Kitchen Makeover Part 2: Painting the Cabinets

We're painting the roses red! We're painting the roses red! I'm painting my cabinets white linen!

Whew. Painting cabinets is no joke. This time consuming, multi-step process has had our house in chaos for OVER THREE WEEKS. Finally, FINALLY the cabinets are done! Those who have already painted cabinets can sympathize; those who haven't just cannot understand. I didn't understand!

Here's a sneak peak of the kitchen with the cabinets painted, the knobs installed and doors (mostly) reinstalled.
After reading and reading and reading blogs on how to paint cabinets, I finally decided that I wanted to use Benjamin Moore Advance Paint in Linen White. Great, right? Wrong? Do you know how many stores sell this line of paint? Not so many. After visiting 4 stores that sell Benjamin Moore paint and calling a few more, I finally found one about 25 minutes from our house. I drove up to the local hardware store after work one afternoon and was fortunately to score their very last can of Advance Paint in Satin.

Why did it take 3.5 weeks to finish this up? Remember, I have to do this at night after work and after the kiddos are settled down for the night. The work breakdown is below:
Day 1-2 Clean cabinets with TSP and remove doors from cabinets

Day 3-4 Sand cabinets and doors

Day 5-7 Prime doors and cabinets

Day 8 Didn't get to do anything

Day 9 Sand all the doors and cabinets

Day 9 Finally find and buy paint

Day 10-11 Paint coat 1 on cabinets and doors

Day 12-13 Paint coat 2 on cabinets and doors

Day 14 Do nothing-no time!

Day 15-16 Paint coat 3 on cabinets and doors

Day 17-20 Do nothing while paint on cabinets/doors cure

Day 21-23 Drill holes for new knobs/rehang cabinet doors

Day 24 Stand back and admire all the work

I am so glad that is done. Again, here's a peak at our progress.

Kitchen Makeover Part 1: The Post I've Been Dreading

After seven and a half years in our little home, we've decided to update our kitchen. I'm not talking about throwing some new paint on the walls and adding some new accessories-I've already done that (about 4 times already). Changing the paint color just isn't making me love the kitchen. More serious work needs to be done.

To be fair, our kitchen is certainly not ugly. At most, it's a little dated. The flooring and counters are chipped/cracked in some places-but it was nothing I couldn't live with. Like many of our household projects, this decision resulted from another project. We are currently having a new exterior door in the kitchen installed. This door leads out onto our second story deck. This is the final exterior door we want to replace. We would like to stop supplying heat (or A/C) to the rest of our neighborhood and a new door should help. After the door is installed, I have to repaint the trim and walls anyway, so why not work in a full makeover?
Here's a preview of what the kitchen currently looks like. Actually, the walls aren't even green anymore; they are a light aqua blue. It looks basically the same and most people didn't even know I changed the color. It's not horrible. The maple cabinets are in good shape and the laminate counters are okay. There are chips and, if I'm honest, I'm the only person I know who doesn't love gray right now. The laminate floor looks okay, but it's actually in pretty bad shape. The floor is warped in some areas and chipped in many places. Laminate floors just do not work for clumbsy me in a kitchen.

I've decided to follow Young House Love's kitchen remodeling steps since those guys are so DIY savvy and do such a fantastic job providing tips. My first step is painting the cabinets. I am so not looking forward to this, but I am looking forward to the end result.

So, what's the plan?

• Replace the sliding door (not pictured). This is where the bulk of the budget is going.


• Paint the cabinets a creamy white (Ack-I have to decide on a paint color!)


• Replace/add hardware


• Install a new tile and glass backsplash


• Install a new butcher block counter top, sink and faucet


• Paint the walls a new color since Installing the door will ruin the paint and I am ready for a new wall color anyway. Aqua blue, while pretty, just does't do it for me.


• Install inexpensive flooring


• Accesorize!

We're pretty slow with our rennovations due to our day jobs, kids and well because we are just slow at getting anything done (except eating). I'm hoping to get this rennovation done by mid-May, but I'm not going to flip out (much) if it's not done. Slow and steady-that's my mantra with this project.