Famous last words.
We were going to share after photos of the kitchen today, but the china cabinet we ordered arrived afternoon yesterday and we lost our ideal lighting before I could finish the other task I decided to start–painting the windows. The task of painting the window sashes black wasn’t even on the original “finish the kitchen” list. My sisters were hanging out and helping, and somewhere between the Indian take-out, the Something Corporate songs, and gabbing about “Bachelor in Paradise,” we all accidentally ended up with our own miniature can of black enamel paint and small edging brushes. (Oops!)
We were minutes into our task (but past the point of no return) when we were all wishing we had primed the wood first (did I learn nothing from my very own cabinet painting post?). The paint was going on so streaky! “The first coat will act as primer,” Chris reassured us, and we kept on keeping on. We’re replacing these windows in the next year, but I just thought this would be a quick project!
Next, contorting ourselves into the sinks, kneeling on counters, and limbo-ing under ledges, we wished we had taped off the windows first. With surgical precision and at a snail’s pace, we slowly edged each sash — sharing just-discovered tips: “Let the brush drag along the trim, hanging just enough over the edge…” Still, the backlight of the setting sun was blinding. We couldn’t even see if we were doing it right! (Lesson learned: This task might be better suited for after the sun goes down.)
Hours passed, and we weren’t even halfway done. I had the brilliant idea to just paint one “willy nilly” and clean up all of the paint I got on the window with a razor blade. Can you guess what a big mistake that was?! The razor blade was hard to grip and scraping off all of the paint took just as long as carefully edging each piece of trim. Thankfully, I limited my experiment to one window pane.
My sister was next to experiment: “I’m going to tape this one.” She went about the fussy task of taping off 15 window panes and the exterior. We were halfway through an Adele playlist when the tape ran out. Victoria concluded that the time to tape + the time it takes to paint several coats = maybe no time saved at all.
In the end (read: in the morning), we all loved the black windows. And even said, “wow! worth it!” (note: we were not saying that during the 6 hours it took to paint.) I can say, it made a huge impact and probably cost a total of $15. And that was the biggest lesson: A project like this isn’t a financial investment — it’s a time investment. If we could start over, we’d prime all the trim and tape all of the windows. So, if you decide to take on this project (and you should! There’s so much wow factor!), take those notes and save yourself a few hours and a lot of squinting.
Or invite your sisters over and just surrender to the process. That part had rewards we couldn’t even measure. I can’t wait to share with you how they look with the rest of the finished kitchen. Tomorrow! For sure!
(Ps. We used these 1″ brushes and this black enamel paint)
I’m currently working on a similar project in my kitchen, and was so inspired by your post! I have a different style of windows though (traditional sliding) and I’m stumped on something. Should I paint the track black? I’m worried it will affect the sliding or chip easily.
I didn’t paint the track.
I’m curious how you’ll do window treatments with black windows. I just recently got black windows and am having trouble deciding on treatments. We have one window in particular where curtains really don’t work because of a weird shaped wall. But am lost as to what kind of shades would work. Am eager to hear what you guys will do! ????
I think using a razor blade to remove paint from window trim is not a good idea. :) It can turn a simple task into a difficult one. Actually I read your blog post where you removed paint from a coffee table. Just like that, you can use any chemical to remove the paint from window trims. Can we use sandpaper to remove the paint? What do you think?
Actually I was looking for help to remove graffiti from the wooden fence but I found this article on google https://www.basildonstone.co.uk/how-to-remove-graffiti-from-different-surfaces/ it is about graffiti removal from different surfaces.
Nothing to do with the promotion, but this is something that will help to solve the problem and sharing knowledge.
Hi,
Thank you for sharing! I have just recently bought an older house (one I haven’t seen in person yet…yikes) and envision doing this. How do you know if your windows can be painted? What does the other side look like? Really hoping we will be able to do some of the renovations ourselves but seems scary. Also on different topic, have you and your husband added a stove hood by yourself to a house that didn’t have one?
So glad to see this post! We’re about to close on a cottage with unfinished windows and trim and plan to paint them white to break up all of the knotty pine paneling and lighten up the space a bit. The black looks lovely in your space!