When Last Seen...

I just realized that I have never gotten back to my kitchen re-do. This is what my kitchen looked like when last seen in this blog. Remember, it was dark and fake! Fake wooden cabinet doors with that lovely avocado green detailing and fake brick back splash. And, for some reason, I had changed the knobs to the colonial white porcelain. It was my version of country in a decidedly Spanish feeling kitchen.

So here we are with the kitchen underway. We have already removed the old vent hood, had the cabinet trimmed (isn't it ironic that I am now thinking of having that "cropped" cabinet replaced with a full sized one and pushed up to the ceiling giving that uneven cabinet top edge that I now love so much-but, I digress) and had a built-in microwave installed, bought white appliances and added the white tile back splash and countertops.

I have also started the single most labor intensive job I have ever undertaken-the refinishing of the cabinets.

Now remember, I did this re-do many years ago. Long before every blog talked about kitchen remakes and every paint store carried multiple "miracle" products for re-doing ugly laminate cabinets.

My cabinets were well made so I knew that any work I put in this project would be around for a long time to come but being a "yesterday" kind of girl, you must know up front that preparation is really not my thing. I am much more apt to dive in and pay the price later.

In any case, as I stood lamenting my horrible kitchen one day with the paint guy at Lowes, he told me about a new (back then) product called "Cabinet Rescue". It is a primer for laminate so it will then accept paint. And that was all I needed. As I have said in the past, my husband always says he doesn't care what I tackle if it doesn't cost him anything and I don't need his help. I knew I had to somehow cover up that hideous carved detail on my cabinet doors but when I priced even the least expensive molding, it would have been a bit more than I thought I could squeak by. And that is how I ended up with simple lathing strips. They were the right size to cover all of the carving and I could use straight cuts instead of mitered.

Of course, my project budget had already gotten a bit out of hand when I decided I needed to buy myself a miter saw even though I wasn't doing mitered cuts for this project. The hope was always that I could some day add other moldings to these doors and perhaps have more nooks and crannies in which a chocolate glaze could settle.

And so the project began. I tried to do things right-at least as right as I was willing to do- so I started with the top cabinets, removed the doors, numbered them, sanded, sanded and sanded some more and painted. Lots of rolling with a small, foam roller. The Cabinet Rescue went on very nicely and since I could get it tinted to the white I wanted, I actually used it for my top coat as well.

This was a big project! I have a lot of cabinets even though my kitchen isn't that large. I took my time and let everything cure the way I wanted. I used Liquid Nails for the trim and put in a few thin finishing nails on each piece for good measure.

Then I rehung everything. I used the original hinges (which I have since replaced with brushed nickel hinges) but once again, new hardware.


At this time, I also decided that I liked the "furniture look" for some of the kitchen, so I added the posts along the oven sides and the ball feet under the sink unit. I also had the crown molding added along the top of the cabinets for a more finished look and added a wooden embellishment on the valance over the sink. And I guess by this picture, we had now had the sky light and dome lights added.



And then I did the impossible! I convinced my husband that we simply had to add a pantry to this space. We had one made that looked just like the cabinets I had just produced. I added several pull-out units to the pantry and have room to store all of our food stuff which opens up all of our other cupboards for storage of plates, glasses, pots and pans, serving pieces etc. And still, stuff falls out every time someone opens a door. Perhaps I just have too much stuff!!!

In any case, my kitchen stayed like this for a few more years before I changed a couple of other things. But that is for another post Stay tuned.