What an undertaking this was. We started at the end of July, and got the top cabinets complete. Then got news that we are expecting (yay!), and over a month later, we completed the bottom cabinets.
We ended up getting this done relatively cheap. We just used Behr white paint that we had leftover from painting baseboards. We did have to buy another can when we started the bottom cabinets, but we use it all over the house, and we have since started ANOTHER project in the dining room that also used this paint. The only things we purchased specifically for this project was the following:
Liquid Sander Deglosser
Small Foam Rollers
Plastic sheeting (for the counters)
gloves
Behr Faux Glaze (which DID NOT end up working)
Rustoleum Transformations Decorative Glaze
To prep the cabinets, we began by numbering them all. I just took a small piece of painters tape, and numbered the inside of each cabinet and drawer face, so we would know where they went back when it came time to put them all back on. Then we removed all the doors from the upper cabinets, and removed the hardware from the doors. I've read on a couple of blogs that the hardware should also be numbered and put back in the exact same spot, but we're kind of lazy and didn't do that. We didn't have any problems putting everything back on. There are a couple of doors that had different hardware, but we figured it out.
Next came the Liquid Deglosser. The directions were vague, and said to rub it on and let dry for 10 minutes if you need to apply a second coat. Hmm. I kind of have mixed feelings on this stuff. We have some nicks in the paint in a couple of places and I blame the deglosser. You have to apply A LOT of this stuff, and you have to rub it in about as hard as you would have to with sand paper. The pros are not having all the dust from actual sanding and it's easy clean up. The cons are you can't really tell if you did it right until your paint chips, and it smells pretty bad. I was pregnant when we started the bottom cabinets, so I started out with a mask on, but ended up just lightly sanding the faces of the cabinets. I still used the deglosser on the doors.
Then we applied 2 coats of white paint. Some of the doors were rolled and some were brushed. I think the ones that were rolled didn't come out as good. If your cabinet doors have a faux grain like ours do, make sure you coat the doors really well if you are going to apply a glaze. If your paint isn't thick enough, the glaze will settle in the grain, and I think it makes the cabinets look kind of dirty. I like the way it looks on the cabinet doors that got a really good coat better. DH doesn't think that's why they came out like that, but I made sure to put thick coats on the bottom doors, and none of them came out that way.
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| The door on the left has glaze on it, and you can kind of see how it settled in the grain. The door on the right is unglazed. |
After the paint was dry, we put the hardware and doors back on. This way, we could glaze both sides of the doors at once. It dries pretty quick. You just paint it on with a foam craft brush, and take a towel and wipe it off. You control how much you remove, so you can make them as light or dark as you want. We just wanted a little tint, and most of the color in the seams.
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| The corner cabinet had a door, but there is just so little you can put in it, we decided to paint the inside and leave the door off. I really like it. I get to display my Temporama pieces. |
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| I got them ATG Stores online reletively cheap. This website has a HUGE selection. The knobs came in a 10 pack for about $16 and the pulls were about $3 each. Unfortunately, they came in 3 separate shipments and took about 3 weeks to get here. Luckily it took us over a month to finish the whole project, so it wasn't that big of a deal. If you plan to get your project finished quicker than we did, then I suggest you place your order in advance. |
The cabinets didn't have knobs or pulls, so we decided to add it as a finishing touch. Soo much better. I forgot how nice it is to have handles on your cabinet doors. We also put really thick felt pads on the corners of the doors and drawers so the paint doesn't stick and it dampens the sound of the doors closing. There were foam ones that were all worn out.
I've got several other projects that I will be posting soon, including the board and batten we did in the dining room and my homemade tile coasters.
