Two years ago this month, we did some work on our kitchen. We ripped out the white Formica builder-grade counter tops, white tile back splash, the white porcelain sink, and chrome and white faucet and replaced them with granite counter tops, a slate back splash, a black granite sink, and brushed nickel fixtures. A few weeks later, I decided to upgrade the battered cabinets by painting them.
Now I don't mind painting. I have painted the entire interior of my home, and I'm sure that I will be doing it again in the not so distant future. But, painting cabinets is NOT the same as painting the walls of a room or even painting the baseboards. Paint the cabinets was initially a project that I was excited about tackling, but it quickly became a project that made me feel defeated.
You see, I started out by sanding them. The first few weren't too bad, but then ... the sanding bits gets old - especially when you try to get into the crooks and indentions of the cabinet face. Next, came the painting. I found a beautiful dark brown paint that complimented the new granite and back splash, so I began to paint. Blake was not too hip on the Safari Brown paint, and nor were a few other friends that came over to visit. So, after a few days, I began to strip and sand the cabinets and draws that I have primed and painted.
So, it was back to the local hardware store for more paint swatches. After going through swatches and looking through magazines, I decided to try some experimentation. So, I purchased a pretty golden yellow paint, painted the inside or a couple of doors, painted the Safari Brown over the top, and applied a crackle paint. Well, Blake hated that more than the plain brown, and I was pretty sure that I would not be able to get the crackle effect to look right in the curves and indentions on the faces of the cabinet doors. Once again, I was back to square one and had no idea what I was going to do with these cabinets.
A while later, I visited a friend's home. They had dark counter tops and stark white cabinets. That was it. I would just paint them white. I purchased white paint and proceeded to paint two cabinets doors. I disliked them instantly, but I had no idea what I wanted to do with them or really how to do it.
We were having company, so I reattached the cabinet doors so that everyone would not have to look at the contents of my cabinets. And so the cabinets remained ... for the next 18 months or so. A few were sanded down to the raw wood, a few were painted Safari Brown, a few were painted white, and a few were partially painted/partially sanded, and I just ignored them. People would come over and ask which one we were going with (which color, etc.), and we would tell them the story. I really thought that I wanted to paint all of the lower cabinets Safari Brown, but I just felt so defeated by the failed attempts that the project became an impossibility for me, and I hated it when Blake would talk about the "unfinished cabinets" because I just felt like a failure.
Well, this week, Blake and I met for lunch and made a plan. We talked about the projects that needed to be done around the house and how we were going to get them done. The number one project on Blake's list ... the cabinets. This time, instead of saying, "when are YOU going to get the cabinets painted?" he said, "Friday night, we are painting the cabinets." Instantly, the cabinet painting project did not seem so impossible because I was no longer having to face it alone.
Friday after work, I went to the hardware store, purchased new paint brushes and primer, came home, and got to work. Blake and I, with a little help from the kids, were able to prime the section of the cabinets that I had started working on. We decided that instead of attacking all of the lower cabinets, we would focus on the one section. This seemed doable.
Saturday morning, after Connor's 8am soccer game, we made another visit to Lowe's to purchase a gallon of Safari Brown paint, and then headed home to paint! After finishing all that we could on the initial section, we decided to continue around the kitchen. We primed all of the lower cabinets and then proceeded to paint them.
We have a few touch-ups to make, and some tea stain and varnish to apply, but the project is close to being complete, and I no longer feel defeated by my unpainted cabinets! We had our Life Group over this evening, and everyone commented on how beautiful our home was. I feels great to have accomplished and almost completed such a huge project, and I am so appreciative that Blake encouraged me and worked along side me this weekend to get this project done.
We still have several projects on our To-Do list, but I know that we will tackle them together so that neither of us feels alone or defeated.
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