DESIgns: September 2010

As part of my bathroom painting project I pianted the cabinets. You know the type- I think we have all lived in a place where they have looked like this.

So since I was painted everything else- why not do the cabinets too? update the whole thing.

My goal was to have them look like one of my good friends gorgeous kitchen.

She did her own too. I'm not specific on how she did it- I do know she used a glaze.

I need to find out for future projects.

Here is what you will need....

Latex paint- The color your cupboards will be. I recommend going a shade lighter. After you apply the glaze the cabinets are going to be darker...even if you don't apply it to the whole area of the cabinets the over all will be darker than what you expected.

oil Primer- found anywhere.

Glaze- you can get this smaller bottle at Lowes. It comes in many different colors. My cabinets are mocha.

(you will also need a rag...older, lint-free the better)

Sponge roller - with an extra refill

optional- Paint thinner, makes clean up SO much easier.

I got this Brand at Walmart. I like that it is environmentally safe.

2 paint brushes.

1. A really cheap one. I use for the oil primer so I can just throw away after. oil paint is such a pain to get out of the brush that I would prefer to buy it cheap and toss.

2. A Nice, I used 2 inch angled, paint brush.

After taking off the doors. hardware etc:

First you will need to apply the primer

I do the edging and then roll.

A good heavy first coat is all that I needed. But if you want extra smooth, no grain cupbards do a couple of coats.

Every time I have done oil primer, it takes a while to dry. The first time I did a painting project with it I didn't let it dry enough. it didn't feel tacky, but wasn't dry completely because when I applied the paint topcoat it made it all bumpy. so make sure you let it dry.

Throw away your crappy paint brush and roller refill.

Get out the nice brush, and fresh sponge roller.

Then-

2 coats of paint.

I did it the same way-

edging with paint brush, roll on.

dry.

NOW the fun part. The Glaze.

Do you know how you want the glaze to look on your cabinets?

There are many different ways you can do this-

1.you can have the whole facade of your doors and surface covered in glaze, so that it will seep into little cracks everywhere and rub off the smooth surfaces.

2.you can just do the corners and edging

3. you can only do the doors.

The point is, make sure you know what you want. Me and a friend both did our bathrooms and they both turned out very different....

Take a inconspicuous spot and test.

My technique was to have it DARK, in the EDGES and Crevices. I would fade it out slightly but I wanted the middle of the doors and smooth areas to be cream- the original latex paint color.

So I put a quarter size amount of paint on the rag and gently rubbed it in the corners, careful to not wipe it all away. then took the part of the rag that was just damp with glaze and rub beside the corners/edges. So it would tint that area very slightly....

If something got where I didn't want it to, i would wipe with a dry area of the rag and it would wipe away.

That easy.

Allow to dry.

apply hardware and doors.

Here are my before and after pictures. Check here for more.