Mellow Yellow

Q: Our home is in a rural community, and we love an older feel rather than modern. The kitchen floor is wood planks, which we like. The cabinets are wood but I am willing to paint these. What about colour?

A: If you would like to try a heritage paint style, think about using milk paint. Unlike regular paint, which sits on top of the surface, milk paint soaks into wood.

It has an aged look, velvety and pure with a durable, flat finish. Rubbed with wax, your finish will last for 100 years.

Milk paint is made from casein, a milk protein binder that is mixed with quicklime and coloured with natural pigments taken from nature.

Milk paint comes in a powder form and is mixed with water just before applying. It comes in a wide range of historic colours or mix your own colours by adding white or other powder pigments.

Prepare surfaces carefully. Remove cabinet doors and sand to open up the wood’s pores.

When you see the authentic colours, I’m sure you’ll find one you love. Earthy green, berry blue, rusty red, or mustard yellow all suit cabinetry.

If you want your cabinets to look as though they have been around for decades, distress the edges and other naturally worn areas with sand paper, or add a different colour and sand back to reveal the bottom coat.

Q: I have a modular home with faded vinyl coated wallboard. I want to cover it with Anaglypta, but not sure if I have to remove the strips that cover the joints and fill in the gaps. Do I need to prime the walls, and do I prime the Anaglypta before painting it?

A: It’s a lot of work to fill in the gaps and difficult to get perfect.

Anaglypta is embossed wallpaper with a raised design that’s designed to hide imperfections on walls and ceilings. This heavy paper is untreated and meant to be painted. The designs add detail and architectural interest to a room.

Work with the walls as they are and apply one or two coats of high adhesion primer. Hang the paper as directed and allow to dry thoroughly, one or two days.

Apply a paint primer, if the product requires it, let dry and paint.

This versatile paper can be made to look like many materials from tin to marble depending on the paint applications.

Q: Years ago we wallpapered the bottom half of the foyer and dining room, painted above the chair rails and added a matching border. It’s dated now. What is the best look when the room has a chair rail?

A: The top border must go. Try embossed wallpaper for the dado (the section of wall below the chair rail). They are available in classic and modern designs. Paint in one or two colours to highlight the paper’s raised design. Apply darker colours to the lower wall and paint above the rail in a lighter complementary tone.

This column is produced by Debbie Travis and Barbara Dingle.

Email questions to house2home@debbietravis.com