(Disclaimer: the ratio of text to photos in this post isn't favorable... I follow many blogs and I know that more photos are more fun... but, if you happen to be refinishing old cabinets, you might find some useful information here! Also, please excuse the terrible photos, I plan to post more with better lighting soon!)
James tried to convince me many times to just go with brand new cabinets, and I'm not going to lie, it was tempting. But frankly, it just wasn't in the budget. There were other things that were more important to me to spend the money on than new cabinets. Even if we had gone with Ikea cabinets (the cheapest option), it still would have been a couple thousand dollars and we still would have had to assemble and install them ourselves (and everyone knows, the worst part about Ikea products is the "putting them together" part).
But there was another factor in me deciding to use the existing cabinets, and that was that I really felt like the kitchen was the one room that we could really pull off completely on our own. While I am really excited about our bathroom, tile was one thing I knew I wanted to leave up to a professional. And although I do think that the finished design will feel my own, I don't think that I will feel the same pride in the finished product as I hope to feel in the kitchen (hopefully that pride doesn't turn out to be embarrassment). And obviously, we are going to need and have already used the knowledge and helping hands of friends and family to complete the kitchen, but to me, that still counts as DIY-ing!
So I already did a short post on my kitchen inspiration, but to recap, we know that we will be painting our cabinets, installing new hinges and hardware, raising the upper cabinets and installing a shelf below them (on each side of the stove). We will also add some open shelving on the left side of the kitchen sink and install some sort of shelving over the refrigerator, as an extension of the upper cabinets. We are also plan to cut, seal and install the butcher block countertops on our own. As far as the backsplash, we haven't totally committed to anything yet but our two ideas are subway tile or possibly a combo of bead board and baseboard... either way, we plan to do that project ourselves as well. I'm really excited for this kitchen and although it will most likely be the last big project to be finished on the inside of the house, I think it's going to be, by far, the most rewarding!
With that said, I'm going to get down to business on what we've done so far with the cabinets...
I decided to used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on the cabinets after hearing some pretty good reviews on the stuff. It appealed to me mostly because of the soft, matte finish but also because there is supposed to be no prep work... no sanding or priming necessary. I say "supposed" because with my cabinets, prep work was necessary. With a normal piece of furniture, you would only need to mildly clean the surface and start painting... but with these cabinets, there was a significant amount of deep cleaning that was necessary and I found out about half way through the painting the upper cabinets that a stain fighting primer was also necessary. (More on the chalk paint later)
I sort of outlined my cleaning process in a previous post, but just the cleaning process of all of the cabinets, doors and drawers took quite a while. This wasn't just a basic scrub down, I had to use a strong chemical cleaner, literally scrape every surface, chip off excess glue and sand certain spots. I spent the better part of two days doing this.
After cleaning, I had to deal with the holes left from the previous hardware. Those holes were spaced at 3-1/2" and, of course, that just so happens to be like the most rare hole spacing for a cabinet door handle... Home Depot had literally 2 handles to choose from in the color I like (brushed nickle, which is pretty much the most common color). The 4" spaced handles also lacked in variety, so we went with 3". Just so happens that the handle style I picked out didn't look properly placed if we were to reuse the existing bottom hole (it looked to low on the door). I also tried out a knob style, it too looked too low.... so, in the end, we had to fill both holes and will have to re-drill when we are ready to put on the hardware. If you ever redo your kitchen cabinets, I would highly recommend buying a few handle styles and trying them out before committing to and buying a whole bunch of one style!
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| priming, priming, priming |
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Filling! |
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| With the hardware in the right spot |
Once I had finished the prep work, I got to painting. Everything seemed golden until about 3 days in... I had almost completely finished the upper cabinets, they had already gotten their first layer of wax, and then I started painting the doors. I had about 2 layers of white paint on the upper cabinets before I started to notice quite a few places that had areas of yellowing... it was grease seeping through the paint, you could literally see the drip patterns. Although it was too subtle to be able to photograph, it was definitely noticeable! I think that if the paint weren't the "pure white" color, it wouldn't have even come through ,but that's besides the point... I needed to do something. So at the suggestion of my mom, I decided to go pick up a quart of Killz primer at the hardware store. If you don't know, Kilz is a specialized paint for blocking stains of all kinds, and after two coats, the grease stains were no longer coming through!
Luckily I had saved the doors and I only wasted those 2 layers of paint (wasting paint normally wouldn't be a concern, but Annie Sloan chalk paint is stupid expensive compared to normal paint and I did end up having to go buy another quart in order to finish the job). Unfortunately, I took another glance at my cabinets in better lighting (the actually bodies, not the doors) and they too suffered from some stainage that I hadn't noticed before. They weren't nearly as bad off as the doors but there were definitely a few noticeable spots. I've decided, though, to just finish the process with them and I'm hope that they look alright with the doors on. If not, I'll just have to strip them and start completely over... ugh. We'll see!
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| Upper cabinets, drying |
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| Upper doors, with 2 layers of Kilz |
Other than that minor freak out, the chalk paint has been a pretty positive experience. When I went to buy the paint I was strongly advised by the lady at the store that my kitchen cabinets should not be my first project with the product... "unless you are confident" she said (obviously, that was enough for me for me to go for it). The waxing step is supposed to be the intimidating part of the process but I had watched a few youtube videos and I felt like I could handle it. Now, after having done the waxing, I feel like anyone can do it if you simply know how to follow directions.
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| Annie Sloan wax and a $52 brush... definitely a rip off, I've had better luck applying the stuff with t-shirt rags |
Anyway, as of today, I have completely finished the upper cabinets, they are ready to be put up. The doors have 2 greasy layers of chalk paint in "pure white", 2 layers of Kilz primer and another 2 layers of the chalk paint, waiting for wax. The lower cabinets have been primed with Kilz but I am waiting to start painting them until we have our dishwasher and kitchen sink installed. The lower doors are primed and ready for paint and the drawers are 100% painted in "french linen" and waxed, they just need hardware!
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| Some of the drawers drying |
Yes, our old cabinets have a few dings here and there, they aren't perfect, but I really think that the end result is going to have so much more character than brand new cabinets would have had... not too mention, I found enough old pot in the drawers to role a full joint, so you know they've been loved! ;)
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