Monday, February 1, 2010

Kitchen Refresh part 1

So even before we purchased the house we knew the kitchen would have to change. I know some people would call this blasphemy since it was the original kitchen. Oh well! It was time for a change!



The first day I was in the house I took the cabinet doors off. So our kitchen looked like this for a month or so before we actually got to work. In this picture you can see how we filled in the old cabinet hinge holes because we were using a different style hinge.



Once the holes were filled I got to sanding all the layers of paint off. You can't see it but I am wearing a mask due to the likelihood of lead paint. We also laid out plastic drop clothes everywhere to help with clean up later. The sanding process was a huge pain and my original plan of going all the way down to wood did not happen. I decided that sanding it till smooth was good enough.



Here you can see how things ended up before we started painting.



The two things we wanted to change about the kitchen were the doors and color. Since we couldn't afford to buy all new custom doors my Dad suggested that we buy some nice plywood and make our own. That idea worked out great because we wanted simple flat doors and it only cost $100 for the wood. Of course Susan thought this idea was crazy and the kitchen would never be finished. Luckily she was wrong. This is my dad painting the doors in his shop. One thing to note is that we put on a wood veneer binding along the edges to give the doors a more finished look. That was my Dad's idea and I am glad he suggested it. My Vespa was kind enough to provide the quality control during the painting process.





The color we ended up using was pistachio color and it looks much better in person than it does in the pictures. Also, our kitchen is usually not this messy.



There were some alignment issues when we first hung the doors but that was quickly fixed.



Now the next hurdle was to decide what knobs to use...

4 comments:

  1. Great idea to put coat hangers under the doors while you paint them. (I assume that's what those are.) Also, I always wondered how to finish the edges of plywood doors. Great idea. It's looking good but did you have to keep us hanging? (no pun intended) Looking forward to the finished product. Also, how do you prevent streaks on the doors?

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  2. Those are coat hangers under the doors. They are actually one of the most useful tools around. The binding we used for edging had an adhesive on the back so you just had to iron it on and trim it down. As for the streaks we used a small, fine roller. We applied the paint thick at first and then smoothed everything out with light rolls to prevent the streaks. The doors look like they have been sprayed. Does all of that make sense?

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  3. Did you get rid of the original cabinet doors? If your looking to get rid of them, give us a shout as we have been on the hunt for the wood for an upcoming project....

    I really like the color you used!

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  4. I hate to say it but we did get rid of the doors. I think it was the one time we put something in front of the house and no one took it before the trash guys came.

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