Turning Old Cabinet Doors into Art

Remember all those pesky kitchen cabinet doors that I attempted to refinish?

Well, since this space above our couch was looking pretty empty…

We decided to make a few additions to help round out the space above the couch…

I upcycled our old kitchen cabinet doors into custom artwork.

Since I refinished all the doors before we decided to were going to buy new ones, I didn’t want to let them all go to waste. (I tried to sell them, but since they were all such weird sizes (again, it’s an old house) they weren’t of any use to anyone.

It fits into my love for graphic art and it’s also sentimental – the dates of our engagement and wedding. It also doesn’t hurt that this project was 100% F-R-E-E.

The boards tie in with the rustic aspects of the oar (Many people ask if I made this -I wish! It is from Pottery Barn.) and pitted wood “matte/border” of the center artwork .

You may also notice, I spray painted the center frame a dark brown so it would pop off the walls more.

I’ll be back with a tutorial later this week!

The Kitchen is DONE!

Phase one is DONE.

After, oh, only 10 months. Yes. We started our kitchen renovations a whopping ten months ago. No wonder I’ve been so anxious to get this over with.

I first posted about our kitchen here when I posted about removing the wallpaper.

I can remember standing in our kitchen for the very first time when we looked at the house.

I must have a good imagination.

It was small. It had a huge creaky ceiling fan. A dank, old, dark pantry. A stained sink and chipping countertop. And the wallpaper. Oh my, the wallpaper.

We tackled the walls and cabinets with a vengeance. We ripped out the inside of the pantry. We knocked down a wall and made a cubby for our recessed fridge. Then we looked for the perfectly sized fridge for six weeks. We ripped out a dishwasher full of magenta water. Yuck. But enough of that. You’ve been hearing about that for ten months now.

Before we get to the final pics, here are a few renovation highlights.

I’ll do a before and after post later this week. You betcha I’m going to savor the flavor of this project being finished!

And now on to the phase I finished product:

Nary an exposed garbage can in sight:

Those last pesky cabinets that we procrastinated on:

I think I can cook here!

There’s miscellaneous paraphernalia on the fridge. We officially live here now.

And the beauty only lasted a week or so.

We just ripped out the microwave last night and I think we’re ready to order our backsplash tile!

This is the hood we got on clearance. The microwave (which is on the brink of death anyways) is now plugged in the basement until we buy a smaller one we will tuck inside the pantry. I will not miss that old clunker.

Do you know the definition of sadistic? Two words. Kitchen. Renovations.

Kitchen Projects left:

- Crown Molding
- Undercabinet lighting
- Shoe Molding
- Backsplash
- Endcap to the left of the stove
- New stove. Eventually.

I’m sharing this post with:

Doors, Handles, Knobs and Toes. (Knobs and Toes.): How to Install Cabinet Door Knobs

I lasted posted about my kitchen a week before Christmas and set our goal to be D-O-N-E with the kitchen by the end of January. So far we are on track and are about half-way through our remaining list of to-do items!

We installed the rest of our cabinet doors with the exception of the two underneath the sink. We still need to replace some piece of wood before can finish that up.

Along with new cabinet doors we also purchased new facings for our drawers. Those have been installed along with the handles.

I like that our handles are hefty and slightly retro. They feel nice and sturdy. We will be using these vertically as pantry door handles (when we get there). We got them from Lowe’s.

Then we installed the knobs on our cabinet doors.

First we decided where on the door we wanted the knob to be – low, middle or high on the shaker border. We chose the middle (and I reaffirmed my choice after consulting my Kitchen Pinterest board and liking this one best).

We ordered these amazing little templates off Amazon (here) to avoid unfortunate mathematical error when it came to drilling our cabinet doors and drawers. I won’t lie. Regardless, I had to go in the other room when me started drilling the first one.

We marked the hole with a pencil and pre-drilled the door with a bit similarly sized to the screw that came with the knob for a snug fit.

Then we inserted the screw by hand and added the knob in front.

And we have ALMOST all our cabinets DONE!!! I can’t believe it! I love it.

Buying new cabinet doors instead of ripping everything out was a huge time-saver and our kitchen looks brand new.

Can you believe it used to look like this?

Other news in kitchen-land:

We (*ahem* Moose) rewired all our outlets and lightswitches in the kitchen so they are all crisp and clean.

We (*me!) finally found and ordered a ceiling light for over the island. It should be here in a week or so.

Moose also installed our over-the-sink track lighting. Let there be light! I can finally see what I am cooking.

We bought it on sale at Lowe’s back in the summer.

Hold up, did I say “over the island” a few sentences ago? YES I DID!

We also recently purchased a raw wood island from The Mill Store.

(Yep… I’m really going to miss staring at my trash can and having kitchen cabinets all over the floor… I just don’t know what I’ll do with myself when it’s over. Maybe you’ll find me eating spaghetti off the floor.)

The island has yet to be painted and stained, but this is the general idea – except white legs, no casters and we remove our shelves to store the stools underneath:

via

Once we choose a stain for the top of the island we will also stain the top of the sideboard (which has been covered up by plastic placemats for the last 6 months).

What do we have left?

- Install new sink task light
- Find, purchase and install ceiling light
– Put in new wood pieces under the sink
- Finish installing drawer panels
– Finish installing cabinet doors (except for 2 more)
- Add cabinet door hardware and pantry door handles
– Stain top of sideboard
– Add quarter-round under granite
– Toe-kick
– Install hardware to attach dishwasher to the granite
– Repair and paint molding on doorframe
- Find and purchase and paint/stain kitchen island and stools
- Finish re-wiring the outlets and put switch plate covers on
– Finally take off the protective film on the dishwasher! After 8 months!

Sadly, we’re already starting our phase II kitchen list. But that can wait. Woot!

A Kitchen Cabinet Teaser

Houston, the cabinets have landed.

Here’s a peek!

We still need to adjust them and put the hardware on.

I couldn’t be more excited! These are a million times better than anything we could have refinished ourselves.

And no more looking at all the junk in our pantry!

And we got our countertop templated. We are picking out our slab of granite this week and we will get our new sink, faucet and countertop next week!

I’d tell you more, but boy oh boy do we have work to do!!

The Kitchen Call of Paul Revere

“The cabinets are coming! The cabinets are coming!”

- The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Errrr, it went something like that, right?

Shortly after I shared that we were ditching our cabinet refinishing project, we opted to order new cabinet doors instead. They will be here soon and I couldn’t be more excited! Having lived with zero cabinets doors for six months, I can’t wait!

A brief note on open shelving:

Kitchens with open shelving are extremely popular right now. Having lived with 100% open shelving since May, I debated the concept for the first month or so and determined it just wasn’t for me. While it makes putting away dishes very easy, I just couldn’t handle seeing EVERYTHING all the time. Photos of kitchens with open shelving look very cute, but usually the shelves are staged to look nice. They don’t show the reality of the amount of dishes that we have (granted, we’re entertainers at heart, so we have quite a bit). And, I never had any problem with dust or residue.

We will be installing white Shaker doors with stainless steel knobs. The two doors flanking the sink will have a glass inset panel.

Similar to this:

via

WOOOO HOOOO!!! The end is in sight!

We’re also about to order our countertop and sink. We’re going with a white/gray/blue granite with flecks of black.

This is our color palette:

For the sink we are going with a large rectangular stainless steel undermount.

We purchased our faucet a few weeks ago off the (*drumroll*) Lowe’s clearance rack!! I believe we got about 75% off the original price!

The sink and faucet will look similar to this:

via

I’ve started looking at backsplash options, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself (per usual).

We’ve also started looking at kitchen islands. We’re looking for a butcherblock top and something I can slide 2 stools under. When we get it we will also stain the top of our existing sideboard to they match.

I’d love to find something like this one:

via

We have found one option that might work, but I’m not sold. We’re obviously looking to find something for as cost-effective as possible.

We still need to find light fixtures too, but I am hoping everything will be wrapped up by Christmas!

The cabinets are coming! The cabinets are coming! The cabinets are…

———————

Have you lived through a kitchen reno? Did it make you crazy too?

Cabinetry Conundrum: Part II

(Part I of this dilemna can be found here.)

Math has never been my strong suit, but today I am feeling the pain of this equation.

Between our kitchen, dining room and living room, we have a total of 32 cabinet doors to refinish.

Normally, this wouldn’t be so bad. Many tutorials I’ve read online take about a day to refinish their cabinets. You may remember, I took down my cabinet door, oh, about five months ago.

The problem with our cabinet doors is that the hardware had been coated with several layers of paint over the decades and had to go.

2 hinges x 4 screws + 1 knob + 2 magnet = 11 screws to be unscrewed per door

11 screws to be unscrewed x 32 cabinets = 352 holes

Now, those 352 holes drill through 3 surfaces: the cabinet base, the interior of the cabinet door and the exterior of the cabinet door.

192 holes x 3 surfaces = 1056 holes

8 drawers x 2 pulls with 2 screws each = 32 holes

1056 holes + 32 holes =  1088 holes to be filled with wood-filler and sanded

I have never been more grateful for a small kitchen.

Now that we had our 1088 screw holes filled and sanded, we began to paint. While (as you’ve seen) we filled, sanded and painted the bases of our cabinets a few months ago, the doors have sat in our basement for a few months. I used Minwax High Performance Wood Filler to fill all the hole about a month ago. You will need to fill the holes from the front and the back. (Unless you don’t care that the interior of your cabinet door looks like death.)

A few tips:

On Wood Filler:

On any type of hardwood surface you should fix cracks/holes with wood-filler (not spackle!). Wood-filler smells terrible and should be used in well-ventilated areas.

Tips:

1. Mix the 2 pastes together with a plastic spoon and toss it when you’re done. There is no cleaning off this substance.

2. Mix a small amount and work quickly. Although the can says you have about 15 minutes to work, the substance starts to harden in five. Work quickly and make small batches more often.

3. Scrape the holes before you fill them. You will want a flat surface to scrape against to remove as much excess filler as possible. More build up = more sanding.

On Sanding:

1. Wear a mask and sand in a ventilating area.

2. Circular motions work better than long straight ones. You don’t want to sand dips into your cabinet doors.

On Painting Cabinets:

1. Before I removed by cabinet doors from the wall, I labeled them with painter’s tape according to their location. When I started to paint, I laid them out on a large drop cloth in order. This way there is no second-guessing which cabinet goes where.

2. Wipe down the cabinet doors before painting. The more dust (from sanding) that is left on your cabinets, the less surface the paint has to stick to.

3. Use a dense foam roller. They sell kinds that specifically say “FOR CABINETS!” on them. They make a huge difference in the final topcoat.

4. I mixed some Floretrol into my paint. It’s supposed to thin the paint out and prevent brushstrokes from drying into your finished surface..

5. I painted them (Valspar Swiss Coffee) with 4 or 5 thin and even coats, letting them dry in-between coats. (For those of you wondering: 5 coats x 2 sides x 32 doors = 320 coats.)

I was hoping to have some pictures of the cabinets hung up in the kitchen (so, sadly the “after” photo isn’t ready), but we have run into more hinge problems (read: we put 2 up and they don’t shut). Hopefully they can be resolved. Otherwise I am burying these cabinets in the backyard six feet under.

We have purchased new hardware. Did you know it will cost you about 15x more to get to hardware than to refinish your cabinets?

As for putting the cabinets back up?

Only 192 holes left to be measured and drilled correctly (32 doors with 2 hinges and one knob + 8 drawers x 2 pulls each).

We’ll tighten 192 screws and then we’ll be in business. That is, after we find hinges that will work.

Not that I’m counting or anything.

Moral of the story? If it is possible, in any way, keep your cabinet door hinges.

Old Cabinets Made New: Part I

Our house was built in the 1950s and still has the original kitchen. Although it looks like the original cabinets were a dark wood, they have since been painted white… and are in desperate need of a pick-me-up.

Our kitchen is tricky. We have 4 walls and are dealing with 2 doorways, one built-in pantry, one radiator and one over-sized (read below-counter-height) window, in addition to our existing cabinetry and appliances. Changing the layout would have been complicated (not to mention $$$!) so we decided to update what we have. As well as a large built-in sideboard with upper cabinetry in the dining room that also needed a paint update.

A lot of people might have old dressers or furniture they would like to re-do. This painting-process will work on painting any non-painted object (except for metal maybe).

I started by removing all the hardware. This ended up being a HUGE project. It took me a few hours to eventually get all the knobs, handles and hinges off because they had been painted over. *Cue scary music* Unfortunately, They had been painted over more than once and left quite the indentations.

After I wiped down all the cabinets with a damp cloth, I started by priming the inside of the cabinets with Zinsser stain-blocking primer. Normally I would have gone for the oil-based option, but I saw this water-based primer and thought I would try it. (Oil-based paint will work great, but not only smells terrible, but eats your paintbrushes so you can never use them again.)

This is a shot of my pantry with one side primed and one side un-primed to give you an idea of how dark the interior wood cabinets were.

I applied two coats of primer, letting it dry fully between coats. The end result was this:

What? Isn’t the distressed look in? ; )

Then I proceeded to paint the interior with our trim paint color (Valspar Swiss Coffee).

I used only a short-handled brush (I think it’s easier to hold) for the primer, and then added a small roller in for the final coat. I put an old towel down where I am painting instead of drop cloths and always have a wet paper towel by my side in case anything drops.

Isn’t it amazing what just a fresh paint job can do? #Beholdthepowerofpaint

This is the dining room. Look at the different the whiter color makes!

Here was the end result in the kitchen:

It’s not exactly worth a round of applause, but it’s a step in the right direction!

As for now, we will be living with the open shelving for quite some time. The cabinet doors are all in the basement waiting to be refinished.

That might not happen for a while.