J. Krabbits INC.: kitchen

{aren’t they cute? they were a wedding present from my wonderful cousin Sheren}

In the spirit of the New Year I decided to makeover our little kitchen. This project has been weighing on my mind for a long time, (I would even go to bed every night thinking about it, wishing I had started it already), so I finally decided to put on my paint clothes and jump right in.

When we moved in, the kitchen was my least favorite part of the house which didn’t work for me because that’s where I like to spend most of my time. It had this old granny wallpaper (sorry grandma) and creamy yellow cabinets. It is tiny with minimal storage—which we have been able to work with--and because of the décor scheme, it felt so much smaller of a space than it really was. The house was built in the early 90’s and the kitchen most likely had not been updated since then; it was in desperate need of a facelift.

For the new color scheme I decided to go with light gray walls and white cabinets and trim; I figured this would really brighten up and open the room. I also decided to paint over the wallpaper, which can be tricky and is not always advisable in every situation. If it is at all possible to remove your paper do that, but in some cases it’s impossible without damaging your walls. I had to do some research to make sure that I did this correctly and I suggest you do the same. Painting the cabinets was also a task but again, after researching tips I felt more confident about my ability to do this successfully. The whole project, walls and cabinets took me four days total to complete. Below are some tips for painting over your wallpaper, a tutorial for painting your cabinets, and of course, before and after pictures of our kitchen!

Tips for painting over wallpaper:

- Research! There are lots of great sites out there with tips and tutorials

- Check the quality of your wallpaper to see if you’re able to paint over it

— If it is really dirty wipe it down with warm soapy water before you begin

- If it’s peeling in spots, re-glue it down

- Fill in the seams so they don’t show when you paint over it

- Prime the walls with an oil-based primer---you don’t have to use oil-based paint for your main color

Painting your kitchen cabinets:

Step 1: Remove the drawers, cabinet doors, and all hardware from the doors. You might be tempted to tape over the hardware, however some of it can be very expensive to replace if damaged. If you want to speed up the process, use an electric screwdriver (they are awesome!).

Step 2: Wipe down the cabinet frames and doors with warm soapy water. Then tape-off the cabinet edges so you don’t get paint on your walls.

Step 3: Lightly sand your surfaces to help the paint stick better.

Step 4: Depending on your current cabinet color, you may or may not need to prime your cabinets. I didn’t, but it took me three coats of the white paint to cover the old color.

Step 5: Paint your cabinet frames. Paint one coat, let dry for about an hour, and then paint the next coat. After each coat check your work in good light to see if it needs another coat.

Step 6: After you’ve painted the last coat on your cabinet frames let it dry overnight, then carefully re-insert the drawers (make sure you’ve removed the knobs). Clean and sand the fronts, then paint them using the same method you used to paint the frames. Keep the drawers pulled out while you paint and as they dry.

Step 7: Lay your cabinet doors (front side down) in an area where they can stay laid out for a few days while they dry. Make sure all the hardware is taken off and that you keep it all together in one spot (so you don’t lose any of it). Also make sure you notice how it is put together (take a picture even) so you know how to put it all back later.

Step 8: Paint the first coat on your doors, wait an hour, then paint the next coat, repeat if necessary. I suggest painting the backsides first. If you flip them too early and they get a little smudged, they won’t really be seen until you open your cabinets.

Step 9: Let the backsides dry overnight, then check them the next day to see how dry they are. If they are still a little sticky to the touch, let them dry longer, if they are nice and dry carefully flip them and paint the fronts of your cabinet doors using the same method in Step 8.

Step 10: Let your doors, drawers, and cabinet frames dry for a few days. This is important because if you attach all the doors back to the frames while they are still tacky, your hardware will get stuck to the paint (making them hard to remove the next time you want to paint) and you will end up scratching off the new paint in several places requiring you to do quite a bit of touch-up.

Step 11: After about 3 – 5 days of drying time, re-attach all of the hardware and doors back to their frames.

Easy peasy…kind of.

Now, for the part you’ve all been waiting for…