Kitchen Remodel

Who doesn't like trying new things????  {ryan}  Not because he fears the change…well ok he does fear the amount of change, as in coin…or MONEY, it will cost him.  And even when we find a cost effective solution, he still is a cotton headed ninny muggins throughout the whole process, anticipating it all to fail and we will spend our life savings to fix it!  You could say, in simpler terms, Ryan suffers from horrible buyers remorse.

So needless to say, when I brought up the idea of refinishing our cabinets, I assumed ryan would be against the idea…but to my surprise, he wasn't.

My sister had refinished her cabinets with the rustoleum kit and they looked great, so I decided to do some research.  Jamie {my sister}  posted her results on facebook, saying how easy and quick the process was…so I was on board.

We picked the kit that we thought would match our oak trim and white appliances the best.  The kit cost $70 and said it would take about 2 days, with drying in between coats.  EASY PEASY!  right…

Wrong!


5 days later, I was ready to burn every last cabinet door.  Ryan always says I get myself into situations that make my life harder than it should be and I normally disagree with him.  Like when I re-paint a room at 11 o'clock at night…or when I decide to start a second busiess…or when I decide to homeschool…but this time he was right.

The process of refinishing these cabinets was way harder than they made it look in the instructional video {or what jamie said!!!}…I suppose the people in the video didn't have 2 dogs and 3 kids and jamie must have had we wine tapped throughout the process and forgot how hard it was!

1. We had to remove all the doors and hinges.
2. scrub and clean all the doors and cabinets, then let them dry over night
3. next was applying the base color coat to everything, working with the grain
4. after the first coat dried for 4 hours, paint a second coat
(steps 3 and 4 are deceiving, you can't paint the backs of the doors until the fronts are dry, so the door painting took twice as long, 2 days to be exact)
5. After everything had 2 coats of the base coat I applied the glaze, which basically brought out the wood grain, again after this we had to let dry for 4 hours (double the time for the backs)
6. After the glaze was dry, I applied the protective top coat…which was the hardest part.  It dried really fast and was glue-like, so I had to be quick and precise working with the grain again.

The hard part was working with the grain and around the intricate details on the molding and door fronts.  I seriously regretted starting this project half-way through…

Even after the dogs ran through the kitchen with their wet paws and left prints on the freshly painted doors...

 I stayed positive, I refused to be a cotton-headed ninny muggins…like somebody else I know….

Before

After

We (yes Ryan too) are thrilled with the results…the before picture was taken almost 4 years ago, the kitchen walls were actually a dark red, so its a really dramatic difference.  Plus I just really don't like orange oak.  We have future plans to get new floors and a back splash.  We got hardware…which I LOVE, and the kids act like handles on a cabinet door is the way of the future…since we have never had hardware before.  

by the time this house looks the way we want…it will be time to move.