Kitchen Remodel {Part Two}

 

 

I have never been a big fan of painting.  It’s tedious, time consuming, and takes a lot of patience to do it right.  Since the kitchen is the hub of our house I knew I couldn’t rush through it.  From my experience, the key to outstanding results were patience, and the paint products I used.  I went to our local Benjamin Moore retailer and asked for their advice.  They had recommended I apply a base using a product called STIX Waterborne BondingPrimer.  This product adhered very well to all of the surfaces including the laminate ends of the cabinets.

 

For the primer coat I used a standard mini foam roller and paint brush.  I found the ideal method was to hold the door up in one hand to coat all of the edges first, and then lay it back down on the 2 x 4’s and coat the rest of the surface.  I made sure not to put the primer on too heavily to avoid any drips (make sure you avoid painting where you numbered the cabinets).  You only need a thin coat to create a bondable surface.  Once you’ve done all of the back sides of the cabinets (including the backs of the drawer fronts) wait until they are dry as per the instructions on the can and then flip to do the front sides.  If you notice that any drip marks have made their way over to the front, now is the time to sand them off.  Also do your priming coat on the cabinet boxes.

 

I left my primed doors and cabinets to fully cure for a full 7 days, although you could probably get away with just 3.

For the finishing coat I used Benjamin Moore Advanced (Pearl Finish) in Mountain Peak White.  This stuff is amazing
for furniture and cabinets.  It goes on smooth and then self-levels to a perfect finish with no brush marks.  Use small mohair rollers and a decent quality brush for this.  I put on very light coats, so in total I had 3 on the back and 4 on the front, and to tell you the truth, I probably could have done one more on the front.  Also apply 3 or 4 coats to your cabinet boxes.

 

We had real wood cabinet doors so even after we painted them, the natural grain still showed through which made them look richer.  As much as we would all like to minimize how many coats of paint we apply, it was worth the extra effort for these results.  This paint also dries very hard after about a week and is difficult to chip!

 

When you’ve finished all of your doors, you can easily put them back in place by matching up the numbered doors with the numbered cabinets (Part One) and re-attach your knobs and pulls.And now it look’s like this…