like I always say, just call me Martha!
as I mentioned last week, we finally tackled a big DIY that we have put off for the year and a half we have owned our condo and painted the kitchen cabinets.
I had been hesitant, not only because of the amount of work, but because I was afraid they wouldn’t turn out well. I also thought we had to use a sander to strip the finish off and I was dreading all of that dust.
When we were at Home Depot picking up paint samples for the walls, a customer was buying this DIY cabinet kit and raved about it.
The cost of the kit is a mere $65. We had to buy a couple brushes and things but the total cost of this renovation was definitely under $100 and was completely a sweat and hard work cost and basically no money.
I can’t believe for the amount of money how great the finished product looks.
I only wish we did it sooner!
but it definitely was A LOT of work. my knees would have bruises from kneeling and painting so often.
I knew the project would be a lot of hard work and take time, but I did greatly underestimate it. Taking all of the cabinet doors off, removing all of the hardware, tempting out cabinets, taping off everything with the blue tape – just the prep to start took time.
tips : Draw a picture of the kitchen and label all doors and drawers with a number. Mark each door with that number on a piece of blue painters tape and keep it taped to the floor in front of the cabinet while you paint it – otherwise, who knows what went where.
Then, there is a three step process for the cabinets
1. The de-glazer to strip any finish off of them and get them ready – this part took a lot of elbow grease and was the worst part of all of it. Hated it.
2. Three coats of the base paint. Which when you have to do each side of a cabinet door and wait hours for it to dry before you can flip it to the other side adds up.
3. A coat of protective top coat to seal it all.
We had cabinets downstairs in the basement living area and upstairs in the guest bedroom.
Those of you with a garage or actual extra space – it’ll be much easier!
Living in the city, garages and space to put everything and do the painting is nonexistent.
please ignore any “styling”, as in, no styling. we have been moving things from one place to another for projects and there is crap all over the place at the moment 🙂
:: BEFORE ::
:: DURING ::
:: AFTER ::
It’s made such a change – it’s so much brighter and feels so much bigger.
and looks so much prettier too of course!
Next up, painting the kitchen and living room.
who knew finding a basic grey or neutral or beige or whatever color was so impossible (oh wait, I did, because I’ve read about it on blogs for years. and newsflash : they are correct.)
come back tomorrow where I’ll tell you about sitting next to James from Vanderpump Rules at dinner on Saturday and NOT GETTING A PICTURE WITH HIM BECAUSE I SUCK.
that’s pretty much the whole story, but come back tomorrow anyway……..
