Painting Day

We started before 8AM on the Thursday morning.  When Mom first opened the primer she had me panicked.  It seemed very watery. It was a holiday here so there was no going to the store to get something else.  We stirred for about 10 minutes and it improved.  The primer ended up going on very well.  It was the Inslx oil based with alcohol.  Very fast drying (probably because of the alcohol).  So we primed all the cabinets and then all the framing in the kitchen.  The cabinets could be covered in about an hour but it took at least that long to do all the trim.

We started over again with our first coat of Cabinet Coat paint.   The cloud white color we chose is a very nice soft white.  I have white appliances so I didn't want anything too creamy.

We covered everything once and then took a break. 

I purchased 2 galllons of th Cabinet Coat paint.  I realized that I purchased way too much.  So while waiting in between coats I painted the door leading to the garage and some door frames. 

We finished a second coat of paint just around supper time.  You are supposed to wait six hours between coats.  We did not do this.  We probably did 3 hours or so.  We had the windows open, fans on and it was quite breezy.  The paint dried very quickly.  This seemed to work for us but I wouldn't recommend it unless you were sure it was dry.  Another thing to note is that we only painted one side of the cabinets.  The fronts of the cabinets were face down on foam and we did not turn over the cabinets.  We would be waiting a couple of days before we turned the cabinets over. 

So here we are :

I actually like my kitchen better already and the doors aren't even on yet!

The Cabinets

There are people out there who warn you against painting your oak cabinets.  However, I kept looking at different before and after pictures online. I always preferred the finished product of painted white cabinets.  So why not?

I should mention that my oak cabs are 25 years old - so their lifespan as is was nearing the end.  If this gets me an extra 5-10 years out of my cabinets - I am that much ahead of the game, right?

Something else you should know about me.  I am an "it'll do-er".  I'm just not a perfectionist.  If something looks "good enough", it is hard for me to keep going to get it better.  I am going to work hard through these projects to keep my standards as high as I can.  I know that expecially for this project, if will only turn out nice if it done right.  Of course - my husband and mother will make sure that everything passes inspection.

My old cabinets had handles and outside hinges.  I am hoping to get knobs instead of handles and invisble hinges.  However, this is only possible  if I can hide the existing holes.  We'll see...

For paint, I have purchased an oil based, w/alcohol primer by Insl-x and Cabinet Coat Insl'x paint for the cabients in Cloud White by Benjamin Moore.