Honey oak no more 2.0

There aren't many times in life you get a "do-over" and sometimes they happen even when you don't want them. The original post about painting the cabinets unfortunately fell victim to the unwanted do-over...

When we bought our house, and what we've noticed about the houses that are about the same age, is that 10+ years ago, honey oak must have been all the rage! There are still some decorating styles where honey oak is more than acceptable, so please don't be offended if you love that sweet warm colored wood.  However, for the vast majority where doing a complete kitchen overhaul is not financially possible, there has to be another alternative.  And there is!

The previous owners did a pretty good job trying to disguise dress up the honey oak cabinets. They did what I call "lipstick on a pig" by adding granite, stainless steel appliances, and newer flooring. No matter what they did, I still noticed the cabinets, but the other cute features of the house did not deter us from purchasing.

I seriously do not know what anyone did before the internet or Pinterest! And because I'm new at this blogging gig, after all the hours of research, I can't give proper credit where credit is due and site where exactly I got the method to the madness that is painting cabinets. Oops! I solemnly promise that this day forward I will credit back to the source, but really I mashed up all the different methods anyway.

Let's get this started and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Exhibit #1- the kitchen

Exhibit #2- the bathroom

To get the technique down, we decided it was best to start in our master bathroom.  Mainly because if it turned out badly, the number of people who would witness the failed attempt would only be my husband and I. Also, it was a smaller amount of cabinets, so we wouldn't be terribly overwhelmed.

1) We removed all the doors and the drawers from the cabinet checking to see if any needed repairs. If so a little bit of wood putty goes a long way.

2) Everything was cleaned with Krud Kutter, which is great at getting the deep down gunk.

3) Because I'm a little messy, I taped off the base cabinet by the floor and the wall, my favorite is the green frog tape.

Once all that was done it was time to get the show on the road! Bonding primer will be your friend. I chose one that had the same clean up as regular latex paint because I don't like high maintenance things that require mineral spirits. Personal preference. The bonding primer works like regular primer, but it helps the cabinets accept the paint a lot easier as well as help with durability.

I started with painting the base cabinets and next the doors and drawer faces. When painting the doors, start with the back first. This will be important later when painting the actual color because the dry time will finish with the front of the doors facing up and minimizing the risk of blemishing your paint finish. I used a brush to get in all the nooks and crannies, then finished it with a small foam roller meant specifically for cabinets. We found handy plastic triangles to sit the doors up as opposed to the doors laying directly on your protected surface.

Painting often goes from a normal DIY project to a life lesson in patience. All that time to wait for paint to dry, what does one do with ones self? You would think that having one project going in a small space would be enough, but nope, I decided to take the moment to also paint the walls. I mean the space was already in disarray, what's one more can of paint? Plus, at the end of it all, the whole bathroom would be "done".  At least that's how I rationalized it, my husband on the other hand just shook his head.

Let's add another painting project shall we?

Also when the doors are off the cabinets it gave me a chance to see what was living behind them. (I got nothing but time people.) Wow! We'll definitely be talking cabinet organization in the near future. I promise. One tip I can offer now has to do with the space underneath the sink.  I'm not sure what type of chemicals the previous owners stored under the bathroom sink, or the kitchen sink for that matter, whatever it was ate away at the wood. Yikes!! The solution? Peel and stick floor tiles! They cut with a regular utility knife and installed in less than 10 minutes.

Too. Much. Stuff

I did two coats of bonding primer because I wasn't sure how it would take. For the color coat, we used Valspar brand paint in a satin finish. No real reason we chose Valspar other than we have a Lowe's closer to us than Home Depot. The paint went on really well and to make sure that the primer was covered up, plus the need for durability again I gave it two coats. After all the painting, flipping, and drying, everything was screwed back into place and the drawer pulls and cabinet knobs were replaced.

Ta da!

We waited a couple months and decided to paint the kitchen cabinets right around Christmas time. Because what doesn't say holiday cheer than doing a major DIY project at the same time? (You can probably sense a theme that my timing is less than ideal.) 

See, Christmas decorations!

We followed the same steps: 

1) Remove the doors and check for repairs

2) Clean!

3) Tape all around!

4) Bonding primer, wait, bonding primer, wait.

5) Paint, wait, paint, wait.

The mess!

Lots O doors!

This time around we used Behr from Home Depot and again the only reason was that we were there and decided to buy paint. Again, we used satin in the kitchen because of it's durability. The coverage was really good even though it was a little harder to see where I missed since the bonding primer is white and the paint color we chose is an off white.  Overall, we were really happy!

Here's the thing that we learned, I have no patience and will get myself deeper in the rabbit hole of a project, but in the end it is totally worth it. Multitasking at it's finest. When the installers put the granite in, they did not use paintable caulk. To make matters worse, they were pretty sloppy about it. So I had to do A LOT of sanding to get the caulk off some of the surfaces in order for the bonding primer to even go on. Fru-stra-ting! Doors take up a lot of space and they are the longest part of the whole process. All the painting and flipping.... In the end we were extremely happy with the result and kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner. Painting the cabinets in both the bathroom and the kitchen gave the spaces an updated feel, made the spaces feel so much brighter, and totally changed the overall look. In the kitchen the counter tops toned down a lot. Where before I wasn't so sure about the colors, now I don't even notice them. The best part about it all, it's just paint! So if you hate it, sure it's a lot of time to change it, but think about if you put different cabinets in that you spent a lot of money one and hated them, all you're investing is about a gallon of paint. Not too shabby! We would love to add molding to the top of the cabinets and even a backsplash, but for now we'll enjoy what we have.

One last look!