Kitchen Makeover Progress
I have a little sneak peek for you today of my kitchen makeover. It is only a little peek, but I wanted to show you my progress so far. I am one week in and think it should take about 3 – 4 weeks. If you have taken on a big project by yourself like this, then you know you gotta stay focused until you get it done. I am trying to stay organized and go the distance.
This is the third time I have painted kitchen cabinets. The first two were in my previous house. I wrote about that in this post: DIY Kitchen Makeover.
I am painting the cabinets by sections to keep things organized and still allowing us to be able to use the kitchen.
Here is the BEFORE of the first section of cabinets I started to paint.
It is the oven section of the cabinets. I had removed the cabinet door so we could place the microwave in the cabinet above the double ovens instead of it taking up room on the counter.
After I had a coat of paint on inside of the cabinet, I didn’t like that you could see the gaps between the sides and top of the cabinet. These gaps weren’t noticeable when the cabinets were dark, but when they’re white, the gaps are prominent.
It is super easy to fix by running a line of caulk along the gap and then smoothing it with your finger or an ice cube to make it look seamless. After the caulk is dry, I painted over it so the gaps became history.
I always caulk with what I fondly refer to as Cheez Wiz caulk. It comes in a can with a tip. It is actually called, Alex Plus Easy Caulk and is made by Dap. It makes the job of caulking quick and easy since no caulk gun is needed and it is paintable when dry. It also comes in a tube and in the traditional caulk gun style container, but the can makes caulking so easy.
AFTER Caulking: You can see caulking makes a big difference wherever there is a gap or seam between wood, walls, and moldings inside and outside of the cabinets. I also caulked along the top and bottom of the crown molding where gaps showed up when the white paint went on.
Doing this is an extra step when painting cabinets but will ensure the finished painted finish will make the paint job look like a pro did it.
Having one section of the cabinets done has allowed me to see all that will need to be done for the rest of the cabinets. Only 3 are going to have open shelves and will need to have the interior painted. Painting the insides is the most time consuming.
Another step that is worth the time to do is to roll on 2 light coats of Polycrylic on the top of painted shelves on the interior cabinets This seals the latex paint so you will never hear that latex sticky sound when you remove objects on the shelves.
For paint and primer, I was going to use Glidden Complete, because that hides the wood tannins beautifully while it paints, but I wanted the brush stroke leveling quality of Sherwin Williams Pro Classic, so I ended up trying a new stain-blocking gripping primer from Valspar. So far, so good especially on the doors where I had to sand to the bare wood and then fill the existing holes in the center of each door where the previous pulls had been placed. More on this in an upcoming post.
As soon as I eat my breakfast this morning, I will be back at it. I am still waiting for the hardware to arrive, once it does I will show you how this section looks with the cabinets back on.
It is coming out better than I expected… I will explain and show you why in my next update.
Products I used:
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