Happy 4th, everyone! I hope you’re taking the day to celebrate our freedom with your friends and family. Wyatt and I are celebrating the way we celebrated our very first year in this house…with remodeling!

Since he gets the day off from his real job, it’s like having a bonus work day for us and now that we’re in kitchen crunch time, we’ll take all the work days we can get! Two years ago, we were scraping popcorn off the ceilings on July 4. Then, we sat out on our deck and watched neighbors shoot off fireworks. It wasn’t as exciting of a firework show as I’ve ever seen, but it was home and we were happy.

This year, our celebration may look similar. We’re going to spend the day in the kitchen and probably barely see any fireworks, but we’re okay with that. After all, last year, we saw perhaps the best firework show of my life in Nashville.

Earlier in the week, we painted the ceiling. It is painted white with basic ceiling paint. Sorry for not taking photos but it seemed unworthy of really documenting. Just know it wasn’t fun but it had to be done. Which it is.

Then, we went to work deciding on the best color for a slightly gray, mostly white kitchen. We want it to be as light as possible in there because it’s pretty dark…unfortunately not a ton of natural light.

I used several test pots, most that we already had on hand from choosing other grays in our house.

And we compared the colors we thought we wanted with the colors we already have in the house. A handy tip, save the color swatch from the paint you use for each room in the house and keep it ready for times like this. It really helps develop a whole-house color scheme.

Finally, we selected a color, and last night we put the last coat (hopefully) of paint on the walls in the kitchen. And you guessed it, based on the title of this post, the color we choose was Polar Star.

Actually, it’s an “alternative polar star” since we grabbed that paint chip several years ago at Lowes, but now use Home Depot paint (I find it to be less “gloppy.” Yes that is the technical term.), so after trying several other options, including a custom color (a 50% mix of our entryway color, which is a slightly lighter shade than our living room gray) we decided it was the best option and went for it.

Here’s a visual rundown of the colors we considered, along with our thought process in choosing:

We put the first coat of paint on Wednesday and the second coat on last night.

As usual, I’m the one who does the cutting in. Wyatt does the rolling. Or sometimes, I do both steps if he’s busy with something else. He really doesn’t like to paint.

Finally, we were left with this result:

We know it’s subtle, but that’s what we’re hoping this kitchen will be. Light and bright, with some colorful touches mixed in along the way through accessories.

We didn’t waste time doing a perfect job of painting any areas that won’t show. Like behind upper cabinets.

Or behind the fridge/pantry area.

So, where does the stripe part of this post come in? Well, remember these?

They were NOT fun to paint over.

After after sanding them several times (before and between coats of primer, etc.) we can STILL see the lines were the stripes were. And that’s after two thorough sandings and 4 coats of paint (two primer, two paint). Can you see it in the photo below?

We can, but we can live with the few areas where the line is showing through since we know there will be art/plates/something on the walls in there to cover it up.

And now that the painting is done, we’ve starting working on the cabinets…crazy exciting stuff happening here, you guys. Crazy.

So, that’s how we’re celebrating today. What about you? BBQ? Fireworks? Popcorn? Popcorn ceilings?