Oak floors. Oak cabinets. Oak bull nose trim on the counter tops (that I loath with my every being). Oak trim around the windows. The kitchen even used to have rusty, oak like colored paint complements of the old homeowners. Horrible on every level!
I painted the kitchen and great room this winter a pleasant gray color (BM Nimbus) and the change in color pallet really helped my kitchen. It was soothing and full of promise.
Handy Man and I have gone back and forth for the last three years about what we should do with our kitchen. Should we tear out all of the cabinets and replace them? Should we try painting them? Should we leave the cabinets alone and just change the hideous hardware? Should we refinish the hardwood floors a darker stain? Should we tear out the hardwood floors and install some of that cool, super durable wood looking tile in a rustic barn wood color?!?!?
Talk, talk, talkity-talk...
I am ready to get this show in the road! It's now or never baby and I have decided that I am going to paint my kitchen cabinets and do a DIY kitchen remodel!
Let's do this!!!
Of course I first spent about another month delaying the project watching YouTube videos, reading 6,783,902 Pinterest posts and blogs regarding the best paint to use, techniques, and cataloging paint colors to consider.
...and then we bit the bullet!!
Step One: Clean 20+ years of kitchen grease and goo off of your kitchen cabinets.
This step alone divides the men from the boys, the in-it-to-win-it DIY 'ers and the Pinterest flop 'ers. It is not for the faint of heart. It's a sucky, gross job... period. I hated it. I never want to do it again. I would rather replace the cabinets or stick to paper plates and cups forever.
I used a combination of Goo Gone and rubbing alcohol to clean the cabinets. No particular order. No rhyme or reason. It's what we had laying around. I made sure to wear heavy-duty rubber gloves and I used both rag wash clothes and a gentile kitchen scour pad.
Survivor note: start an audio book to distract you from the painstaking amount of time this first step takes. Pick a good one too. Your mind will wander. You will consider quitting. Stay focused and may the DIY force be with you!
Step Two: Install new crown molding to existing cabinets to make them look fancy and special and awesome.
I am the painter in the family.
Handy Man is the builder and everything else in between person in our family.
Crown molding installation therefore clearly falls under the "Handy Man - Other Duties."
Getting started and determining his angles and saw settings were the most challenging. They took for-ev-er. Once he got them figured out though, smooth sailing!
We had to add a small piece of finishing trim to the end cabinets to fill in the gap left by the cabinet fronts.
Once I caulk and paint over them, I am hoping not to see the transition piece at all.
Oh my windows!
The builder of our home owes me a drink.
The builder installed our cabinets lower than the window trim, off center from the window and the right one is not... quite... level.
Handy man and I went round and round about how to transition our molding at the widow. If we took the crown molding all the way to the wall, the transition cut off the corners of the existing window trim. But of course unevenly as the window is not centered 100%. So we came up with this idea. We decided to stop the molding just short of the wall and allow for a future window treatment to hang in the void.
As Handy Man finished installing the last few pieces, I couldn't help but get super excited about this project!
What a difference the new crown molding made!
Step Three: Glue, Putty and Caulk.
I am a totally impulsive person when it comes to projects. I want to just jump right in and start slapping paint from here to Tim-buck-too. I am very proud of the level of self control I have displayed through out this project. So many little steps. So many tedious steps. Sooo many...
After the molding was installed, I hand glued every seam from behind. Then I came back and puttied the front of the seams and finishing nail holes with Dry Dex. Handy Man tells me Dry Dex is very soft and sand-able.
I just think it's cool that it is pink and drys white.
After the Dry Dex and glue was totally dry (next day), I sanded the Dry Dex with 400 grit sand paper.
I then came back and caulked all of the end panels where we added the finishing piece under the molding for a smooth paint-able surface. I also re-caulked the end boxes where they vertically met the walls.
Oh Boy! It was almost time for paint!
