I’ve been in-love with this kitchen for so long:

I just can’t get it out of my mind.

And this weekend, my water heater went south.

Doesn’t everyone, when faced with a water heater replacement, say “Well, I guess we might as well just rip the kitchen on out and re-do it.”? I know I do.

A few less obvious reasons I love this kitchen (as-if sheer hot-ness isn’t enough):

• the oven and microwave are at the perfect height
• (like I said, these are less obvious reasons… the obvious ones are here)
• The four-light windows and matching pattern in the door
• The way the red controls on the range play off the red cabinet… love that.
• I’ve always wanted a prep sink (vegetable sink, baby sink, sinkette)
• Furniture-style feet on the oven cabinet

I go on and on about it more in my original post which shows more pictures.

I just was staring at the picture and thought I’d show-off my dream kitchen (in someone else’s house) again!

I just can’t get enough of these colorful kitchens! I wrote apost just over a year ago with one that is still my favorite. That post was titled: Colors in Cabinetry — A New Trend? If it wasn’t already a major trend then, it certainly is now! And I’m one person who is happy, happy, happy about it!

bhg.com

The photo above has one thing in common with the one from last year that I think is really a key to pulling this look off:

Color on bottom — White on top!

Using white on the upper cabinet really serves to brighten the look. If the top half of the room had the darker colors, it wouldn’t work the same way. If they were actually reversed, and the white was on bottom, I think it would be a disaster!

Color On All The Cabinets

architecturaldigest.com

This look, where color is used on all of the cabinets is also beautiful in the right color and can work in a wider range of overall decor. The kind of detail and quality in these particular cabinets doesn’t hurt either.

Any thoughts? I’d love to hear your opinion on color in cabinetry or your favorite details in these pictures. It helps me know how your mind works! Thanks!

One of the advantages of my graying beard is that I can say things that aren’t, like, totally hip, and get away with it! Or at least think I got away with it! For example, I can refer to a kitchen island this way…

This island is HOT!

Now I know the look overall may not be just what you’re looking for. If it is, great, you found it! But what I’m really stoked about is the way they used two regular ole dressers to make the island. That rocks!

If I was the one who came up with this idea, I’d have to treat myself to a steak or something. This is a great idea! How quickly could you do this? A day?

9:00 am – Find old dressers at Goodwill or a garage sale

10:00 am – Pick up some spray paint and stencils at Michael’s or, what’s that big one we went to in Charlotte???…thinking…(have to go ask Kim) Hobby Lobby!

11:00 am – Furniture laid out on drop cloths, spray paint going mad.

1:00 pm – Paint is drying, and you’re off to a local granite supplier with measurements for a square slab of stone.

2:00 pm – How lucky are you! The granite supplier had exactly what you want in the scrap bin for $10.00 … this almost doesn’t seem real!

3:00pm – Since you’ve been working out, it’s no problem to throw that slab of stone on-top of your freshly painted island… and you’re done!

4:00pm – Relax, kick back, look at your handi-work, and wait for the family to come home and see what you did today!

See how simple that is!

Now you try!

pictures from DIYIdeas.com

Remember Barney? The big purple guy… who looks like he eats pretty well. Here is his kitchen…

Nice appliances…

Here we go! Finally, the end result of the cabinet door, Plan A version. It looks pretty good!

You may recall that we originally had to vote to decide which Drillbit Art pattern we would use. The winner was the bird!

So I eagerly got started, sanding and priming, in Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets – Part One .

And I showed you how to do a bird design via secret Remodeling Guy methods, hereafter known as Drillbit Art .

What happened next was a surprise to everyone including myself! I got frustrated with some brush marks and decided to try something new. We spray painted the cabinet door with good old spray paint.

That was plan B. If you haven’t seen that post, you ought to take a look because the results were pretty darn good. And the door we did is holding up great!

Back To Plan A

Well, I had already started the door and committed to give it to the lucky winner of the giveaway! I was determined to get it looking nice one way, or another. So after the paint dried I took a good look.

It wasn’t so bad. Both the initial problem (brush marks), and the fact that it came out nicely had a whole lot to do with the fact that I was using a matte flat paint. The winner specified that she didn’t want a sheen to the finish so I went with flat.

Flat never paints that smoothly on woodwork (with a brush) and I knew that, but those brush marks made me crazy! The good news is that flat doesn’t show the brush marks as much. Even so, the door had to be lightly sanded again and another coat applied, for a total of three coats. That was a TON of work for one little door.

The finish looks pretty nice, but you can still see some brush marks.

Even the area around the bird, and the large flat surface of the raised panel wound-up looking pretty smooth. I had to hit some of the bird holes with the drill a second time because paint had gotten in them, but that was easy.

The Verdict?

I don’t know. Based solely on the evidence I SEE, from my experience with this project, given the choice…seems like spray paint to me. But read the comments on that last post before you try it.

I call you guys The Crew for a reason. I consider this a team effort and many of the comments had good points, both for and against the spray paint. The hand painted method worked out fine too.

The Important Thing

It’s really not super critical HOW you paint your cabinets. The important thing is that you DO paint your cabinets if you don’t like them now! Both of the “average Joe” friendly methods I’ve shown are bound to have a mistake or two. But just remember the words of a wise friend….

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

Just go for it! You’ll be glad you did. One really important bit of advice is this… whatever method you choose, practice on something small first! Get good at in in a bathroom or on a small piece of furniture, then go for the gusto.

If you haven’t seen it already, take a look at the post about the Spring Round-Up. I’m going to give you all a chance to show off your work, painting or otherwise, on May 1st.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think of the finish on the Plan A door? Has anyone tried to spray paint? One reader did try and had problems, anyone else?

(I thought of one more thing and added it in the comments… lucky me, I was the first comment!)

Welcome to the ongoing saga of the RemodelingGuy.net “Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets” series of posts! I think that many of you will like where I go with this today, though I know that some will disagree even though I’m on-trend with painting kitchen cabinets black!

Plan A – Part 2 – More Sanding

As you can see in this close-up shot, the primer dried a little thick on some spots and the brush marks were readily visible. I knew I would need to sand the door a little more, but I was disappointed with the rough finish left by the primer and I had to sand it more than I would want to do if I was doing a whole kitchen.

After a good sanding to get all those brush marks in the primer smooth, I’m ready to paint. I set-up in the shade and worked early because I didn’t want it to be too hot out, which causes the paint to dry too fast.

I have a couple of brush options because I want to avoid the dreaded brush marks. A foam roller works well on flat surfaces, but that won’t do for this door. Too many little crevices in the profile. This has to be brushed so I have a couple options…and I have my coffee. Good to go!

What A Disaster

Let me say at this point that a brush isn’t the “professional” way to paint a cabinet. I happen to own a very nice “professional” spray machine perfect for this work. You’ve probably never even heard of an HVLP, but it is one of the preferred tools of a pro for cabinet painting. I’m not using it because I figure that exactly ZERO of my readers has one of these sprayers.

I wanted to show you a way to get professional results with average tools.

Take a look at these pictures:

It may be hard to see, but these pictures don’t show a great job. I’ve titled them “Disaster1“, “Disaster2“, and “Disaster3“, if that tells you how I feel about them.

Cabinet Doors, in general, have a lot of detail. Ups and downs, corners and curves. All of these are exactly why the professional way to finish a cabinet is to use spray equipment. It’s very difficult to get those corners clean with a brush, especially with a relatively normal latex paint.

It works, don’t get me wrong. The primer was well cured and very tough. The paint covered very nicely and applied easily. If I wasn’t such a perfectionist, the results might be fine. But the brush marks are driving me nuts! I wouldn’t want them in my kitchen.

Old Time Wisdom

I learned a lesson many years ago when I was a kid. It was literally “hammered” into my brain through repetition. My parents, grandparents, and even the radio disc-jockey all played a roll. (see if you get the pun…)

Listen to this:  You Gotta Know   (link will start a short audio clip)

Know When To Fold ‘em

I knew I needed a new plan. I was steering you wrong! I would never paint my cabinets this way! I was trying to show you how to do it right, but not do it professionally. No such thing! The professional way is the only “truly correct” way. But it isn’t the only way that works! There is an easier way that works and is fast and you can do it with no help from anyone!

And no sandpaper.

Disclaimer: What you are about to see is NOT PROFESSIONAL! It has drawbacks. Attempt at your own risk!

All I can tell you is that it will be a cold day in Hell before I ever tried to sand and paint a kitchen the way I was showing you before! If I couldn’t go the professional route (sprayed with pro equipment) then this is what I would do.

Spray Paint Your Cabinets

That’s right, spray paint. Like with a can. I didn’t even go to the store. Kim is a spray paint aficionado so we had a decent selection at the house.

And I just happened to have another cabinet door. Same type thing, lacquer finish on solid wood. What you see in the photo below is the extent of the prep work we did. Wiped it off with a T-Shirt.

Now my door was brand new so it didn’t have grease or grime. You would want a clean surface. One reader suggested using TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate) which is a good cleaner that won’t leave behind a problematic residue.

My aim at this point was EASE, SPEED, and LOOKS!

I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t take this oh so seriously. If I forgot that I’m a pro. If I didn’t try and do this as if I were being paid thousands but with no tools.

What would I do if I were a homeowner who just wanted a fresh look without a ton of time or money invested?

Get It Clean

Apply Primer

Kim is a serious threat with a can of spray paint! She can do amazing things with it and she hit this door like it was nothing. She uses very light coats which dry almost instantly and she alternates direction as she passes over the previous light coats. She covered the door completely with primer in just a couple of minutes.

The primer we used is Rust-Oleum automotive primer. I have no idea if the can said that it was or wasn’t approved for kitchen cabinets. I started reading it, saw that it said not to apply to surfaces that would get hotter than 200 degrees farenheit and figured it would do.

We were painting a slick surface and I wanted a good primed surface for the top-coat, so automotive sounded like the ticket. Plus this is what we had on hand…I have no idea why.

Bottom line…when painting a slick surface you really AT LEAST ought to prime it if you’re willing to live with the sacrilege of not sanding. Sanding wouldn’t have hurt, but I was being an extremist.

It took less than five minutes.

Whew! Time for a Coffee Break

Watching Paint Dry.

Took about ten minutes.

Time For The Finish Coat

Seems like black is popular, so we decided on black. We had some more good quality Rust-Oleum paint. This can was designed for use with outdoor metal furniture. Looked good to me. Ding Ding, Round 2:

I’m telling you what…the girl is scary with a can of Rust-Oleum! If they know what’s good for them, they would make her the national spokes girl! Swish, Woosh, spray, spray, a little mist here, a litte shot there… done!

Three Minutes! I’m in Love!

Just Let it Dry

I’m so amazed by this. It’s just another example of how we tend to make things in life way harder than they need to be. Look at this result:

Is that amazing or what? This result is in minutes, with almost zero prep, and with no real effort all given to controlling dust, etc. We didn’t sand, we didn’t vacuum, we didn’t do squat! Kim wiped it with a T-Shirt and sprayed it with automotive primer and metal furniture paint. In less than 20 minutes, including dry time!

You can buy enough spray paint to do a whole kitchen for less than $100.00 and I bet you could do this in a day. You could do a clear top-coat if you want to add more durability. But I’m looking at the door right now and it’s almost flawless.

I tried to scrape the paint off of a corner with my fingernail and did no damage at all. So then I got out the key to my truck and tried to scratch it off and all I did was create surface scratches, the paint did not come off!

The other door, as of now, has about three hours labor in it and it isn’t close to being finished. Hmmmm….???

Forget The Real Paint Store

We all know that I’m a fan of a real local paint store. That won’t change until the big box stores get serious about having people in the paint department that know paint. That said… this is spray paint! No paint man needed.

Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Lowes! Even Amazon.com has Rust-Oleum!

Call me crazy, but this seems like the way to go to me.

Kim’s Spray Paint Tips:

• Better to work in the heat of the day, bright sun, so the paint dries fast!
• Try to work in an area with no wind to keep junk out of your paint and your paint off of your junk!
• Don’t hold the can too close to the work, you can see in the pictures how she does it.
• Spray at an angle, not straight on. And change your direction after each “mini-coat”.
• One “coat” is actually a series of “mini-coats” all done at one time. These are very, very thin…you can see right through the first one.
• Make sure you look closely from all angles to be sure you don’t miss grooves and cracks, etc.
• Better paint covers much better. Rust-Oleum is the house favorite!

Some Posts You Should Read:

• Stuck On Spray Paint – See some of Kim’s other spray paint work at Forever…Wherever!
• Painting Kitchen Cabinets – Part One – the first steps down a bad road.
• Drillbit Designs Cabinet Doors – where all of this started
• Drillbit Art How-To – A cool post showing how to do the bird design.

Have fun! I’ll let you know how the Plan A door works out, but what do you think about the Plan B version? 

Edie @ Life In grace has a whole linky party on painted wood and you can see her amazing kitchen which she says required NO SANDING!  Sounds good to me.

Finally the “Paint Your Cabinets” post you’ve been waiting for! Let’s Jump right in!

A Clear Finished Wood Door

We’re working with a door I had laying around in my shop. It was a beautiful solid maple door already.

But we have other plans for it!

Since this door had a clear coat of lacquer on top of stained wood, it really needs to be “roughed-up” before we can begin the process of painting it.

It’s almost never okay to paint a slick surface without some sort of sanding or other abrasive to roughen the surface.

I’ve found that if you’re going to be doing much woodworking, it makes sense to invest in a power sander! Trust me!

The main workhorse of my sanding fleet is this Random Orbital sander from DeWalt. This thing just won’t quit! I’ll include a link at the end in case you want to buy one!

It wasn’t my goal to get every bit of the original finish off. I just want to scuff the surface to make it more ready to accept primer.

I did get all the way through in some places and that’s a good thing. But you can imagine that this large sander didn’t do the best job with the little cracks and crevices in the door profile. I had to get those by hand, using sandpaper and/or steel wool. When I was done sanding, it looked like this:

When you sand, it’s very important to make sure that you take special care around the edges. The finished paint will rarely have problems in the center of the door. The edges, on the other hand, are very prone to getting whacked with all sorts of damaging objects such as pots and pans. By sanding the edge well, you can be more sure that the primer will get good adhesion where it counts most.

Apply The Primer

When you’ve finished sanding, clean and vacuum the door down to get rid of all dust. I use a rag dampened with a little bit of mineral spirits.

Water works, but the mineral spirits seems to do a better job of collecting the dust. Just don’t use too much. You only need a slightly damp rag and you want the paint thinner to evaporate completely, which it will do if thinly applied.

A bit of side info here: Mineral Spirits and Paint Thinner are the same thing, but not all “Paint Thinner” is 100% Mineral Spirits…I guess for the cheap stuff they use “thinner thinner”…? Always get 100% Mineral Spirits.

Go To A Real Paint Store

The most important part of painting, especially painting something other than just a regular wall, is getting the right paint for the job. That requires a real paint man. As you can see in the picture, I found one of those.

Even though I’ve been a contractor for … awhile…, I still took my door to a real paint store and showed it to a real paint man and asked him…”what should I use?” This is the way you should do this. Take your cabinet door, be it Formica, or wood, or whatever you have and show it to them. get some feedback. You’ll be able to tell if the person doesn’t know diddly squat.

If that happens, just go with what the great folks at Port Charlotte Paints told me to use.

Benjamin Moore paint has always worked well for me and according to the man, this primer here will allow you to paint just about anything, even Formica countertops! The key is to let it cure properly before applying a top-coat.

I would normally use a little bit of a sheen on for the paint, rather than the flat we have here, but the winner of this work of art in the making said that shiny paints caused her to feel ill, so I went with the flat.

In general, the more sheen a paint has, the more durable it will be. Knowing that this was for a cabinet, the paint man sold me a special “Matte Flat” that should be very durable.

Prime Time

I primed the back first so that I could leave the front untouched to dry well.

It didn’t take long at all for the primer to dry enough for me to flip the door over and work on the front.

Both sides require a little bit of patience when dealing with the corners. Paint tends to build-up a little in the corners and that’s especially true with the front.

Small amounts of paint build-up are easily solved by brushing away from the corner with an “empty” brush.

I had to work pretty quickly because it was very hot (mid 80′s) and I was in the bright sun. It would have been better to do this indoors, but you haven’t seen the inside of my shop.

You don’t want to see the inside of my shop. I’m Remodeling Guy, not Mr. Clean.

The Cure

I’m not talking about the band. If I were talking about the band, I would have to show you this video here. And then I would have to ask you to pray along with me every day that my sons’ love of music never causes them to look like that guy. Not even for one day…no matter how much they pay them.

I’m talking about the primer. You have to let it CURE. This is different than DRY. Dry happens pretty fast. Cure doesn’t. The curing process adds hardness to the finish and in the case of cabinets, the harder the better. This will really make a difference in the durability. The time requirement for this primer, used this way, is three days.

So I can’t finish this until next week. I’ll have to find something to do in the meantime…

I hope I find at least a few hours to spend out here… but I digress again.

The Cabinet Boxes

I’ve shown you a door, which you should do just as I showed it, off of the cabinet, with hardware removed. But there are also the cabinet boxes that have to be done in-place.

The process for these is essentially the same, just a little more difficult. You’ll probably need to put some plastic up to seal off the area so you can do the sanding. Don’t cut out that sanding step! You really want the durability that can only be had by sanding.

After that, the process is the same. If you think you might be changing the size or location of your hardware, you want to fill in those holes. For this application, I would use Bondo.

Yes, the car Bondo…you can even buy it at the auto-parts store if you want to. But they have it at the big building material stores as well. Since you’ll be painting over it, the color match that wood putty strives for isn’t important and Bondo is easier to get smooth and not as prone to crack, shrink, or fall out later.

Then you can just drill new holes for your new hardware.

Drawer Fronts

You should take your drawers off before you paint!  Better yet would be just the “drawer fronts”.  Many cabinets have a couple of screws inside the drawer box which, if removed, release the entire drawer front. If you can do this, it’s the way to go because it will make the drawers much easier to work with.

If not, you can still remove the drawer from the cabinet and take the whole box outside and work on it along with the doors. You might even decide you want to paint your drawer boxes too. I would just be careful not to paint the hardware.

Misc. Other Mumbo Jumbo…

• I used a medium-fine grit sandpaper… 150 or 220 grit. If you use a grit that is too coarse, you’ll do more harm than good.
• I had the primer tinted to the same color as the paint. This will allow the paint to cover better and hopefully in one coat.
• In the areas that I couldn’t get to at all with sandpaper, I scuffed it up with a little bit of steel wool to give the primer a better surface.
• If you want one of those awesome sanders I use, you can get one at this link: DEWALT D26451K 3 Amp 5-Inch Random Orbit Sander with Cloth Dust Bag It will cost you $70.00 and I promise you’ll be saying that was money well spent. This is the sander to buy…I’ve tried most of them and this one is great! It uses a velcro-like system to hold the sandpaper on which makes changing sanding disks a breeze.

Want to see the front? You’re going to like it! There is more to this project than just painting. Check back tomorrow so you can see how I did this:

Pretty cool, huh! The bird came out great. For you newcomers, this whole thing was instigated by a cool picture Kim found that inspired me to do an impromptu giveaway. The first post about that is here. If you like the bird, you might also like the coffee cup and the flamingo.

By late Friday I’ll have a post up showing how I made the bird pattern…it is so cool! Early next week, I’ll finish this cabinet door and publish Painting Kitchen Cabinets Part Two – More Sanding and Finish Painting.

If you want to be sure not to miss it, sign-up for my daily email feed right here. Or sign up to get RemodelingGuy.net in an RSS reader right here. And everyone is welcome to sign-up for the free monthly newsletter. You can do that at the top of the far right sidebar, or in this post right here.

So, I’m sure there are some questions on Part One…let me hear them and then check back…I’ll answer right in the comments! Thanks!

NOTES:

Before doing this work on your kitchen!  Make sure you read Part 2 about Plan B. 

————-

One comment was such an important question that I didn’t address in the post…the question was “did I use oil-based or latex-based paint, and is it okay to use latex (water-based) paint?”

The answer is that I used an acrylic latex primer and paint.  Both are top-of-the-line Benjamin Moore products and if used properly will provide an excellent finish.  It is all water clean-up material. Here are links to the product pages at Ben Moore.

Fresh Start All Purpose Primer

Regal Matte Finish – The Paint

Thanks to Amy for asking this… I think others will want to know that as well.  There are a few other questions and answers in the comments as well.  And you’re welcome to add to the discussion!

This looks like a bright way to start the day!

Colors seem to be all the rage in cabinetry these days.  I’ve been seeing this in magazines all over the place!  The way this job ( featured in Southern Living) is done really impressed me though.  It just seems like the perfect mix of colors.  The clean white on the top half of the room seems to settle it down too.  Looks good to me!

These are the kind of colors that, a year or two ago, only crazy Tommy Bahama wearin’ tropical Parrothead people like me would put in the house. 

I think this is the kind of thing that you either love, or you hate!  Not too many middle grounders on this one, I wouldn’t imagine.

If you’re in the “love it” crowd then this could be great news!  It’s not that difficult to repaint old cabinets and have them looking shiny and new in no time.  I wonder what happens when your spouse comes home and finds the kitchen is a mix of bright oranges and greens and yellows.  Do me a favor, if you do that, set up a video camera so we can put a YouTube video on the blog when you surprise him/her!

As for me and my house, I think we found our new kitchen!