Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel: Pantry Makeover (Part 2)

February 20, 2012 by

… I continue my quest for a pantry that isn’t nicotine-colored!

The shelves were first primed on both sides (with 2 days or so of dry time in between), and then painted with the same Benjamin Moore enamel stuff on both sides.  With nearly 7 days of drying time completed now for the undersides of the shelves, it was time to return them to their rightful place in the pantry.

Behold, a crisp, white pantry!

I want to be good and sure the shelves are fully cured before I jam all my crap back into the pantry, so I’m going to let the shelves continue to dry for a few more days.

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Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel: Tearing Out Cabinets

February 19, 2012 by

Today started early with the first coat of enamel on the cabinet fronts and the second inside on the cabinet framework. Here’s Jim carefully painting inside:

You’ve already seen a few posts about carefully painting cabinets though, so let’s get to some destruction!! You might recall that our oven-wall used to look like this.

We found this arrangement… lacking.

  • We weren’t utilizing the cabinets well because they are too small and awkward for keeping much in
  • The cabinets block the view at least half of the countertop and the range’s cook top.
  • The over-the-range-microwave has been an aggravation since the day we moved in. It’s just a beast of a microwave, dimming the lights every time it starts up and unable to co-exist with a running toaster oven (blown circuit every time we forget!). We’re not big microwave users, and it always seemed rather ridiculous to be putting a tiny bowl of veggies into something sized for a turkey.
  • Neither of us likes the idea of standing at the stove, cooking, with our head just inches from the microwave when it is on
  • The microwave ventilation was AWFUL! Our downstairs suffers low visibility from steam and smoke pretty much every time we cook (twice a day!). We need a range hood that can keep up with two cooks!
  • It’s just kinda… cramped. Like these cabinets are all up in my business every time I stand near the range or the sink. Like they don’t respect personal space.

 

There was only one thing to do.

Unscrewing these last two cabinets from the wall was as simple as using the drill to remove 4 long screws. But they remained just as firmly attached to the wall as ever (and to each other).

Mandi: I think these might be glued, look – they aren’t even wiggling when I pull on them.

Jim: Let me try *RIPS CABINETS OFF WALL*

Mandi and Jim: AHHHH OH MY GOD AHHHHHH I GOT IT KEEP HOLDING OKAY PUT IT DOWN AHHHH IT’S HEAVY

Anyway, we did safely lower the cabinet mass onto the countertop, and then we hauled it into the living room, which has become our project graveyard. Ahhhhhh, the kitchen breathes! It’s open! The room feels like it doubled in size. (Okay, maybe not double, but at least 25%. Maybe even 30%.)

Next up: removing the wood backsplash from around the edge of the countertop. Using a screwdriver, hammer, and a weak spot in the trim’s adhesion to the wall, I was able to start the prying-off process like so:

Once the gap was large enough for the crowbar, I used the crowbar to separate the backsplash from the wall.

I thought this method was pretty radical until accidentally punched a wide hole in the drywall with the crowbar, and until the longest portion of the backsplash split horizontally. Oops.

Still, considering the length of the backsplash on the sink wall, this seems like a minor setback. The majority of it came right off after some prying.

YAY!

One more thing before we break for lunch and our regularly scheduled weekend chores: cutting out the damaged drywall from behind where the microwave used to be. I’ve seen Dad do this like, once, so that means I’m qualified, right?

I used the level to draw a rectangle around the damaged area and I overshot the studs to give the new drywall patch something to screw into. This was actually a pretty straightforward task, and I was careful not to ram any wires or the back side of our dining room wall. I am going to leave the hole unpatched until I am certain the contractor installing our range hood doesn’t need access to any of the wires inside here.

And here’s where we are now:

Do you like our mess? Admit it, you’re impressed.

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DIY Kitchen Renovation: Painting a Pantry Door White

February 17, 2012 by

Welcome to our Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel project. Links to each step of the project can be found on our Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel home page.

The pantry door suffered the same ailment as everything else in the kitchen: it was shiny and orange-hued. But it’s wood, so there was no reason I couldn’t strip off the varnish and paint the pantry door white to match my painted cabinets! Painting a pantry door is easy – read on!

Supply List

Sanding the Door

After prepping all those cabinet doors for painting, the pantry door was basically just another, larger, cabinet to strip and sand. Here I am sanding my pantry door with my corner palm sander.

painting a pantry door white starts with sanding

Yellow pants for the win.

I have two sanders: a battery-powered sander and an electrically powered-sander, and for long jobs like this door I preferred the electric sander.  Do not attempt to sand a door by hand! Your arm will fall off. A good corner sander is only about $20, so grab one before you start a project like this. This Genesis-brand corner palm sander is highly rated on Amazon:

Genesis corner palm sander

Shop for a palm sander like this Genesis corner palm sander on Amazon.

Priming the Door

Once the pantry door was sanded smooth and completely free of varnish, I used the same Zinsser Smart Prime from the cabinets on the pantry door’s faces and edge. Since I work full time, I squeezed this painting in wherever I could – usually a session before work and another after work.

Primer’s job isn’t really coverage, it’s just to give something for the top coat to stick to, so I called it good enough after 3 thin coats on every surface of the door. I definitely recommend using a primer (especially this one, since it’s held up so well). Two years later, my cabinet and door paint has not chipped or scratched. This primer holds on tight!

I rolled the primer on with a small foam roller, which I highly recommend over a fluffy roller. The foam roller makes a much smoother, flatter finish than a fluffy roller.

painting a pantry door white letting primer dry

Kitchen cabinets and the pantry door in various stages of drying.

Zinsser smart primer for white kitchen cabinets

Zinsser Smart Prime works great for painted cabinets and pantry doors.

Painting the Door

Isn’t it funny how much work goes in before you can actually start painting? Painting was quick and easy. I used the same Benjamin Moore Advance Alkyd paint I used on the cabinets, applying a three thin coats to each side of the pantry door with the mini foam roller.

This photo is from a cabinet, but I used the exact same foam roller and painting technique to paint the pantry door. The secret to an even paint job is thin coats evenly applied.

painting a pantry door white foam rolling on the paint

So that’s it: sand it, prime it, paint it. Don’t use a latex paint and don’t skip the sanding or priming steps if you want this paint job to be durable enough to survive life in the kitchen! With the cabinet doors and pantry door drying, the next big change was the professional installation of our new range hood.

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Filed Under: Kitchen

DIY Kitchen Renovation: Painting Kitchen Cabinets White

February 14, 2012 by

Welcome to our Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel project. Links to each step of the project can be found on our Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel home page.

I gave the cabinets 3 days to dry after their last coat of primer before moving onto the final coat. For painted kitchen cabinets, you can’t just slap on any latex paint – it has to be a tougher, more durable paint. For this job, I used Benjamin Moore Advance Waterborne Interior Alkyd.

Why this paint?  My heroes at Young House Love used it for their own cabinets!  That’s not like showing up to the prom in the same dress, is it? Anyway, it’s good stuff.

2014 Update: This post is 2 years old, but my cabinets still look like they were just painted! Benjamin Moore Advance has held up beautifully – I highly recommend this product.

Anyway, here’s the enamel going on with my little foam roller.  Enamel definitely has a different feel to it than latex paint.  It’s difficult to describe – I might use the term “less booger-like than latex”.  It lacks that rubbery stretchiness latex has.

And since it was $50 for the gallon, and went on over equally pricey primer, which went on over hours of sanding work, which followed some serious varnish stripping work, I get to feel like a pro painter and not just some amateur sloshing around cheap paint from the hardware store. 

Thin and even coats is the trick to perfectly painted kitchen cabinets. Don’t rush, this is the homestretch!

I am doing the backs first because I want the last, final dry wait to be with the fronts facing up so the finished fronts never touch the paint cans the doors sit on while they dry. I haven’t seen any evidence that this technique is in any way harmful to the paint, but just in case – the final “front coat” will not touch the support cans!

With Jim helping me, we painted all of the doors in about one hour.  We’re slower with the enamel because we’re being extra careful now.  When we finished the cabinet doors, we went inside and did a coat of enamel on all of the cabinet framework.  And thus begins another 3 day wait on drying…

PS: Yes, this was our Valentine’s Day.  True love = painting your kitchen cabinets together. Write a song about that, Taylor Swift! :)

While the final coat of paint on the cabinets dried, I repeated all of the steps on the pantry door.

Filed Under: Kitchen