painting our kitchen cabinets

yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy

 

 

 

 

 

 

hey all.  so for the past several months we have been working on painting the kitchen cabinets.  if you don't remember, we have been working little by little on the kitchen updates.  first we ripped off the wallpaper and then painted the ceiling and the walls.  then we started the process of painting the cabinets.  i think the whole process took about 7 months total.  haha.  that sounds like forever.  but the total amount of hours that it took wasn't that much.  it did take time and effort for sure, but because we can only work on these kinds of projects when the kids are asleep, we have very limited time for it.  we also didn't want to completely displace ourselves from or the ability to use the kitchen.  so we worked on this little by little.  that's why it took so long.  i think if we wanted to, we could have emptied everything out of the kitchen, taped everything off with plastic, and busted it out in a week or so, but we don't have the ability to be without a kitchen with our kiddos.

i really love how it turned out.  i have wanted a two-toned kitchen ever since we bought this place.  and, obviously, i am a huge fan of gray.  the original cabinets were oak, and had turned an orange-y shade that is just not my style.  since painting the cabinets, the kitchen just seems so much lighter.  and it looks so much more up to date.

so want to hear about how the whole process went down?  of course, i did a bunch of research.  i researched the products and the methods that different people used.  i felt like i was really prepared.  i knew what paint i would likely use.  at first, hubby and i were ready to start this project in december of last year.  but then we realized that, because we would be painting the cabinets in the garage, it would be way too cold for the paint to cure properly.  so we started in the summer.  and were hoping to finish it in the same summer.  haha.  oh well.

anyway, i consulted with the guys at benjamin moore and then put our plan of action together; clean, sand, clean again, prime, paint, paint, let it cure, etc.

here's a little more detail:

-remove all the doors and cabinet drawers, remove all the hardware.  because we were only doing one small section at a time we would just remove the upper cabinet doors, the lower cabinet doors and the drawers that were specifically in that one section that we were working on.

-remove the stuff that was in the cabinets and drawers and put them somewhere else so they don't get dusty from sanding.

-wipe down the doors, drawers and cabinet boxes with a bleach cleaner or some all purpose cleaner.

-sand the doors, drawers, and cabinet boxes.  we just used a regular old sheet of sandpaper, in 80 grit, with our hands, on the cabinet boxes.  then we took the doors and drawers into the garage and used the palm sander (or orbital sander) in 80 grit.  we went over it again with 120 grit.  our doors and drawers have a pretty traditional raised panel, so sanding in those inset sections was tricky.  hubby was the one who did all that.  he's more meticulous and detailed out of the two of us.  oh, and the doors and the drawer faces were solid wood, but the cabinet boxes are basically pressed wood with a veneer stuck to the surface.  so we were very careful not to sand too much on the cabinet boxes.  just enough to rough the surface up a bit so the primer can adhere better.  if you sand veneer too much then you will sand it off.

-then you will want to fill any holes from the hardware, and any other dings and dents while you're at it.  use wood putty.  we used elmer's wood putty.  you can find it anywhere.  then, after you let that dry, check out if you need to go over it again with more wood putty.  sometimes the putty shrinks and you need to put another coat on.  if not, then you're good, just sand smooth with 120 grit or higher sandpaper, just do it manually.

i follow and love the blog 'young house love' and they have lots of great tutorials.  here is one for how to prep your cabinets https://www.younghouselove.com/2011/12/puttering-around-with-putty/, it goes into more detail than i did here, and it's what i used as a resource.

- after that step we cleaned everything with TSP.  actually, in our case we used jasco TSP no rinse- substitute.  it was recommended by the people at bejamin moore because it doesn't have the phosphate in it, and you don't have to rinse the product off.  and it was a great cleaner.  TSP is fine if you don't mind working with phosphate, but also you have to be sure to rinse all the product off really well otherwise your paint and primer won't stick.  so we cleaned everything and hubby rinsed the cabinets really well anyway, just to be extra diligent.  oh, and i bought the product at benjamin moore, but it looks like you can buy it at other hardware stores or even on amazon here.

-let the cabinet doors and drawers dry.  they need to be really dry so that the primer will properly adhere.  i think we let them dry overnight, or sometimes longer.

-next you can prime everything.  i was able to just use one coat of primer and it was fine.  the paint guys recommended stix because it's low VOC, it self-levels, and it pretty much sticks to everything.  he recommended it because i was not sure what kind of finish was on the cabinets previously.  again, i bought it at benjamin moore but it looks like you can buy it at other stores, and at amazon here.

here is young house love's post about priming cabinets, and here is a post where they talk about painting the cabinets but there is also a video embedded into the post that shows you how she paints the cabinets (priming is pretty much the same technique, so it's a good visual to check out beforehand).  since our cabinets were similar in style, this is how i primed and painted ours , too.

oh, and the primer is not going to look perfect.  as long as you get thin, even coats that cover the substrate, then it will be fine.  but when you are done priming you will think that it doesn't look that great.  it's fine.  let the primer dry for the amount of time stated on the can.  after about 4 hours or so, i flipped the cabinet doors to prime the other side.  i used these painter's pyramids to help keep the doors off the ground.  i had previously used small cans of paint or paint sample containers to hold up the doors, but the painter's pyramids are so inexpensive and work so well since just a tiny point is touching the cabinet door (or whatever you are painting) and don't leave any marks.  so i would recommend getting those.  also, i use a 2" angled high quality paint brush to get into the nooks and crannies and the inverted sections of the drawer fronts and cabinet doors.  then after that, i use a small roller for the flat panel sections.  and then quickly i just go back over with the paint brush and smooth out any parts that need it.  you don't want to work the primer too much, and again, it doesn't have to look perfect.  the roller i used was a flocked/foam hybrid, this brand.  and of course i used a paint tray and insert.

-next step after the primer is dry (the time specified on the can, not just when you think it's dry) is to sand a little bit, just to smooth out any bumps, or any dust or whatever that may have settled onto the primer while drying.  use 220 grit.  then dust off really well (i used a very slightly dampened cloth).

-time to paint!  this to me is the most exciting part!  the above post from young house love, again, shows how she paints the doors, and that's how i do it, too.  get some paint on your brush, not too much, and then get into all the inverted sections, the corners, the sides of the door, working fairly quickly.  you don't want too much paint on your paintbrush otherwise it will cause drips.  if you have cabinet doors like mine, that have the raised panels, it is VERY easy to get drips on the parts that are inverted.  and even if you have flat panels, it's also very easy to get drips down the sides of the cabinet doors.  so you have to be very careful, use a work lamp so that you can see what you're painting really well, and then don't use too much paint on the brush.  then i load up the roller with paint (not too much!) and roll the flat parts of the door.  the reason i keep saying to use not too much paint is because you want thin, even coats of paint.  you will apply 2-3 thin coats, so don't feel like you need to slap on a thick coat of paint for the first (or third) application.  the reason for that is because you will inevitably get drips, and you will have thick gloopy sections, it is harder to keep the coats even, and it won't dry and cure properly.  at the very end, i go over the whole thing with my paint brush again to ensure that there are no drips or puddled up paint, and to smooth and even everything out.  you don't want to overwork the paint either, so this has to be done quickly.

i used benjamin moore advance paint.  it has very good reviews, and it was made specifically for cabinets.  it is pricey, but well worth it in my opinion.  the paint is self-leveling to avoid brush strokes.  it's also low VOC, so no nasty fumes, and is an alkyd paint so you can use soap and water to clean everything afterwards (brushes, etc).  but it cures to a hard finish, and is supposed to be durable.  i used decorator white for the upper cabinets.  it's a pretty standard white but it has a very faint gray undertone, so there are no yellow casts to it.  i used chelsea gray on the bottom cabinets.  i love love love this color.  i have seen it in tons of inspiration pics online, and sometimes it looks a little warmer than i prefer.  but, in my kitchen it doesn't look too warm.  i guess that's because it will take on whatever light and colors are around.  but it actually has very little undertone, so it is a perfect neutral gray, in my opinion.  it is kind of a mid-toned gray, not too light and not too dark.  the first coat went on so nicely, although it was much warmer than expected.  then it dried to its normal color.  after i put the second coat on, i was so excited.  the color is beautiful.  i only had to use two coats.  the paint goes on so smoothly and dries so nicely.

oh, and i actually used 3 coats of paint (and one of primer) on the top cabinets, which were all white, and then just 2 coats were needed for the bottom cabinets, which were the chelsea gray.

-then let dry for the specified time.  this paint needs 16 hours of drying time in between coats.  but typically i would paint one side at night, then the next night (about 24 hours later) i would flip and paint the other side.  sometimes if i had time, i would flip after about 4 hours and paint the other side. but i always waited 16 hours in between the first and second coat.  after both sides have been painted, let them cure for a week.  once the weather became cooler, especially in the winter, i did this part inside, in the laundry room.  i'm lucky that i had the space to do that.  otherwise we would have had to wait until summertime.  if the weather is too cold, then the paint will not cure properly, which means it will not harden.

-the next step is to install the hardware; whatever knobs/pulls chosen and the hinges as well.  finding the pulls was actually not too difficult for me.  i knew already that i wanted to use all bar pulls, no knobs.  i looked around at a bunch of different stores and websites and they were all way more than i wanted to pay.  like $10 or more for each pull.  that adds up, we needed 26 i think.  aaaand we needed hinges.  i did not want to spend $500 on hardware.  i think that's more than the cost of the paint.  so anyway, i found some on amazon that had good reviews, that were very reasonably priced.  i wanted satin nickel finish but i wanted the handle to be solid.  no nickel plated plastic or anything like that.  so, i found these ones in amazon and they were about $1.32 per pull.  so i placed just a small order so that i could see if i liked them.  and they were great!  then i ordered more.

the tough one were the hinges.  we didn't know what kind of hinges to get.  they were obviously not just regular hinges.  then we went to lowe's and home depot, and they looked at all the hinges, and none of them matched.  and we didn't know what to do.  and of course, there was no one there to help us.  so on the way home i started googling hinges.  and i didn't even know what to google!  i think i just started googling stuff like "hinge that wraps around cabinet door like a book", and finally i found a website that described a bunch of different styles of hinges.  i think the one that fit our doors were single demountable overlay hinges.  who'd have known?  of course we bought them on amazon, and they were 10 for $60 or so.  again, that was sooooo much less expensive than the hardware stores.

all the hardware fit just fine, and work great.  hubby installed them since, again, he is the more precise of the two of us.

one thing that i would recommend is to get those little rubber or felt circle thingies that you put on the inside corners of the cabinet door so that it doesn't slam painted wood against painted wood when the door closes.

an issue i had to trouble shoot that is important to mention is that when i rolled the paint onto the cabinet doors, the first coat, there were tiny little bubbles all over the door.  and i did exactly what i was supposed to do---i didn't use too much paint, i didn't roll too fast, i didn't overwork the paint.  i did not understand.  so i called the guys at benjamin moore.  they told me i was doing everything right, and was using the correct type of roller.  they said to let the paint dry and that the bubbles were supposed to pop and go away since this paint is supposed to be self-leveling.  so i did, and the paint basically dried with popped bubbles.  i was so annoyed.  i had an idea that i should just go over the paint with the paint brush to smooth it all out.  i knew that there may be some brush strokes visible, but for me that was better than popped bubbles.  i searched online and hard a reaaalllly hard time finding anything, or anyone with a similar problem.  i finally found some post that was responded to by an actual cabinet painter/re-finisher.  he said that this happens with this type of paint a lot, and recommended to just go over everything with a brush.  so i felt confident about my initial idea.  but to make it scientific, i decided to roll one of the cabinet doors, and with the other one i rolled and then finished with a brush.  of course the rolled one still had the popped bubbles on the surface and the one that i went over with a brush was very smooth.  actually, i was surprised at the lack of brush strokes.  this paint, if not overworked, actually self-levels and ends up drying really smoothly.

you can see there are already some spots where the paint is chipping a little where we bash things into the cabinets, so i can easily go through and touch that up, but i hope that this paint holds up as well as it's supposed to!

ok, verrrry long post.  but, it's a big job.  so far, the bottom cabinets need a few touch ups here and there, which i was anticipating, especially with little kids.  but overall it seems like the paint job is holding up pretty well.

the next step in the kitchen is to tile a backsplash, add trim on the cabinet soffits and crown molding all around the kitchen.  and then we will tackle the flooring.  i am so excited to get rid of that ridiculous vinyl flooring!  you can see in some of the pics above.  it looks awwwwwwfullllll!  anyway, i'll probably do another post with alllll the other ideas i have for this kitchen!