The Kitchen Journey

This is the story of one kitchen's journey from insignificance to prominence.

It began when Bruce installed a lovely white sink with a dashing brushed nickel faucet. All at once the kitchen looked dull in comparison. (I am not kidding anyone. You all know the cabinets were pretty sad!). Bruce was taking a long trip to Texas, so Allison decided to pass her loneliness by fixing and painting the kitchen cabinets.

It was an ambitious project, indeed. It became more ambitious when she spent the first week of the three weeks that Bruce was to be gone "psyching herself up" for the job.

This was the job:

• Empty the cabinets and drawers
  
• remove the drawers, doors and hardware

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The lower doors were BEAT!

• Remove sludgy grime from woodwork using grease dissolver
• Wash woodwork with TSP, rinse, let dry

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• Sand ALL surfaces
• Fill chips, gouges and scratches (and holes from previous hardware)
• Sand again
• Vacuum off dust
• Wipe off with damp cloth
• Let dry

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This is what the dining room and family room looked like with kitchen stuff all over (there was some in a bedroom, too).

Assemble painting supplies

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• Draw a diagram of doors and drawers so everything goes back where it belongs
• Mark each door under the place the hinge goes with a number corresponding to the diagram. Cover with tape so it won't be obliterated by the paint.

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• Make a nail box for painting door knobs
• spray paint knobs with "brushed nickel" metallic paint (do it outside so you don't get HIGH and your stuff doesn't get metalized)
• Spray the handles (both sides)
• Spray 39 hinges, twice (once closed and once opened...it turns out I should have painted them three times. Oh, well).

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• Prime and Paint everything (note: when I painted the frames, I couldn't go outside and my kitchen is enclosed enough that opening windows didn't give very good airflow. I got a MASSIVE headache (twice) over the two days it took to paint the frames (it took two days because of the headache). In retrospect (hooray, I can still use big words! I guess the brain damage wasn't as bad as I feared), I should have bought a respirator (I will next time).
• Find a place to put all the primed and then painted doors and drawers while they dry.

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• Drill holes in the top of the upper doors
  
• Drill holes in the bottom of the lower doors
• Screw in hooks (before you prime and paint)
• Hang painted doors on sturdy hangers so they can dry and not take up so much space

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The refrigerator and stove needed to be moved out. Luckily the stove has sliding pads underneath. Unluckily the refrigerator does not.

All of the frames are painted.

These are the pieces I called "the buggers" because they took a LONG time to get back in place. They each had two wooden brackets that were screwed on the back and wedged against the cabinet frame. I had to attach them blindly using a z-shaped screw driver. I am just glad we had one! The "L" took about 15 minutes, but the long piece that goes beneath the sink took 45 minutes because the sink is so close to the cabinet.

Getting down to the wire! I am driving to Spokane to pick up Bruce on Tuesday afternoon. It is now Monday night and it is starting to come together.

Installing handles, knobs and hinges took about two hours on Tuesday morning.

Enjoy the "After" pictures. We sure are!

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