Home Renovation on 'Catch-all'

So finally I got around the painting the big elephant we saw 

every time we entered our home and came up the stairs.  

There is so much varnish on all the oak in this house! 

This is a picture of what we faced when we moved in.  

Orange and green walls and browns and green in bedrooms.

The story behind doing this project is simple…this wall will not be around for long (fingers crossed).  We plan to remove this shelving unit along with the mirrored closet.  This will deepen this space and open up into the kitchen.  The header that is open to the ceiling will be removed half way up exposing the kitchen all along that big wall.  This way it will have a much more open concept, without showing all the mess in the kitchen after I cook.  If you catch it in the picture, you’ll see the ‘oak’ cupboards/storage wall (another elephant) just inside the kitchen that will also be removed.  We will replace this with proper cupboards on the other side of kitchen and add an island. 

You can't really see in these pictures, but where I painted the dark blue, there are slight imperfections in the coverage.  
Note to self again: just because Chalk Paint can be used over varnished items, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sand it.  The paint covered lovely but I should have sanded my little heart out to make it velvety smooth and then applied the coats of wax.  Because of the thick, bumpy coats of varnish, I think it affected the final look.  Oh well, it works for now, and it looks so much better.  

The next plan is to paint the gold trim around the mirror.  I’ve covered it in black duct tape and then I’ll use chalk paint to cover.  The rest of the wall will be the same as the shelving unit.

Well, time is precious and I need to finish this wall before any other big projects can start!

Bonny