Make Mine Eclectic

Progress- The Kitchen!

April 14, 2009 at 9:05 am (Home Changes and Additions, Projects) (cabinets, cupboards, decor, decorate, diy, hardware, home, house, kilz, kitchen, old, paint, primer, redo, remodel, renovate, white, work)

We have been hard at work painting those kitchen cabinets.  Not finished yet, but getting close.  I just thought that we would update you on some of the process and the progress. 

Here are some before shots of the dark, mismatched, and very worn cabinets:

I started by using a palm sander to sand the stain off of all showing cabinet surfaces.  They then looked like this:

Next, I removed all of the old hardware and filled the existing holes with wood putty.  I did not need to fill the holes from the hinges, however, because we were lucky enough to purchase new hinges that fit in the old holes.  But the handles are completely different sizes and shapes, so these holes and to be filled.  I also swiped some of the putty across any cracks and dents I found.  By the way, the new wood putty they have out there is more of a foam than putty. It is super easy to use.  I sanded the putty spots down once they were dry.  For the larger holes I puttied and sanded a second time so that they came out very flat with the wood.  Here’s a shot of that step before sanding (after sanding they look much smoother):

I then started the painting process (the lengthy part!).  I decided to start with only the bottom cabinets.  There would not be enough floor space to paint all of the doors at the same time.  I taped off walls, trim and floors with painter’s tape.  I also taped down papers on the floor.  (Actually, this is kind of weird, but I taped down puppy pee pads.  We had a bunch left from when the puppy was still having accidents.  She never liked to use them, but instead of throwing them out they made great drop clothes!) I then applied to coats of Kilz primer. 

You can see that the first coat goes on kind of streak-y, but the second coat covers much more evenly.  We now have the bottom cabinets painted with two coats of white semi-gloss paint, and we are hanging the hardware and doors tonight.  More updates to come… but isn’t it starting to look gooood?! 🙂

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