Ready for a change in your kitchen? I’m thinking about it.  But…really it’s the cabinets, countertops and layout I’d want to change…more than my current paint job.  Lol!   But maybe you’re ready to change the paint, too.  How about a Tuscan kitchen?

When you consider Tuscan painting for kitchens, a whole new world of creativity awaits.  For those who have decided to bring the charm of the old world into their kitchen, this is an exciting journey!

An easy way to incorporate Tuscan painting for kitchens into your home is to consider attractive faux finishes. Numerous techniques in this design approach can have your kitchen looking very Tuscan in no time.

For starters, one of the most important things to consider for Tuscan painting for kitchens is choosing a theme that embraces this design style. Color is quite influential when it comes to the theme of Tuscan painting for kitchens. Usually, those who like this kind of painting also favor warm, earthy tones.  Through faux finishes… a natural surrounding is achieved and homeowners can get the look of an old-world kitchen with tons of character.

When choosing a Tuscan style painting, you could recreate the scenes of a Tuscan landscape.  In Tuscany they actually do have them on the walls of some of the homes…but they’re generally “faded” from age.  To get that look you paint the mural more as a color wash or water color look and then “haze it” with some thinned down glaze that is the same color as your walls.  So it looks old and worn.

To accomplish the look of old Italy, you’ll want to choose paints that reflect dominant Tuscan colors. Deep gold or wheat, earth tones (browns, rusts, greens), as well as colors of the sea are perfectly acceptable.  Faux Tuscan painting for kitchens can also bring the appearance of antique plaster to your cooking arena.   Maybe create some faux plaster breaks.  Maybe some cracks.    The choices don’t stop there, either.

Selecting a crackling technique will give your kitchen the sort of character that comes with age and the look of peeling paint is sometimes desired.  I wouldn’t crackle the whole wall but random parts/pieces/spots.   And by “peeling paint” I mean some clever “trompe l’oeil” not actual peeling paint!    Gads!  That doesn’t sound healthy at all for the kitchen!  Lol!

The painting techniques you can learn are enhanced through the color and appearance of numerous Tuscan faux finish options. While some homeowners enjoy a glazed display of color, others will prefer a simple color wash.

Also along with the type of paint you select, you may consider adding a metallic finish to your kitchen faux finish painting.  It could add just that “ZOW” you want!

For an advanced Tuscan look, you might want to choose a project that adds an embossed faux finish to your kitchen walls.  Or maybe some venetian plaster, with some embossed faux AND color wash.    What?  Too much?    You’re only limited by your imagination. 

Image by 5500

A lot of people write in before they start to paint to ask this question.  “What wall do I paint?” Sometimes it is just as hard to choose which walls to paint and what to paint on them as it is to learn the techniques!

Recently we received this question – How to choose what to paint…

Tip: When asking THAT Painter Lady for help, pictures will always be a huge help for both of us.  We often do mock-ups and sketches from the photos.

So…here’s the question:

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Our reply is probably a little vague, but we try to give simple answers that don’t overwhelm people when they write in.  Tooooo much information can be “mind-boggling”.  Then if they want more detail…we can work on other options and details.  Baby steps! 

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Hi Ron & Regina,
Thanks for writing in.  Great question!  Without being there and seeing the light, the walls and the layout it’s hard to “see” your room and give good direction.  But our first thought/suggestion is… don’t over do the brick stuff.  Especially on the wall with the cabinets.

If there are too many things to look at in a room your eye bounces around unable to “settle” on anything.   It becomes over stimulating and it isn’t nice to look at…it’s junky and cluttered looking.  Blech! 

Faux finishes are different than bricks…  The more walls you do a faux finish on in the same room the better.  They’re soft and soothing and can tie a room together.  If all the walls are white and one wall is a bold accent color that can be nice, but if that one wall has a deep rich faux finish on it… the room looks unfinished.  So spread the faux love around when painting a room.

As for the cabinets … we bet they would look good with a green faux finish surrounding them!  Or if the wood is a deep cherry color…a goldenrod might be nice.  You can make it looked like aged plaster to get that Tuscan feel!  Do a test board at least 3 feet tall by 2 feet wide (foam core boards are great) and then stand them next to your cabinet for a day or two and see which one “feels” best to you.

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Some times it’s good just to do a simple faux around the room and then do a more involved look on a single wall.  We’ve done this often in bedrooms.  Soothing walls all around and then one wall to punch it up.  You just don’t want to leave it “hanging” out there by leaving your other walls “naked”!    Lol!

Do your faux finish over all the walls and then go back and create an accent wall by adding two more layers to it.  Give it depth. Or add a design…either hand painted or using stencils.

Depending on Ron & Regina’s room layout and how much of the wall is covered with the cabinets…well…all those  things need to be factored in.  And is it a long wall or a short wall that the cabinets are on?  All these things play in to what to do with the walls.

If it’s a long wall then we’d say paint the whole room a nice soft color wash, have some “break outs” of bricks but not on the wall with the cabinets.  Or at least VERY VERY limited on the cabinet wall.

If the cabinets are dead center of a long wall maybe create a topiary on each side.  But again…you don’t want to get to carried away and have entirely toooo much to look at on that wall.  Cabinets will be full of “stuff” so adding painted visuals can be overwhelming.

Remember…each room is different.  Each room has it’s own energy.  Don’t overwhelm your room by painting too many different things on the walls, then filling the walls with paintings, or cabinets with books, and photos, and statues and stuff.  Your eye won’t be able to rest and the room will feel oppressive.

OH! And this book…we’ve probably put it on here (TPL) once or twice already, but really… it’s a great book if you’re going to be doing faux finishes.

As you can see it’s called, “The Paint Effects Bible:  100 Recipes for Faux Finishes” and it is one of the best books to have on hand as a home owner or faux finisher.  Every time you want to change a room up, open this book up and get inspired.  There are all kinds of great ideas in this thing.

Most of the finishes are subtle and interesting.  It’s just a wonderful little encyclopedia that is an absolute must for any do-it-yourselfer who is wanting to create results that are definitely not your standard fair.

It has instructions on how to take your ordinary wall and create a textured look to it or a metallic look or wooden, even like snakeskin!   Yeah…SNAKESKIN!

Okay…now get out there and splash some paint around!  And share your projects!

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Before you start a painting project for your home, you might want to consider a wider-range of possibilities. Not just straight up “painting”…but other applications, too.  Think about adding a few faux painting styles to your home improvement vision. It’s a great way to add some simple pizzazz to your project.

To take advantage of this inexpensive little design adventure, you’ll need some effective instruction.  Oh…and another thing … make sure is that you don’t fall into some of the common pitfalls of faux painting.

When it comes to choosing the kind of faux painting you’d like for your home, you need to know what’s out there.  To add a translucent appearance to walls, color washing offers a dreamy effect to walls.  It’s subtle and soft.  Want something a little more eye-catching?  Consider using a combing method for your faux painting idea.  Lines, waves, as well as checkered patterns can be created.

Maybe you’d rather portray the look of the Old World? Want to bring aged perfection into your living environment?  Consider some of the crackle faux painting ideas out there that would really compliment your prized antiques.

Have an archway or entryway and want to make it sizzle with creativity?  Use faux painting  to create the illusion of stone or brick masonry.  You might even want to create a decorative mural to set the scene for visitors.  The limitations of a faux painting project are completely and totally up to you.  No need to hire a professional; YOU can easily create the spaces you want to live in!

How about a soft glow in a room created with just paint?  There are many different faux painting ideas to choose from.  And you might want to consider adding a metallic finish to a setting.  Ragging, colorwashing and combing techniques can be used to create this particular look.

Speaking of ragging…this faux painting idea produces an appealing fabric-like wall appearance.  But don’t do just ONE layer.  You have to go deeper than that.  Three at the least.  It’s still a good faux finish to use, but you don’t want to do that one layer or you’ll end up with a polka dot look.  GADS!   You can do monochromatic using varying shades of the same color OR you can do three separate colors.  And another great tip is to “haze” it at the end.  Either use a white or cream (with glaze & water mixed in to thin it out) to “frost” the surface or use a charcoal or chocolate (again with glaze & water to thin it out) and “smoke”  the surface.  Both will give your sponged faux finish a GREAT finish.

One of the best sponging jobs I ever saw was GOLD paint sponged on a butter yellow wall and the “frosted” with cream…then sponged again with the gold.  Just BEAUTIFUL!

If you love the great outdoors, why not bring the textured look of nature into your home?  Consider some of the faux painting ideas that incorporate sandy scenes.  Sponging has also helped to produce numerous faux painting ideas for years and years.  This is a great way to add depth and texture to a room.  Use greens and browns to simulate displays that make Mother Nature proud. The key to a good sponging job though is LAYERS and remembering to turn your hand this way and that.  Avoid the polka-dot look.

Before trying out any of your faux painting ideas, you should familiarize yourself with the 7 Pitfalls of Faux Finishing. Click Here for Faux Painting Ideas Help.

Remember a while back…maybe a month or so ago I posted an article about the unappreciated powder room?  How overlooked it often is even though it’s often one of the most used spaces in the house.  Well check THIS out!  Sue wrote in and shared her “new” powder room.  And I just HAD to share with you!! 

Hi Tawn –
After reading your article about the “unappreciated powder room” I just had to write in to share my recent project.

I’ve enclosed a picture of the “before” wall of the harvest gold tile.  The cabinet had a Formica counter with standard builder sink.  Boring boring boring!

So I started by ripping all the tile out.  Had to get rid of it.  Next I installed beadboard about 62 inches up from the floor.  Then I added a 1” x 3” flat piece of wood along the top of the beadboard  to cover the raw edges and then another piece of wood 1” x 2” horizontally on the top to provide a narrow shelf.

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I pulled out the old sink and replaced it with a brand new marble sink/countertop (wrong color to the buyer) that I bought at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore for just $35.00.  It’s a great place to get good deals AND support a good cause!

After —>

BUT…it was 1½ inches too wide so I sawed off 3/4 inch on each side of the drain so I wouldn’t have to make any plumbing changes and the drain would be centered.

The mirror was a thrift store picture frame that I painted white and then filled in one of the spaces with green, added some corner pieces behind it to accommodate the width of the 1” x 2” on top of the beadboard so the mirror would hang straight and to have a solid surface on which to glue shells and sea glass.

I painted the walls above the beadboard blue and sponged in some clouds.  Then I hung some craft store fish net (left over from a beach wedding reception I did for my son) in the ceiling corner and placed some shells inside.

For the corner shelves I bought a 24 inch wood circle from Home Depot and cut it into fourths. I glued rope on the curved edges and painted the whole thing white and screwed it into the 1” x 2” trim board I had put in along the top of the beadboard.

The cabinet door knobs were just plain wood knobs from the craft store. I wound and glued twine around them. There is a starfish decal behind each knob to tie it in to the shells on the mirror & in the fishing net.

The toilet paper holder I created with twine and shells. The 6 inch cylinder inside the paper roll is made from a wooden dowel and also covered with twine glued down and I screwed eye screws into each end.  Next I used fender washers under the eye screws to cover the holes I drilled.  Check the pictures to see the hooks I used to attach the cylinder—all purchased from Wal-Mart.

The towel holder was a decorative piece of beach theme stuff (supposed to be net floats) which was supposed to hang vertically which I purchased with a coupon at Hobby Lobby and hung horizontally with screw hooks.

After all that was finished I installed a new toilet and flooring.  It is my crown jewel of all of my projects in my home.

<– Mirror details & clouds

Corner shelf & netting details –>

Wow, Sue!!!  What a fantastic job you did!!  And so creative!  Love the toilet paper holder and the towel holder.  Amazing stuff.  Thanks so much for sharing.  I think you’ve inspired me to actually fix the wall in my powder room where the dog ate the wall!!  Lol!! 

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We all have budgets to consider when starting a project. Especially these days!  It’s a lot less expensive to “spruce up” your space rather than do a complete remodel and right now that’s a pretty good choice if you need a change.  A newsletter subscriber recently wrote in to share her bathroom makeover with us and it was so good we thought it was be great to share with everyone.  Read on:

I recently gave my bathroom a complete makeover and it was much easier than I expected (mostly thanks to you!), and only took a couple days to do.   For way less than a remodel (under $250) I gave my bathroom a completely new look that I just love.

First I had to choose some paint. I wanted to start with bare white walls so I chose KILZ2 brand primer paint.  I did what you told me to and just painted right over the wallpaper that was in there.  Small flowers were just not my thing any more.

Then I also did what you suggested and painted my wall color on some foam core boards and put them in the bathroom for a couple of days to make sure I’d be happy with the color.   Glad I did because the first color was not quite right.  The paint color we ended up with is a cheerful spring green/blue.  Kind of like a soft faded sea glass color. One gallon was plenty to paint the entire bathroom and cost less than $30.

I almost stopped there because just painting the bathroom gave it whole new look!

Because our bathroom is not very well lit, we decided to change the light fixture.  We shopped around and took pictures and took them home.  Then for only $40 (including bulbs) at Home Depot we found the one we wanted.  We installed the light fixture over the mirror behind the sink.  It only took a few minutes to install, and it looks great.  The bathroom is so much brighter now than it was before and we are even keeping it “green” by using the compact curly bulbs!

Because the bathroom is small we wanted a little more storage space.  For two people one medicine cabinet just wasn’t cutting it so we purchased a white cabinet that stands over the toilet.  It has a shelf (two if you count the top) and a cupboard and cost about $100 at Home Depot.  I recently saw that Wal-Mart had some that were sorta like mine…but not exactly and they were a little cheaper – between $50 and $75.

For the last touch I thought some plants would brighten the room and do well with the steam (showers).  We bought some pretty vibrant solid color flower pots from Wal-Mart for a couple of dollars and some small ferns (less than $2 each). I set the pots on top of the new cabinet.

I love my new bathroom. It’s colorful and bright and it looks like a completely different room. Just a few simple changes made all the difference!

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Have you done a quick and easy “rejuvenation” at your house?  A little paint…a new light fixture and a couple of small touches can make a HUGE difference when you want to change your space but just don’t have the budget for a remodel.

So get out there and splash around some paint!

P.S.  I thought if you’re like me maybe looking through a book is how you get some inspiration.  I do that A LOT!  So…I found a couple I thought might be helpful if you want to change up your bathroom, too!  Here – check ‘em out:

<— Here’s a good one from Better Homes and Gardens.  This book is just full of really great ideas and includes great before-and-after photos, too!  It has really helpful information and ideas from professional designers and will help anyone get a great new look in their bathroom!

<— Here’s another good one from Sunset!  Again, this book is jammed full of good ideas for changing your bathroom and has those oh so helpful before-and-after photos!