Process this!!!

The kitchen has brightened our lives!  It looks so much bigger and cleaner, I am so happy with it.  There are still a few more things to do - I'll get to that later!

I thought it may be fun to share the process!  Now, I learned quite a bit from the internet.  And my mom.  I had no idea how to do this, but after reading this post from John & Sherry Petersik's blog, and grabbing hints and tips from this site and talking to my mom about certain issues and problems, I really started to understand all the steps and the BEST way to do this kitchen project.  I learned a lot along the way too.  Awesome!  I feel like I could redo everyone's kitchens now!


 Ok so Step 1:  PREP!!  Take off all cabinet doors and drawers...

 and empty everything out!  Take off your switch plates too.

 Step 2: Fill holes in walls (Spackle) and wood (wood putty) and sand everything!  We had to paint our walls (no paint at all on those) so we sanded them and all the cabinet bases, doors and drawers.

Prepare to be messy, and not cute, for a few days.  I showered of course, but then ended up right back in painting clothes and nice hair and makeup were non existent!

Ok Step 3: Tape everything that you don't want paint all over.  Put down some painting plastic too, if needed.

Just know ahead of time that your house will be a mess for a week or two.  We lived off our dining table and our IKEA shelf for a while.  In fact, just yesterday I finished cleaning the whole place so it looks like a house again, pics to come!

Step 4:  Prime everything.  Since we were painting walls and cabs, we bought a primer that would work for both and primed the whole dang room!  For the cabinets we used a super smooth roller and a 2" angled nice brush for those hard to paint areas and the trimming.

Here are all the bases and walls, all primed up and ready for paint!

Step 5: Lightly sand and wipe down everything again.  This helps everything absorb the real colors of the paint absorb and soak into the walls and the cabs.

Wiping is important because you don't want little flicks of sand/wall/wood to show up in your paint, and it will if it is there!  Wipe it down good!

Step 6: Trim walls.  If you are like me and doing the WHOLE project at once, paint the walls first.  Well, at least if your walls are brighter and darker then your cab paint.  I would die if I painted my beautiful whitish creamy cabs first and then got YELLOW all over them!  NO!! Oh and use the angled brush to cut in, and watch those drippies!!

Step 7: Paint walls. Use good quality rollers!  This one was bubbling at first, but after I stirred the paint and broke the roller in more, those disappeared.

Do these steps over again, and even a 3rd time depending on your preference of color and how it applies to your walls.  2 coats did it for us!  Make sure you move your appliances and get behind those.

Step 4 & 8: Degrease cabinet bases (we did this after sanding in step 4) and degrease the doors and drawers.  After sanding things, this helps get all that gritty stuff off the doors and drawers and bases.  Even though we didnt paint inside each cab, we degreased them.  You can't imagine how dirty these were, this degreaser/deglosser really cleaned them so well.  We bought one that didn't make you pass out from fumes, it's safe for kids and cats and what not.  Frodo was happy about that;)

Step 9:  Paint your cabinets!!  I guess I should say bases, that is what I did first.  I bought a cab painting kit, you can see below.  It comes with a great roller and foam rolly things and that nice sized paint pan.  At this point your wall paint should be done, no more sanding or anything.  Paint should be dry too, because you have to tape your walls to paint the cabinets.

It was excited and nerve wracking all at the same time.

Use that angle brush to get the edges of your cabs...

 My cabinets needed 3 coats of paint.  I am not sure why, but they did.  I also kept touching them up as I found little imperfections after the 3 coats.

Step 10:  Little things - I was actually going to buy all new switch plates but then thought better of it.  Why buy something that I can just re use?  I sanded them a little bit, and painted them the same color as the cabs.

Step 10:  Paint the backs of your doors, let each coat dry completely before you put the next coat on.

Again, I put 3 coats on, did backs first so that if any scratches happened when I flipped them, it would be on the back and not the front that everyone sees.

After you are satisfied with the backs, and they have dried COMPLETELY, flip them over and start the fronts.  I still used the smooth roller and the 2" angle brush, but I also used this little brush to get the drippies out of the corners.  I did three coats of this!

Step 11:  Take a whole day to have a break and go wine tasting in Frederick, MD with your husband.  Awesome;)

Step 12: Put on your hardware and hinges.  I don't have many pics of these.  This was the scariest and the most frustrating part of the job.  It wasnt too bad though.  Most of the hardware and hinges went on without any issues.  I did make a few mistakes since I've never done this before - like put handles on in the wrong spot and had to wood putty and paint again, but I got over those humps and everything looks lined up and even and perfect.

I just can't believe it's the same kitchen, the same cabinets that were here before?

Step 13: Figure out the open shelving situation.  I love these.  They add so much character to my kitchen!

Step 14: More little touches.  See those cracks up there between the ceiling and the cabinet?  It looks awful!  Like the cabs were just thrown up there!  Nothing a little chaulk can't fix!!

Voila!!  See?  You can't even see them at all.  Oh the power of chaulk!  They actually look built in now:)

I am still working on the two little cabinet doors for above the fridge.  At first we were thinking about leaving those open and doing something fancy, but then I realized I want those beautiful white cabinets all the way across.  I'll try to get pictures of installing the hardware on those.  I want to be able to share how to do that.  But if not, read that link from Young House Love up there, that's how I learned;)

Once we get our new counter tops this little lip here will come out further.  We are looking for bar stools right now to put on this empty wall (used to have our DVD tower here, but it looked waaaay too junky).

Step 15: Put everything back together.  Fill up your cabinets again.  Get rid of stuff you do not use.  Decorate.  Love it to death!  Add flowers, aren't they pretty?

Step 16: CELEBRATE.  Have your parents and/or your friends over for some wine to show off your kitchen;)

It's perfect!

Oh and something else I did, which I am crazy about - are these fancy "custom" cabinet inserts.  I got this at Lowe's for a little less that $100.  I am adding so much more storage with this!

Just look at that!   This is 2 drawers and 1 messy cabinet worth of space saved!  Now it's all tucked away in this pull out contraption.  It's awesome.

A close up....

Actually I am going to buy another sort of contraption for this cabinet.  Right now it's hard to pull out these pots and pans and bakeware...

But after I install this, double drawer cab insert, it should be so much easier!  That will be happening sometime next week.  It is like have a custom kitchen without paying a bazillion dollars for it!

Ok, and then after alllllllllllllllllllllll of that, just sit back and relax and be happy that your house looks a little normal again:

So my to do list still looks like this:

- finish two little cabs for above the fridge
- paint the baseboards in kitchen to match cabinets
- take off the toe kick, or whatever that is, underneath the cab bases and either paint or install new toe kicks
- find artwork for above stove
- figure out what to do with the soffitts (that space of wall up by the ceiling that empty)
- new counter tops
- new sink and faucets
- new appliances
- extended counter top and buy stools to create breakfast bar
- install more custom cabinet inserts
- figure out what to do above microwave

So that is all I can think of now, we will slowly chip away at those things and update as we go.  It's been a crazy few weeks, but it's probably 80% done and that makes me happy!  Thanks for hanging in!