I've been doing a lot of painting recently, but not the usual type of painting. Rather, I've been busy painting kitchen cabinets. It's a huge undertaking, and the project isn't complete yet, but I wanted to share photos of the progress to date.
This is my first DIY home project, I learned a lot about the technical aspects of painting. I did a lot of research online to learn how to paint the cabinets. I also spent a lot learning about all the products needed for painting.
The original shelves had contact paper, so the first thing we had to do was remove the contact paper. We sanded the boards and painted them with primer, and then multiple layers of acrylic latex paint. We tackled the drawers next.
Afterwards, we applied chemical stripper and scraped off the layer of varnish on the exterior of the cabinets. To do it the right way, you should remove the doors from the cabinets, but the doors were screwed in so tightly that we couldn't get them off, so we did our painting with the doors in place, which made it very difficult.
After applying primer, we sanded and applied the paint. This was repeated a few times until it looked smooth. Actually, we so excited about painting, we forgot to apply primer to the drawers. We had to "undo" our work and scrape off the paint and apply the primer before repainting. We also discovered that the semi-gloss finish seemed a bit flat looking so we had to go out and purchase some water-based clear coat for the top layer. Between each layer of clear coat, we had to sand with a fine-grit sandpaper.
We also replaced the cabinet hardware with some bar pulls to make it look more modern. The cabinets are extremely plain, and there is no getting around that fact, so I wanted to be consistent and get simple bar pulls.
We're not finished yet, and still need to do some touch-ups, but the majority of the work is done. I've learned a lot along the way. It was also an interesting exercise because we're getting into the realm of interior design, so it involves a new element of thinking for me. Lastly, it was important to put our stamp on the kitchen. Though there is much to improve, at least it reflects our hard work.
This is my first DIY home project, I learned a lot about the technical aspects of painting. I did a lot of research online to learn how to paint the cabinets. I also spent a lot learning about all the products needed for painting.
The original shelves had contact paper, so the first thing we had to do was remove the contact paper. We sanded the boards and painted them with primer, and then multiple layers of acrylic latex paint. We tackled the drawers next.
Afterwards, we applied chemical stripper and scraped off the layer of varnish on the exterior of the cabinets. To do it the right way, you should remove the doors from the cabinets, but the doors were screwed in so tightly that we couldn't get them off, so we did our painting with the doors in place, which made it very difficult.
After applying primer, we sanded and applied the paint. This was repeated a few times until it looked smooth. Actually, we so excited about painting, we forgot to apply primer to the drawers. We had to "undo" our work and scrape off the paint and apply the primer before repainting. We also discovered that the semi-gloss finish seemed a bit flat looking so we had to go out and purchase some water-based clear coat for the top layer. Between each layer of clear coat, we had to sand with a fine-grit sandpaper.
We also replaced the cabinet hardware with some bar pulls to make it look more modern. The cabinets are extremely plain, and there is no getting around that fact, so I wanted to be consistent and get simple bar pulls.
We're not finished yet, and still need to do some touch-ups, but the majority of the work is done. I've learned a lot along the way. It was also an interesting exercise because we're getting into the realm of interior design, so it involves a new element of thinking for me. Lastly, it was important to put our stamp on the kitchen. Though there is much to improve, at least it reflects our hard work.
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