About this time last year, I began a major project (even for my crazy standards)! We had talked about replacing our ugly and falling apart laminate counters with shiny, cold, sparkly granite...which was a very exciting idea to me after living in apartment after apartment with buildergrade laminate (that was usually peeling and bubbling up)
But the problem was that I refused to spend the money on granite if it would have to coordinate with our yellowish pine cabinets. Our budget only really included the granite upgrade so in order to get what I envisioned, I did it myself. Which was fun, and horrible, and time consuming, and messy, and above all at this point- finished!
First, here's a few before and afters....and then some details on the "process"
Step 1: Disassemble
Take off all the doors from the cabinets. May I recommend a drill for this and not a handheld screwdriver :)
Prepare to brace yourself for the start of a giant mess in your kitchen which will last for a lot longer than you think...
Step 2 : Cleaning
Get out the soap and water to wash all the doors front and back. You need to get the grease off for painting purposes, although, after I finished sanding them I wondered if the grime wouldn't have sanded away as well?
Step 3: Preparing the cabinets
From my research, it looks like there are several ways to prepare the cabinets for painting...
1. Liquid sandpaper- I think this works by chemically stripping the finish off of the wood in order for paint to stick. It sort of intimidated me....
2. Fancy no sanding needed primer. Lots of expensive primers claim that you can just paint them right onto a cleaned surface...but from what I read, kitchen cabinets are some of the toughest projects in terms of ensuring that paint sticks and doesn't peel in the long run.
3. Old fashioned sanding seemed like the safest and most guaranteed route for a finish that would adhere best in the end...Even though the primer I bought was the fancy expensive one that advertised no sanding needed, it seemed like a safe bet to go ahead. (and even the guy at the paint store said it was a good idea) The very last thing I wanted was to finish the project and then have it all peel off or look unprofessional.
Practice!
I had never sanded anything before and I was nervous about practicing on my actual cabinets...so I went to the "clearance" area at Ikea and bought a cabinet door to use as a test subject- what a lifesaver.
I used that door to test areas where I sanded once versus twice and noticed that the primer did adhere better with double sanding.
I also used it to test my painting techniques, checking out how the paint finish looked with a roller brush and a regular paint brush. I found that although the roller left some small "stipple" marks, for me, the paint brush left more noticeable brush strokes.
Sanding felt like it took a decade. I'm surprised my children are still living at home and this part of the project is finished! Each individual door included a flat face, plus slanted indention, plus all of the nooks and edging that gives them detail. PLUS the entire back of the door and the edges... And THEN you have to go back and sand once more with finer paper (as recommended) I believe I used 100 grit and then 150 grit. So 20 minutes per door per sand paper grit (so two times) ...and I had 23 pieces included drawer fronts. This part of the project was done here and there during naptime, after Collin came home, and stretches on Saturdays where I disappeared for a couple hours.
And then I had to sand down the side and facing of the cabinetry that was attached to the wall in the kitchen...You can see my "plastic tent" in the next picture to sand underneath.
Priming the Cabinets
I went with Sherwin Williams Adhesion Primer, it was supposed to be better for the glossy surface that kitchen cabinets have. I can't find the picture on their website, so they may have a new product to replace it.
For the actual cabinet paint I used Sherwin Williams ProClassic. It is 100% acrylic latex paint and from what I understand that is what you want for a hard surface. (other cheaper paints for walls for example don't dry quite as hard) I am really happy with the quality of the paint and primer, I think it did make a difference in the results I got. Of course, paying extra was no fun, but Sherwin Williams has 25 to 30% off sales often so take advantage of those. I hadn't even thought of how much durability the cabinets need to have, but in this house they get slammed, scratched, and wiped down all day long and no problems so far.
Of course, there were more decisions to be made...paint color...
And to help ease that process there are 5,432 shades of white. I ended up using my ikea cabinet to test color samples...(you can see it on display for me to analyze night and day in the picture below) and since sherwin williams doesn't do "cheap" color samples, I used the sherwin williams color swatches and color matched them at lowes to get a $3 color sample...I think I budgeted for 4 samples which probably turned into 8...
Granite Countertops
Finally, the point of the entire painting project! Our new countertops! We got several quotes including Home Depot and picked Toluca Granite. They had the best price, and the best service. Can't beat that! We also saved money by doing the "demo" ourselves which included unscrewing the laminate from the cabinets and taking it off. Plus, detaching our old sink, faucet, and disposal. I sold our old sink on craigslist for $60 which went towards our budget, yay!
Backsplash
Can you see the white ugly area there behind above our new counters?
Just when I figured all the hard work was we decided a new backsplash was in order...and since simply installing a backsplash (labor alone) costs $500, guess who was ready to learn tiling?
We looked at tiles a lot, and finally decided on these great white ones that were from HomeDepot.com for pretty cheap. Plus the expense of our new wet tile saw and we saved a ton doing this ourselves.
I cut tiles forever, they came in square sheets, but I had to make so many cuts for the outlets and where the backsplash ends at the top and bottom. Just cutting everything was another month long ordeal during naps and weekends.
Then it was time to mortar the tile to the wall. Not so hard, and pretty forgiving.
Finally grout. Ok, at this point I had picked out cabinet colors, granite colors, a new sink, a new faucet, and backsplash. I was not in the mood to pick out anything else, but turns out picking a grout color is really tricky. Look at my sample board below, those are 4 "white" colors but look how it makes the tile look completely different! In case you ever go through excessive bags of grout trials, you should know that if you make a small slit near the top of the bag you can easily get a spoonful of grout to mix up and use as a sample. Then, its fairly simple to inconspicuously hot glue the bags not used and return them to the store, but don't tell how you heard that... :)
Finally
Ironically, after all was said and done, I think I may love my kitchen sink the most of all. Once we called the granite company, they recommended the standard stainless steel sink and I just worried that I would regret not picking out a nicer sink when I had the chance. Plus, I did all the work so far and saved money, it seemed like paying for a new sink and faucet wouldn't be a big deal. Plus you get 90% of kitchen upgrade expenses back when you sell, right? (don't correct me on this, that argument worked really well on Collin). Anyway, we found this super big white sink with a half divide that was pretty much on the cheaper end of the scale and I looooove it. I do dishes all day long, and all day long I think about how much I love this sink. The faucet is nice as well, it has a head that detaches and pulls down, which is a really nice feature.
One more note- the granite company installed the sink itself as part of the countertop installation fee, but the disposal, plumbing, and faucet were up to us. Once again, a plumber was going to cost a sweet penny (like several hundred dollars) so guess who learned to install things themselves? Do you have any idea how many things you can learn on youtube these days???
The End :)
