The Kitchen

Since I love a good before and after, and since I'm sure you're all dying to know what goes on inside my head...

This is what we started with: white walls, white countertop with gold flecks, original cabinets that had been painted yellowish cream, gold plated hardware and hinges with the plating flaking off... ceiling fan with random tassel... Perfectly functional, but not very pretty.

By move in day it had gotten a good dose of blue paint (which I love) and a healthy dose of clutter. Oooo, note the classic metal edging around the sink, and around the glass inlay... I actually kind of miss the glass, it was very practical. (Although grossness would collect around the metal band...)

So whoever painted the cabinets cream didn't do that great of a job.  (They were originally 60's orangish/yellow stained.)  They put the paint on super thick and you could see the brush strokes.  It was like a checkerboard on the doors- the put on a coat and brushed up and down, then the next coat they went side to side.  There were also holes where previous owners had hung things with nails/screws... and spots where the paint was chipped... and these weird black marks around the hinges that wouldn't wash off.  Of course, there was no extra paint in the basement to do any touchups.  None of this was glaringly obvious, but it bugged me since I saw it everyday.  

Right before Emmy was born I decided it was time, it had bugged me long enough!  And I was going to call a painter to repaint them for me.  And then I started thinking about how I didn't really love the style of the doors anyway, and it would be pointless to sand and paint doors I don't like.  And I would want to replace hinges and pulls.... and the countertop was so white.... and then I decided I was probably nesting and I should just wait until I could do everything I wanted to do in there at once.  Probably a good decision.

But they still bugged me and I toyed with the idea of convincing Bob that we needed new cabinets.  The practical side of me won out; our cabinets are solid wood, built in place, they don't make them like this anymore cabinets.  Plus there was absolutely nothing wrong with them besides bad paint and the door style not being what I would pick out.  Really, it would be stupid to tear them out.   

So fast forward almost a year.... we had a cabinet re-facing company come give us an estimate.  I figured it would be a quick, easy refresh that wouldn't take a lot of time or money.  Ha.  Their cost for new doors and countertops was astronomical.  For that price we could have replaced everything with mid-range cabinets from a big box store.  I pouted for a few days...

And then I found a company out of Kansas that sells custom sized unfinished cabinet doors online.  And they were solid wood and economically priced!  And I have an uncle who has a really good paint sprayer who was willing to paint and hang them for me!  And there's a countertop place just down the road!  And we know a good plumber and electrician!  All I had to do was paint the cabinet boxes... no problem.    

We dove into painting chaos just as Emmy was starting to walk... great timing.   

One side at a time....

Oh, this was awful.  I think it was about at this point I was muttering under my breath while painting late at night.... 

She thought it was great that she could get into the snacks.

Coincidentally, my mom was helping a friend paint her kitchen cabinets at the same time and she asked what my process was.... I sent her an email titled, "how to obsess over painting your kitchen cabinets in 11 easy steps..."

 

1.  All doors off, we're getting new hinges so I filled all the holes with wood filler.

2.  Sanded with two grits of sandpaper-  I did 80 and 120 with my palm sander, and then used a 220 sanding block.

3.  Wiped everything down to remove all dust....  the pros would use tack cloth...

4.  Primed with Sherwin Williams primer (supposed to hide wood grain, stains, etc.  It's also sandable.) 

5.  Scuff sanded the primed cabinets with 220 sanding block and wiped everything down.

6.  Painted 1st coat.

7.  Sanded out drips, scuff sanded everything with 220, wiped it all down.

8.  Painted 2nd Coat.

9.  Sanded, wiped down.

10.  Painted 3rd coat (Probably unnecessary....)

11.  Obsess about sheen differences and repeat ad nauseam...

 

O man, I'm not sure I'd ever do this again... ok, I probably would.  But still.  There are times that I have to remind myself that no one sees the imperfections like I do, and that painted real wood cabinets are not going to look like factory sprayed MDF cabinets....

 

I do like the lighter color, although I maybe kind of wish I would have gone even whiter.  The drawer is the old color: 

And then it was finally done.  Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!  The new countertops came and the gray was so pretty.

And my new sink that is one inch deeper and the basins are 1 inch wider than the previous sink- I can fit a muffin pan in there and it is awesome!  The new faucet caused minor issues with the window sill/shelf thing.

And then after living with open cabinets and a busy toddler for quite a while the doors came home!  There was great rejoicing.  Except I measured two wrong and had to reorder.  Boo.

It was so very nice to have doors, drawer fronts, and pulls again.  And bigger crown molding!  woot woot. 

 

We took down the valence board over the sink at the beginning of the process and I had kind of forgotten that there was an old, very ugly fluorescent fixture behind it.  Which required finding a light to replace it... and at some point the main fixture quit working so we had to replace that too... anyway, finally picked something out and Rob came and put in a box and I patched and painted, added some ticking stripe café curtains, and just like that we were done!  

 Although, now I kind of think the big light is a little too Art Deco to go with the school house light... eh, oh well.  They aren't coming down anytime soon.  I hope.  *grin* 
Anyway, all that for a before:

 And after!:

I am pleased with how it turned out. The changes are subtle but it definitely feels newer (and cleaner!). The best part is probably the satisfaction of knowing that it all cost just under half of what we were quoted for refacing...
Blessings.