones. The color was an easy choice–the type of paint, not so much. Plenty of experienced painters will argue that you absolutely must use oil-based paint on cabinets. Plenty of amateurs seem reasonably happy with latex-painted cabinets, although I think it’s fair to note that the finish is not nearly as nice.

After a long debate with my brother, who used to work for a homebuilder, and the guys at the paint store, and anyone who would listen, I settled on Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint, which is a hybrid. I know next to nothing about paint, so I’ll just say: so far, it seems very nice. I’m sure when my brother gets a look at what I’m doing here, he’ll have something to say. Hopefully positive, but I’m not holding my breath.

The photos that follow are actually the worst, but I’m going to share them with you anyway. You’re welcome.

Here’s where we’re at, after a primer coat and the first coat of Soot:

Unfortunately, the white of the upper cabinets is really hammering home just how bad the paint on the walls is. In person, it’s not quite as yellow as it looks in these (admittedly terrible) photos, but it’s not good. I can’t wait to get new paint on the walls. And the baseboards. And the pantry shelves. And on and on. Homeownership!

On the upside, I’m feeling super good about the two-tone cabinets. I’m a little nervous for what happens when we remove the masking paper and reveal those blaze orange countertops again, but I think it might just be amazing.

PS. Check out all those cleaning supplies the previous owners left us! If you like bleach, you’re going to love that box of stuff.

PPS. I can’t end this post with those crappy photos, so let me leave you with my inspiration for the two-tone cabinets paint scheme–

This gorgeous kitchen from House & Home, via LittleGreenNotebook, looks so classy. I love how the upper cabinets just totally recede into the ceiling/wall.

And then there’s those amazing British Standard cabinets, via Remodelista. The kitchen is somehow more rustic and antique-y than I’m going for, and yet it’s totally modern and I love it completely:

Dream on.