Are you stuck with ancient wood kitchen cabinets, peeling and flaking with old paint or glaze? If so, take heart, because Jessi tackled a similar problem and conquered her kitchen with some hard work and green paint (perhaps it should go in our gallery of green kitchens). To see more of her project, read on.
BEFORE
Jessi says:
AACK! 1960's flat panel kitchen cabinets with a terrible flaking orange-glaze! I've hated these cabinets for the 4 years I've lived here, but the daunting mess of old flaky lacquer was just too much. Finally, after hearing about "Do It Now!", and with the help of my brave boyfriend, I decided to give the cabinets a simple and economical facelift.
TOOLS:
All hail the mini-roller!
Also used:
An artist's brush for the small areas
Trash bags for dust and paint drippings
A couple of screwdrivers
Mini palm sander
2 dust masks
A can of primer
2 colors of paint
STEPS:
First step: Unscrew all the doors off and remove the handles. Simple enough. Next, outside with the palm sander. The old finish came off pretty easily — what a dusty mess! Then the worst part: INSIDE with the palm sander to complete the lacquer removal on the cabinets.
As my boyfriend sanded, I held up the vacuum cleaner in an effort to minimize clean up! (I pretended this was working.) Don't forget your dust masks!!
The next day we used the most wonderful invention in the history of painting: the roller. In no time, we had the cabinets primed.
A short while later, we began with the chocolate brown on the cabinets along the floor and the background of the wall mounted portion.
Then, vibrant lime green on the doors.
Finally, it was time to screw the hardware back and re-mount the doors!
In the future, Stage 2 of the 60s Cabinet Facelift Project will be to frame a wonderful lime and chocolate fabric I have and attach the frame to the center of the doors. They will look like outdated flat-panels no more! Now I just have to get up the ambition for Stage 2.....
RESOURCES:
Leftover paint that I had used on the walls of my house! I combined a wonderful green with brown to create the two-toned cabinets. Often times, you can create a totally different look with supplies lying around the corners of your home!
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i know this is a little mean, but i think it went from 60s lookin' to 70s lookin'! but i am reaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllly not a fan of chocolate brown and lime green - in any way, shape, or form.
i would've gone glossy white and gotten stainless steel handles :)
maybe i'm boring? ;)
WOW. I love it!
I was going to say "Paint the fridge, too!!!" until reading the comment above. That may have been a little overkill.
Fantastic job. :)
we have the exact same cabinets! We did the base in white and the doors in a spring green. we also used rustoleum to spray paint the handles a pewter color.
The difficult thing with these handles is the unusual shape, we couldn't find any that would fit!
I would suggest adding a lead testing kit to your purchase list. Anytime old paint flakes, particularly if it predates 1980, you should test it for lead before sanding it and letting the lead laden particles make there way onto all the surfaced of you house. That said... looks great!
Looks great, well done, paint color is a personal choice and I think green and white would put you back in the 50s . But whty didn;t you finish the lower drawers?
I LOVE brown and wasabi together - great job! Whatever makes YOU happy, right? Cheers!