Finally! After living without the oh-so-necessary-these-days internet for a week and getting a run around from our service provider, our web is finally back up and Bean In Love is back in business! Oh happy Saturday!
As you might know, we've started another project to bring our kitchen out of the dark into the light. We've already picked out and ordered new countertops so the next step is to get started on re-painting the cabinets. When we first moved in, we had the great idea to paint the cabinets a chocolate brown using left-over/free paint from our previous house (see here). Well, it was all great and dandy and looked pretty good when we were done but for some reason the paint remained a little sticky, even to this day. One cabinet door also had lots of little pieces of roller lint plastered underneath the paint, leftover from the previous owners paint job and it always irked us. So after we painted our master bath cabinets and fell in love with their look, we decided to carry it into the kitchen as well. This is the story of how I, during my 16th week of pregnancy with twins, began this somewhat large project while Anthony helped here and there in between work and studying for a masters' exam. :)
With our countertops due in on the 17th of this month, I decided to complete the upper cabinets first before they arrived so that I didn't have to worry about accidentally ruining brand new tops with endless piles of paint chips and sawdust and 'oops' drops of primer and paint. So it began with the upper left side:
For starters, I removed all of the doors and hardware and then removed everything from inside the cabinets.
Starting with the doors (the easy part), I set up a workstation outside and got to sanding, first with a coarse-grit sandpaper and then with a medium-grit until all sides were as smooth as two babies bottoms. :)
Before:
After:
Since I was just going to paint right over them again, I didn't sand all the way down to the wood. I just sanded enough to make sure that I had a non-sticky, smooth, flat surface to apply primer and paint to.
To get in the grooves on the edge of the doors and inside the decorative routing on the fronts, I wrapped some sand paper around the thin, rounded end of Anthony's grill brush and went to town.
Then, a probably unnecessary step but just for good measure, I quickly rubbed each door down with a thin layer of Crown Liquid Deglosser NEXT (from Lowe's) to further ensure a good paint stick.
Then, it was on to the cabinet frames where I employed the same sanding process.
Just for kicks, here's a quick, all-around view of other happenings in the kitchen:
Me - prepped, pregnant, and fully protected. :)
And, the new tablescape I created:
Lovely, innit?
Anyway, back to the cabinets. After a couple days of sanding, sore arms, and lots of pregnancy bathroom breaks, I was ready to prime.
And that was that. Except you quick ones might've also noticed one tiny thing missing...
The gaudy scalloped edge above the sink (if you thought "the light bulb", I'll count that too)! Hooray for 2012 and modern design people!
How'd I get it down? Well, after noticing it appeared to be attached with two screws on each side...
...I simply removed them and tried my hardest (without Anthony's knowledge or approval) to bang, pull, and rip it down but to no avail.
It wasn't until my sweet, unknowing husband came home that night that he noticed my apparent deviousness and hesitantly removed it for me - after removing molding from behind and ripping it from six unseen nails from above (no wonder!) - and thereby exposing the ugly baby florescent light we've got goin' on. But it's okay, we've got plans for that thing and they don't involve keeping it. Stay tuned! :)
. . .
Well, I'm off to start painting and eating, painting and eating (and scouting for the mail man who just might have my Gap maternity jeans in his possession). Have a great weekend everyone!
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