10 Day Kitchen Makeover Part II

The most exciting part of this whole kitchen makeover (other than the finished product) is that I was given an awesome early birthday gift from Ryan!  Like most 32 year old girls, I asked for a paint sprayer.  Yep, I’m for real.  I do not kid.  I. asked. for. a. paint. sprayer.   You could probably categorize ‘paint sprayer’ in the ‘vacuum’ column of things not to give a woman for her birthday, but let me tell you I was (and still am) SUPER STOKED!  Not only did i get just any paint sprayer, Ryan sprung a few more buck-a-roo’s and bought me the Graco TrueCoat Plus from Lowes!

Ryan was initially worried it would be too heavy for me but I convinced him my arms could handle it by saying “the beach is that-a-way” (while flexing my toned biceps and pointing east).   Ryan also realized how much  he was saving in the wallet department by refinishing the cabinets rather than buying new, so it was worth the splurge.  But enough with the sidebar, back to the kitchen makeover.  Part one can be found here in cased you missed it.

I worked diligently Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when I got home from work.  (Tuesday, not so much.  I reserved Tuesday for a well deserved happy hour with my girls.)  The oil primer that I applied on Sunday (via roller)  had 24 hours to properly dry so Monday I began working on the fronts.  Because I can be a tad lazy every now and then, I opted for Kiltz oil-primer in a spray can.  I wanted the smoothest finish on the ‘show side’ and thought this would be the best/fastest/easiest way to achieve it.  (Lord knows I wasn’t about to put oil-primer in my brand new, never been used, paint sprayer).  It ended up costing me about $65 in spray primer, but way worth it in the long run.

The spray-can primer was killer.  It only took me about 45 mins to spray the fronts of all the doors.  If I wasn’t so cheap thitfy, I would’ve sprung another $65 to do the back side.  I forgot to snap a pic of the doors all primed and pretty, so this picture of the primed and wrapped drawers will have to suffice.

I spent all day Wednesday obsessed with USPS tracking.  I was patiently waiting for the arrival of my new cabinet hardware!  I scoured hardware stores online and locally for weeks before starting this project.  I knew I wanted an oil rubbed bronze finish (ORB), I just didn’t know what style pull to go with.  Did I want those cup pulls, like this:

or something fancy and rustic like this:

In the end Ryan and I both decided we wanted something modern and contemporary.  We knew ORB would be a nice contrast to the cream cabinets and would play off the dark flecks in the granite, so the Amerock Oil Rubbed Bronze Cabinet Bar Pulls became the winner!

We bought 41 of the 7″ pulls for the ‘normal size’ drawers/cabinets and 7 of the longer 13″ pulls for the large drawers below the cooktop and the 4 over-sized pantry doors.   I was hesitant to spend so much money on those darn drawer pulls (those suckers are expensive!) but my mom convinced me it’s the “jewelry of the kitchen”. She’s so smart.  I never thought of it that way.  You can only imagine my disappointment when I got home from work and saw this banged up, halfway open package on my doorstep:

Ryan and I frantically ripped open the package and started counting those bad boys to make sure there weren’t any missing in action.    Somehow all 48 pulls made their way safely from the warehouse in Nowheresville, USA to our door step!

Disaster averted, I started back on the kitchen priming.  After all, the cabinet frames that I sanded and deglossed on Sunday still had not been hit-up with a coat Kiltz oil primer.  I can gloat all I want about my drawer pulls, but the cabinet frames won’t prime themselves!

Once I stood back and looked at the progress, I could finally start to see my vision.  Even though it’s was only an uneven coat of primer, it was starting to transform!

It took about 5 hours to prime all the cabinet frames.  That ended up being 4 hours more than I anticipated…haha.  Needless to say, I called it a night.

Thursday morning our house was still filled with the aroma of oil primer and I mentally jumped up and down in excitement of the transformation taking place as I walked into the kitchen.  I sat restlessly at work the entire day, just itching to get home and finally start actually painting.  Five days of prep had done me in and I. was. ready. to. paint!  As I mentioned in Part I of the Kitchen Makeover, I bought 2 gallons of Sherwin Williams Pro Classic Acrylic Latex Enamel paint in Panda White but in the end had to go back and get gallon #3….that paint sprayer eats the paint.

I started on the cabinet frames that evening after work.  I used my handy 2″ cut-in brush from Sherwin Williams (I’m sure you’ve heard me go on before about how great that brush is, so I will spare you) and a brand new 4″ smooth foam roller.  It took right around 4 hour to apply the first coat of paint.  About 3 hours longer than anticipated, again…haha.

Friday:  The day of sprayer excitement!  (which of course calls for ridiculously staged photos of my excitement).

Yeah, you could say I was just a little pumped to finally start spraying those cabinet doors and drawers!  We ended up preparing two spray stations since there were so many doors and drawers.  The garage held the majority of the pieces while the overflow went into the basement shop area.  We got in a little practice on some scrap wood, then went to town on the backsides of the doors.  We applied thin coats of paint so it wouldn’t run.  We had to keep the sprayer back a good 18″ or so to achieve this (hence why so much paint was used/wasted).

We felt we were fairly intelligent by starting out on the backs of the doors since it was a brand new sprayer.  We’ve both used sprayers in the past, but it was probably best to get the hang of it so we didn’t ruin anything.  It only took about 10 minutes to spray all the doors in the basement so we moved upstairs to the garage and gave those doors their first coat of Panda White enamel paint!

We completely covered the floor of the garage and the basement as well as the walls before we sprayed.  A sprayer like the one Ryan bought me can put off some killer over-spray!  Also, on a side note:  like most spray guns, the canister only holds 32 oz of paint so we were constantly filling that thing up.  I don’t want anyone to think we just went about spraying all of our cabinets with one initial fill up.  We were constantly unscrewing, filling, and re-screwing that thing….major UGH!  It really only took about 45 minutes.  I applied a second coat of paint to the inside cabinet frames, then called it a day.

2nd Saturday:  the cabinet doors were beautiful, smooth, streak free, aka: glorious.  The paint was completely dry so we were able to flip the doors and continue the spray process on the front sides.  I also decided the kitchen table could use a little face lift.  The matching kitchen set was left to us by Ryan’s parents.  I didn’t take any pictures, but imagine Michelle setting up a bunch of cardboard pieces in the grass and spraying the cherry table and chairs with her brand new spray gun.

2nd Sunday: Everything is dry.  Ryan broke out the dill and started measuring and drilling holes for our new hardware!

Remember how we had 48 pulls to install?  Well, they were not all installed on Sunday.  We spent several hours getting the new oil rubbed bronze pulls drilled and screwed into each door/drawer, then we screwed the hinges back in and hung each door as they were completed.  (I numbered each door to make sure it went back to it’s original home).  But needless to say, this process went well into 2nd Monday.  After 10 days (Saturday to Monday) every kitchen drawer was finally in and each cabinet door hung.  The tape was peeled, the spray gun cleaned, and the drill back on the charger.  I am pretty sure more than one hundred squeals of excitement exited my mouth.  I’ve been in love with so many DIY projects in the past but this one by far Takes. The. Cake.  Not just any cake, it takes the Maggie Moo’s Better Batter Ice Cream Cake, to be exact.  Are you ready??

Are you as speechless as I am???!!  The granite completely pops against the cream  cabinets.  It becomes it’s own show piece.  The drawer pulls (or ‘jewelry’ as my mom calls them) completely pop off the doors and add a little contemporary zing to this somewhat traditional kitchen.  Did you notice what I did to the table?  I left the top natural  and only painted the legs.  I may change up the chairs with some black paint, the jury’s still out on that one.  What do you think???

Without further ado, here are pictures of the finished kitchen from almost every angle….

And one last reminder of the before and after…

Needless to say I am totally smitten kittens on this project!!!   I just sat in the kitchen and stared at it for at least two hours after it was complete.  Ryan and I are both excited about how a few coats of paint, 10 days of sweat equity, and some new hardware can transform a dark cherry kitchen into a contemporary, open, and inviting space!  Next step?  Tackle the lighting and decide on a paint color (did you notice all the patch holes?)!!  I’d like to remove the fan and add a chandelier over the table and add some lighting over the island!  As far as paint, I have absolutely no idea…..

What do you think?  Are you smitten kittens too???!!!

P.S. The second best part of this project was the reveal to Ryan’s parents. They are completely in  love too.  I wish I could have caught their reaction on film….Oh well!

P.P.S. The cabinet paint appears really white in these photos, but it really is a cream color in person.