Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation: http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.com/
We have been talking about trying this on our old kitchen cabinets. It's a way to give cabinets a bit of a new/updated look and it supposedly works on wood, melamine, and even laminate. The kit will cover about 200 square feet of cabinets, including doors and drawers (not the interiors, obviously). We are close to that limit as we have a lot of cabinets (plus we'll do the ones in the bathroom, too, while we're at it).
The cabinets are about 30 years old, dark and dingy. I have tried to keep up with them; I clean them well at least twice a year with Murphy's soap, put lemon oil on them every spring (and sometimes when I do a big fall cleaning), and dust them weekly, not to mention a Swiffer or two throughout the week when I'm in the kitchen. So I try. But well, they're old. And, unfortunately, I cannot afford, nor can I really justify, spending a small fortune on new cabinets. We priced new ones and.....oh geez, they are expensive. And we have a lot of cabinets in the kitchen.
With this kit, you can take your cabinets lighter or darker than what they are now. Supposedly, if you can paint, you can do this.
I am looking to lighten the kitchen up a bit and the biggest way to do that is to lighten the cabinets. From the before and after pictures I've seen from people who have done this, it can be done, but there's a lot of work involved. We are DIYers, largely because labor is a big expense with all home improvement projects and because we like doing things like this. But I don't know......
So the first step is to remove the doors and take them to the basement. While one of us is working on the doors and drawers, the other one will be in the kitchen working on the cabinet frames. It's basically a 4-step process: they need to be thoroughly cleaned, then painted, then glazed (the glaze will be removed), then the top coat is put on to protect the newly finished cabinets. We figured we'd do the top cabinets first, then do the bottoms. We're taking off the hardware, will have to fill in the holes from the old hardware, and will replace everything with new knobs....we'll clean the door hinges, though, and re-use them. While we're at it, since our cabinets don't go all the way to the ceiling, we're going to add some crown moulding to the tops of the cabinets for a bit of a decorative look. We're putting lighting at the top of the cabinets, too, as well as lighting between the cabinets and the countertop. That should do a lot to give extra light to the kitchen, while giving a bit of an update to the kitchen as well. I'm excited, but I'm really nervous, too.
I don't know how we're going to keep the cats away from the kitchen while each step dries. I guess we'll have to keep all of them back in the bedroom all day long with the door shut as The Girls (Mollipop and Tabby) will be able to jump over any gate we put up, even if the Old Ladies (Whisper and Bootser) can no longer do so. And cat hair would not look good on newly done cabinets.
Any ideas or suggestions for cabinets? And other ideas for lightening up a kitchen?
We have been talking about trying this on our old kitchen cabinets. It's a way to give cabinets a bit of a new/updated look and it supposedly works on wood, melamine, and even laminate. The kit will cover about 200 square feet of cabinets, including doors and drawers (not the interiors, obviously). We are close to that limit as we have a lot of cabinets (plus we'll do the ones in the bathroom, too, while we're at it).
The cabinets are about 30 years old, dark and dingy. I have tried to keep up with them; I clean them well at least twice a year with Murphy's soap, put lemon oil on them every spring (and sometimes when I do a big fall cleaning), and dust them weekly, not to mention a Swiffer or two throughout the week when I'm in the kitchen. So I try. But well, they're old. And, unfortunately, I cannot afford, nor can I really justify, spending a small fortune on new cabinets. We priced new ones and.....oh geez, they are expensive. And we have a lot of cabinets in the kitchen.
With this kit, you can take your cabinets lighter or darker than what they are now. Supposedly, if you can paint, you can do this.
I am looking to lighten the kitchen up a bit and the biggest way to do that is to lighten the cabinets. From the before and after pictures I've seen from people who have done this, it can be done, but there's a lot of work involved. We are DIYers, largely because labor is a big expense with all home improvement projects and because we like doing things like this. But I don't know......
So the first step is to remove the doors and take them to the basement. While one of us is working on the doors and drawers, the other one will be in the kitchen working on the cabinet frames. It's basically a 4-step process: they need to be thoroughly cleaned, then painted, then glazed (the glaze will be removed), then the top coat is put on to protect the newly finished cabinets. We figured we'd do the top cabinets first, then do the bottoms. We're taking off the hardware, will have to fill in the holes from the old hardware, and will replace everything with new knobs....we'll clean the door hinges, though, and re-use them. While we're at it, since our cabinets don't go all the way to the ceiling, we're going to add some crown moulding to the tops of the cabinets for a bit of a decorative look. We're putting lighting at the top of the cabinets, too, as well as lighting between the cabinets and the countertop. That should do a lot to give extra light to the kitchen, while giving a bit of an update to the kitchen as well. I'm excited, but I'm really nervous, too.
I don't know how we're going to keep the cats away from the kitchen while each step dries. I guess we'll have to keep all of them back in the bedroom all day long with the door shut as The Girls (Mollipop and Tabby) will be able to jump over any gate we put up, even if the Old Ladies (Whisper and Bootser) can no longer do so. And cat hair would not look good on newly done cabinets.
Any ideas or suggestions for cabinets? And other ideas for lightening up a kitchen?