Is there a hole in the ozone layer above Las Vegas?

After this week, I'm sure there is now. That's because I refinished my kitchen cabinets with spray paint. That's right, spray paint. You know when you get one of those crazy ideas and then you tell your husband and he looks at you like you've lost your ever lovin' mind? That's what happened, but I researched it, (website) and I wasn't the first one to try it and it seemed to work for everybody else, so why not me? I've been getting lots of "How did you do it" kind of questions, so here are the steps.

1. I took down all the cabinet doors, took out the drawers. Because I was too lazy to take out the dishes, food, blah blah blah off the shelves, I just taped cut pieces of drop cloth inside. I should have just taken everything out. Taping is a big pain.


2. After taking the hinges off the doors, I washed everything down with a TSP cleaning formula. It comes as a powder or a liquid. I got the smaller powder box. You add an amount to some warm water and wash everything down with a sponge. Then I sprayed the doors with a water bottle and wiped the doors down with a rag.



3. The next step is to use a spray primer on EVERYTHING! This is where your husband will drive you nuts, because no matter how hard you try, your taping job will not be good enough and there will be primer dust everywhere! I took plastic drop cloths and covered every surface I could find, and even made a wall separating the kitchen from the family room. But I neglected to remember that husbands have atomic supervision that allows them to find molecules of primer spray on the hardwood floor he installed, that you normally cannot see. The primer is important though, because it allows you to not have to sand or degloss, so don't skip it.



4. Primer spray paint only takes an hour to dry, so after you can spray paint the color. I chose Rustoleum Cream. I just did a nice even coat. People asked me how I kept it even, it just did. Keep the spray can moving! I think that was another benefit of the the primer, too. It covered so well, I didn't really need to do a second coat. In order to get all the nooks and crannies of the doors, you have to go back and do the sides, so it gives you a chance to touch up places you miss.



5. I let the paint dry overnight. It stays tacky for a while and I didn't want to get any fingerprint marks into. for the doors, I let one side dry about 1/2 a day before I painted the other side. Then the fun part began, GLAZING! I used Valspar Tintable Glaze and had it tinted in a chocolate brown color called Frontier Road. They make a premixed glaze, but it was a little too red for me.
   


6. I got my glaze technique from this video. It fit my style...just slap it on and wipe it off. I painted it on with a brush, leaving extra in the nooks and crannies, and working it into the wood grain. Then wiped it off with a rag. Easy Peasy!
   
   
   
   


7. The next morning I sprayed the doors with a clear coat spray in a satin finish. This is when I had a nervous breakdown. I used Valspar Clear Coat on Rustoleum Cream Spray Paint, and in ares where the spray was a little heavy THE PAINT BUBBLED UP! AHHHHHHHH! I just spent 3 days on these doors and one simple little step tries to destroy all of my work! But in the words of Tim Holtz, one of my favorite designers, I "embraced the imperfections" and made the bubbles just more of my distressed look. That's the lesson in all of this. If you want to repaint your cabinets, you cannot make them look like the prefect ones you see in the model homes. You are not a cabinet maker. So you (and your husband) need to be prepared to accept the imperfections. That's why this look of so good for a rustic, country kind of look.



8. I was prepared to repaint the existing hinges, but Byron found the exact same ones, only in a rod iron black. So he hung the doors back up and viola, the kitchen was done. We have picked some pulls, that'll be another post.

Overall, I'm really happy with the results. There are some touch ups I need to do, but it looks like a new kitchen! So, the big questions you're all asking...

• Would I do it again? Hmmm...yes and no. It depends on the situation. If we got some free cabinets that I could paint the whole thing in the garage, and THEN hang them, then yes, I would do it again, with no Valspar Clear Coat! But to paint those cabinets in the kitchen, I was just too much of a nervous wreck thinking about the paint getting sprayed on Byron's beloved wood floor (which scrubs off the Goof-Off Spray Cleaner) or primer spray dust getting on the leather couch.



• How many cans of paint did I use: 7 cans of primer, 12 cans of paint, 4 cans of clear coat.



• The cost: With ALL the supplies, about $200. Not bad for new cabinets.