I really had good intentions on posting my home reno DIY projects but let's face it, it's summertime! Between looking at homes to buy, deciding to forget buying a house and build instead - that's another story for another day, deciding which floor plan we liked best, which lot we wanted, what we were going to 'tweak' in the floor plan, finally getting the building permits to build the house, getting over the 4th of July celebration and parade that my husband was in charge of, ballet recital, my birthday, waiting out the triple digit heat in JUNE, spreading my dad's ashes at his favorite campground, organizing my dad's Celebration of Life, my daughter's 14th birthday, soccer tryouts for my daughter, the spring on our garage busting and resulting in the door literally caving in, cleaning up the landscaping in the front yard and everything else you can imagine, not to mention school supply shopping and open houses to meet the teachers, you could say my summer has been a busy one!
Today is the first day of school and I've said back to blogging now!
The first project of the summer was started 2 days before the 2-week long triple digit heat in June. I was painting my kitchen cabinets. It had to be done and it was all up to me to paint since the summer is the busiest season for my husband and his business but that's what happens when you are a business owner.
I first tackled the kitchen cabinets by taping off the inside of the cupboards, the edges of the cabinet frames, removing all the doors and drawers, cleaning and painting them, all of course after I cleaned out all the utensils, plates, cups, pots and pans and everything else that goes in the cabinets. My kitchen was a disaster filled with boxes of kitchen tools and dishes but it was getting a makeover.
After removing everything, I de-glossed them, cleaned and laid them out in the garage elevated on boxes so that I could get all sides. They looked great after the paint and the decorative glaze so I just had to finish one step - protective top coat. When I applied that, it looked awesome and I was thrilled with the results but I still had to let it dry. I had applied the top coat late in the evening so I let it dry overnight. The next morning, I went out to check on them, thinking I was going to be putting up the doors that day, I was excited and I was, until I went out to check on them. I was in tears. Literally.
I took pictures and texted these to my husband.
Those milky white drips on the sides of the cabinets, was the top coat. In no way did it look anything like that when I applied it the night before. I applied it to the front and the back of the cabinets, as well as the sides. It really looked horrible. Even worse, there were tiny bubbles on the front of the cabinet doors. This was nothing that could be lightly sanded off, it was a total do-over and I had to do something different to get my mind off of it. I decided to paint my porch bench, even though we would be taking it with us when we moved. Something had to happen so I made it happen and it turned out perfect! I loved it! YAY!
Today is the first day of school and I've said back to blogging now!
The first project of the summer was started 2 days before the 2-week long triple digit heat in June. I was painting my kitchen cabinets. It had to be done and it was all up to me to paint since the summer is the busiest season for my husband and his business but that's what happens when you are a business owner.
I first tackled the kitchen cabinets by taping off the inside of the cupboards, the edges of the cabinet frames, removing all the doors and drawers, cleaning and painting them, all of course after I cleaned out all the utensils, plates, cups, pots and pans and everything else that goes in the cabinets. My kitchen was a disaster filled with boxes of kitchen tools and dishes but it was getting a makeover.
After removing everything, I de-glossed them, cleaned and laid them out in the garage elevated on boxes so that I could get all sides. They looked great after the paint and the decorative glaze so I just had to finish one step - protective top coat. When I applied that, it looked awesome and I was thrilled with the results but I still had to let it dry. I had applied the top coat late in the evening so I let it dry overnight. The next morning, I went out to check on them, thinking I was going to be putting up the doors that day, I was excited and I was, until I went out to check on them. I was in tears. Literally.
I took pictures and texted these to my husband.
Sorry about the horrible pictures, the camera on my phone broke the day before. Figures.
Those milky white drips on the sides of the cabinets, was the top coat. In no way did it look anything like that when I applied it the night before. I applied it to the front and the back of the cabinets, as well as the sides. It really looked horrible. Even worse, there were tiny bubbles on the front of the cabinet doors. This was nothing that could be lightly sanded off, it was a total do-over and I had to do something different to get my mind off of it. I decided to paint my porch bench, even though we would be taking it with us when we moved. Something had to happen so I made it happen and it turned out perfect! I loved it! YAY!
After that, I was ready to face my fears of sanding everything down and then re-painting everything.... and then the heat came. Scorching 110-degree heat... in JUNE... in IDAHO! This just does not happen in June here, always in late July/early August. For 2 weeks, I laid low because the 110-degree heat outside, made my garage feel like 140 degrees.
Finally, after we had enjoyed our summer, I decided to sand it down... by hand. I only got halfway through the first drawer, which was mostly flat and should have been easy, before I went to retrieve the power sander. Once again, It took forever and not all of the paint came off. I decided to strip the paint. Well, that didn't work so I cried, then went on Pinterest and found some DIY cabinet doors and drawers to replace them with. I loved the look and I already had the wainscoting. I decided what I had to do and what was going to replace my disaster. Once again, I texted my husband that we were going to the lumber store that night and buy some to make the new cabinets out of. I was so excited that I cut some of the wainscoting and outlined the outer frames and then took a picture to text him. He texted back saying that he was buying a paint sprayer and we could paint them with that. It would be much easier he said. Once again, I was in tears so I told him that the cabinets was his project now and that I wouldn't have any part of it.
I was really upset and was calling this my FAIL. Uh huh, my fail. Well, a new paint sprayer and some more paint made these cabinets look fabulous! I must say, for the first time using a paint sprayer, he did pretty good.
We finished up with new hardware that matched the shape of the stainless steel appliance handles and it looks fabulous! It's a good idea to get a template to know where to put your hardware in the correct place and to put it on straight too. This template worked well for us and can be used for both cabinets and drawers.
We ended up going with the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit in the Espresso color.
What do you think? Epic FAIL or sucess?
