Kitchen Cabinets

 

Covid was the first time that I had to spend an extended amount of time in my house, and I set up my home office in the kitchen and I realized how much I hated it.  I had always planned on painting the cabinets, but the catalyst to take action was staring at them all day for 9 hours and no social plans to distract me. 

I had read that painting cabinets was more difficult than expected, and that definitely proved to be true.  It took so many hours, I lost track- at least a few weeks of continuous work.  The wood grain on my cabinet doors was very prominent, so it took a lot of wood filler and sanding to remove the grain enough to paint.  


I started by removing all of the cabinet doors, applying wood filler, then sanding.  I did 3 rounds of this per cabinet, then I painted with primer and the wood grain was still too prominent.  Then, I wood filled and sanded, primed, wood filled and sanded again.  By that point, I was done. If I had to do it again.  I would prime the cabinets between each wood fill and sand layer.  I think the primer helped fill in some of the gaps and made it a little easier each time. 

Once the cabinets were primed, I did 2 layers of paint on each side of the cabinet door.  I chose the color Riverdale by Behr because I happened to have a paint sample for this color already that I didn't end up using but when I tried it out on the cabinets and absolutely loved it.  This paint has held up extremely well over the past 3 years.  It cleans off easily, and applied smooth.  I'm usually pretty conservative, but I decided to go with a more funky color because the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore is known to be eccentric, so if I was ever going to take a risk with color, this was the time to do it.  

https://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-PREMIUM-1-gal-White-Urethane-Alkyd-Satin-Enamel-Interior-Exterior-Paint-790001/300787696

Once I had all the doors painted, I drilled holes for the cabinet hardware and I painted the cabinets mounted to the walls.  I didn't bother wood filling and sanding the actual cabinets, and it didn't end up making a difference. Once I had the cabinet doors back in place, I felt like the gap between the cabinets and the ceilings was awkward, and I could definitely use more storage space. I decided to add additional cabinets above and crown molding to make it feel more put together.  I found these stock cabinets at Lowes, and they were very affordable so I decided to give them a try.  It worried me at first that these cabinets were a slightly different style than what I already had.  For the cabinets below, they had the center stile and the Lowes cabinets did not.  I was really worried about the look of it, but it looked cohesive once the cabinets were painted and installed and nobody has ever mentioned it. 

Cabinet Hardware

Lowes stock cabinets


To install the crown molding, I needed to purchase a miter saw.  It took me a lot of trial an error to figure out the proper angles to fit these cabinets. It was a little awkward because the angle of the cabinet was not perfectly 90 degrees.  I test fit the crown molding prior to installing the cabinets, so I could do all of this on the floor rather than the ladder. 

Miter Saw

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The finishing touch was a small piece of trim to cover the gaps between the cabinet and the wall, which gave it a more finished look. 

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