Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

Well this post has been a long time coming but I finally got the whole thing documented, found some "before" pictures and took some decent "after" pictures.  This is what our kitchen cabinets looked like when we moved in, below.  80's medium honey oak with white knobs that were falling off left and right, literally.  This was a little too traditional for my modern industrial lake vibe so, here we go, making it our own!

Our kitchen faces north so we don't get a lot of sun blazing in the kitchen windows so I wanted to lighten it up as much as possible.  This door leads out to the lake so I want it to feel light and sunny and beachy year round, even if you're looking at snow.  ;)  I've been dying to DIY some cabinets and researching different techniques and ideas for a long time.  In order to get huz to bite on this HUGE project I had to have a system that would ensure the cabinets we painted over a 3-6 month stretch would all look the same when we were finished. We also had several sections of cabinets on different walls that we did at different times based on the rest of our kitchen remodel so it all had to look cohesive when it was finished. We chose the Rustoleum Transformation Kit from Home Depot.  Each box of the kit does roughly 10-12 linear feet of cabinets, however we veered off from the kit and didn't use part of it.  I'll outline our technique below.   

To start, remove all the door fronts and drawers, keeping all the hinges and screws and hardware to reuse later. Or if you don't intend to reuse, donate them. Also remove all the foam/cork/vinyl bumpers so you can paint easily on all flat surfaces.  We painted all the doors and drawers in our garage and did the base cabinets in the house where they were mounted.  The nice part of this is you don't have to remove most of your contents of your cabinets where there are doors. Drawers--not so lucky, but we dumped out all the drawers in piles on the floor on beach towels so we could go find the right drawer when we needed something out of it.  This is also a good time to destash so if there is anything you don't need anymore, get rid of it.  This should get me some points with the huz, his name could be Mr. Destash!

How we did it:

1. Start off by applying the deglosser.  Brush or wipe this on with a rag, scrub with the pad provided and wash with soap and water.  Dry well.

2. Next is applying the base coat in the kit, note that you can get this tinted in the store if you are not wanting a white base cabinet.  We did, so ours was not tinted.  The kit recommends 2 coats. We applied 4 coats front and back cause huz did not want any brush strokes to show.  This is the slow part as you have to do both sides of the cabinets and wait for them to dry in between coats and sides.  Thank goodness we have a heated garage (we did this most of the winter and MN winters are long) as this made for a nice space to spread out, keep the fumes out of the house and not rush the process.  The irony in this is after he worked so hard to get the brush strokes out, I put them back in, in the next step. I love the grain of wood!

3. Glaze.  The kit supplied a stain that you apply to your painted cabinets as a glaze.  All stains have a yellow/orange warm toned base and I wanted the cabinets to be a cool tone.  Thus I implemented my own glazing process.  First we selected the wall color paint which was Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray. 

I applied a thinned down version of the Mindful Gray with a paint brush and some rags. I brushed it on and then wiped off any excess or anything that got too dark. I ended up with one set of cabinets that got too dark so I had to apply the base coat again so I could start over. I recommend doing this glazing part all in one day if you can so it looks the same on all your cabinets and you don't have to redo any like I did.

I wanted the white to show through but wanted to pull out some of the wood grain and brush strokes.  Here is a close up of some drawer fronts after the paint glaze was applied.

 4. Protective Coat.  Apply 2 coats of the clear top coat finish letting them dry well in between coats.  Apply new vinyl or cork bumpers. Last but not least, put hinges and new hardware on and step back and enjoy your work.  You deserve to kick back and relax for awhile! And that's exactly what we did for the entire summer.  

This was more labor intensive but inexpensive compared to other options for refacing or refinishing cabinets.  Plus our cabinets were not old or in poor condition so they didn't need much more than the facelift and a little DW-40 to get them rolling with ease and style again.  We purchased 3 transformation kits (I got one on sale), paint, bumpers and new hardware for less than $400. And I still have some left to redo a door for a future project.  In my book that is money well spent for the transformation it has made to our kitchen.  Next up is the backsplash, flooring and a hood over the stove. Can't wait!  

What are you working on this fine Wednesday?  I'd love to hear about it!

Modernizing A Family Heirloom {What I Worked on Wednesday}

This dresser has been in the family for years.  When I was little, it was my brother's dresser.  It arrived at our house several years ago and has been a nightstand for our boys in their bedroom.

I distinctly remember the paper that lines the inside of these drawers.  I remember refolding and straightening piles of clothes in these drawers, picking up toys and putting them in here and always thinking the paper lining them was so cute.  How vintage is this?!

I've had the itch to do a refinishing project and this was just the right timing as we bunked the boys' beds again so they can each have their own desk for Lego creations and there wasn't room for another piece of furniture in there anymore.  {Insert a YIPPEE here! Some furniture that needs a new home and function, that's right up my alley. }  

Here's what I did.

Start by applying a deglosser with a non-linty cloth.  I used Klean-Strip, pictured above. Apply in circular motions and keep surface wet by applying additional deglosser as needed for approximately 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes you should be able to see the glossy surface getting curly or bumpy.  At this point you can scrub the excess off with steel wool.

After all the deglosser has been removed, you can start painting.  YAY!  

I chose a soft white and applied it by spraying it on.  Here is what it looked like after the first coat. Are you starting to see the potential of this gorgeous piece? This view also shows off the sweet curves on the front.

After several more coats of paint, it was ready for some light "roughing up" to create a patina.  Insert some sand paper here + some seriously amazing hand glazed drawer pulls. 

Now for the reveal....what do you think?  I'm in love with the unique curves on the front of this piece, the updated drawer pulls and the memories behind it.  Yes the Coca-Cola bucket on the floor is hiding cords and power strips.  Fashion before function, right?!   But I always love it when I can have both!  ;)

What are you working on this fine Wednesday?

With All the Trimmings

We'll take it with all the trimmings. I'm pretty sure this was what Huz and I said when we bought this place. Unfortunately, when it comes to home ownership, we don't get to order off the menu and have it brought to us on a platter, do we? Owning a home is not always as easy as opening a box of Annie's organic mac & cheese. Actually its never that easy. The "honey-do" list can get quite long once you move in and realize that the water heater didn't have the right valve on it to switch over from propane to natural gas.  Or that the countertop in the master bath, with only one sink, is a unique size and will require a custom order (cha-ching!) to replace it. Minor setback. The returns though....you gotta love it when you can see your hard work paying off! Huz and I have been working hard on our new little love nest and project by project are starting to make it feel more like our own. We are excited to share these updates with you even if they didn't happen as quickly as we would have liked....

Here is what the walk-out side of our house looked like when we purchased it in June 2011. Decent looking for sure, right? Livable and certainly good enough to enjoy the view from the beach for the summer. We had a lot of outdoor projects to work on this year so we had to be choosy about which ones to work on. Clearing overgrown brush next to the lake was a must! We seriously spent 3 months working on this. Our beach has a steep bank, so hauling the branches up and out was a full body workout! Did I mention we don't have steps? We'd work on it til we got a rash from either poison oak or ivy, (or maybe something else, we really never identified the culprit) and then we'd let it sit for a couple days and start up again once our "irritaions" had subsided. We learned to put on gloves and wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts after only a few times of getting these itchy skin irritations. What a good idea even if it meant you were bathing in your own sweat in 30 seconds!

In August we got a new septic system so our yard got ripped up on the right side of the walk-out to remove the old septic system. A new one was put in over by the garage. We are hoping the new grass--that we babied by watering it 4 times a day during our 80* weather in October--will have good enough roots to come back this spring. Note, it was not 80* until the grass seed was down and it was wet. Then it suddenly got hot. Can someone give me an "oof-da!"

Here is what a little paint with all the trimmings and Huz with a tall ladder can accomplish. I love the way the white paint pops against the red brick. And you? I've been waiting to take this picture til we had a light dusting of snow. Perfect timing, don't you think?

Cabin Update!

Before                                         After

The painting is complete, thanks to Jeff and a little cooperation from the weather!  We just love how the glisten yellow and white trim have brightened the space up.  You'd never know that our paint shop gave us the wrong color of yellow the first time around.  :)  It took 3 coats of paint and quite a bit of elbow grease to get all of the dark brown covered, but we are ecstatic with the transformation.  It looks like a happening place to hang out at this summer.  Now for a little landscaping....