I gave my kitchen cupboards a complete overhaul and they look fabulous.
9 Hours! Yesterday I spent 9 hours finishing my cupboard doors. And that was just the final touches mind you. Actually, I still have to hang them but I'm planning on a quick one hour turn around on that task.
When I bought my condo the kitchen cupboards were one of the top items on my list of re-dos. I hated them. They were old, oak-looking, 1980's style, cheap cupboards. And they were beat up and dirty. So after almost a year I finally got around to the task. Initially I was going to replace them but that was too expensive and refacing them also was out of budget so I did what I do best, I painted them. I started with a good one coat finished wood primer. Then selected a semi-gloss black for the finish. This actually isnt too shiny and when properly cured you can wipe stains, fingerprints, food spills, etc. off and not ruin the finish. I pulled off all the doors and drawers and primed and painted the frame work. I could have gone the extra step and painted inside the cupboards but that seemed like too much work and I think the black would have shown dust and dirt and spilled flour etc. in the baking cupboard. So i left them with the wood veneer.
Then I painted the drawer faces; I actually unscrewed them from the drawer, which just requires a screwdriver and makes painting easier. I used a foam brush for this to eliminate brush strokes. I should have scrubbed the surfaces a little better before I began because old oil, whether from cooking or skin, can cause paint bubbles and I do have a couple.
But the last task was the most difficult. I wanted the insides of the doors to look different. I thought that much solid black would be dark and depressing so I wanted to do something different. When I say inside of doors I don't mean the back, but the front. The doors are built almost like a picture with a frame around the outside and a slightly recessed center. Pretty standard door pattern in the 1980s and it's still quite popular. So this area would be very visible and I really wanted something unique.
I considered painting it the color of the walls, another color entirely, doing a faux finish, applying wallpaper, taking the wood out and putting in glass or etched plexiglass. Finally I decided to paint them the color of the walls. That is until I got them painted. Then suddenly the yellow and black took on this schoolbus feel and I quickly decided that wasn't going to work. So faux finish it was. I wanted to experiment with the level of shine as well as color. So the original yellow base was an eggshell finish. I chose a rust color in semi-gloss to compliment and then to finish it all off I selected a putty color of stencil paint, which has a very flat, almost dusty, finish.
The faux finish tecnique was to lightly cover the door with the rust paint and then negative sponge a lot of the color off. Then, once that had dried, I did a positive sponge in the rust to give more depth and a darker contrast color. And finally, after all that had dried I stippled and lightly brushed the stencil paint in circular motions around most of the surface, creating more depth of field and the contrasting sheen.
Now, I have doors propped up all over my house as I'm allowing them ample curing time. I will probably hang them tomorrow but will be going on vacation soon so they'll get even more time to cure before really being used.
