Painting the kitchen cabinets.

To thwart the constant aggression of the HONEY OAK all over the kitchen, we opted to use a Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit, mostly based on the "no sanding" sales point. We read and perused countless reviews and pictures and decided it was worth $120 (probably closer to $170 with additional needed supplies) to transform our kitchen. More on the process below, but I can't wait to show you, so here it is! (updated pic):

More pics to come of the entire kitchen once we paint the wall. AND THEN WE'RE FINISHED!

In all, we are quite happy with the results. We chose the "Castle" color from Rustoleum and opted not to glaze them. I'm pretty sure glazing will go the way of honey oak sooner than later anyway. The kit worked fairly well and while there was so sanding, there was a LOT of scrubbing, "deglossing," as they call it. The most worrisome part is that this is possibly the most important step, because anything not sufficiently deglossed is likely not to hold paint, meaning it could just peel off in the future and leave us crying on our pretty yellow Marmoleum floor.

The DVD that accompanied the kit made it all look so fun and easy. They assured us we'd be sipping wine in the company of a golden retriever by the end, all with happy smiles on our faces. This wasn't exactly so.

E tackled the doors and drawers:

And I set to clean up the cabinet bases and frames. Here is what you have to do when the silicone securing the counter to the cabinet base was hastily applied. Scrape, scrape, scrape. And sand.




Prepped and ready for painting to begin! We started at 11 a.m. Friday. This was at 6pm, aka time for a beer:

There were two rather disgusting pull-out cutting boards that gave us the creeps, so we took the opportunity to bury them forever.



Door painting station (round #1 of 2):



Back of doors after one round of paint/"bond coat." First of two on the back. Plus 2-3 hours drying time between. Then same process on the front. Do you see how "Three Easy Steps" is a bunch of crap? To complete just this step, it took us from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.



Here is the schedule after I got mad at it and wadded it into a ball:



From many reviews, we gathered that the top coat (polyacrylic) was going to be tough, and it was. It dries VERY fast and if you go back over it with more of the stuff after it begins drying, it pretty much pulls up ALL of the layers. Luckily, only one coat was needed--very quickly applied--plus many hours of drying time.
Also, when they tell you to keep track of which door goes where, pay attention. Putting it back together was an unwanted puzzle at 9 pm on a Sunday.

But now look!!!! 

We're thinking light grey for the wall color.... what do you think?