Day 3: Kitchen Cabinet Makeover Challenge

Another day glued to my cabinets:) I got the second coat of red on the top and bottom cabinets and the first coat of red on four doors. All of the shelves have received two coats of red.

I can see that one of my biggest challenges is going to be finding space to work on all the doors. Currently, both our island and dining table are our only work surfaces. The table holds the shelves, the island has enough room for four doors. The paint dries to the touch within an hour, but not dry enough to turn the doors over and start on the other side. It looks like I'll be doing just one side a day (and remember, I'm doin four coats...) So I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of it all. More than likely, I'll probably set up some sort of work area in the garage so that I can do a side on all the doors each day. After a couple more coats are on the shelves, I can move them off the kitchen table and put a few more doors on their. The kids don't mind eating in the living room:)

Another thing that is driving me bonkers is trying to paint in both horizontal and vertical directions on the top and bottom cabinets. It's been a nightmare trying to paint in such a way that brush strokes don't show. Plus, if you start to overwork the paint at the corner or if the brush isn't wet enough, the brush just drags across the paint leaving hideous...drag marks. You have to work really quickly, especially when it's relatively warm inside, because the paint starts to dry pretty fast and can start going gooky on you. If I were a cursing girl, my cabinets would have heard an earful today.

Before I put the second coat on the cabinets, I went through and distressed the edges. I'll do this between each coat so that I don't have four coats of paint to sand through...(click to enlarge)







Here is what the cabinets look like with their second coat of paint:




A shot of what our doors look like:




So, that's it for today. Tomorrow I have a meeting at school and then an art show/exhibit at the school, so I probably won't be spending too much time on the cabinets tomorrow. I'll probably at least put another coat on the shelves and flip those doors for another coat:) Another thing I plan on doing tomorrow is cleaning and sanding down more doors and have them ready for priming...

Happy Thursday, everyone!