Selecting and installing cabinet hardware

To me, cabinet hardware really is the finishing touch. Cabinets without hardware look half undressed and unfinished. Dare I write, cheap?

However, I’ve had difficulty in finding hardware for the master bathroom. This is why: the industry standard width of a drawer pull is about 3 to 3 1/2″ (measured from hole to hole). I find this an uncomfortably, small size for a drawer pull. First, it’s hard to fit anything but two fingers in this width and I wanted two sizes – one for the drawers and a slightly larger size for the cabinet.

Secondly, this size looks small on the larger sized drawers that bathrooms and kitchen now have as opposed to say, 25 years ago. For example, the overjohn cabinet we did downstairs was increased in height and we put a larger door pull (7 and 1/4″ from hole to hole) in order to compensate for this:

I unexpectedly lucked out when I found them at Andrews Lighting at a very reasonable price, about $45. The drawer pulls are 5″ and the cabinet pulls are 6″ (measured from hole to hole). They also had some matching knobs. Love it!

For the master bath, the fluting of the knob and pull, mimic some of the wood medallions I put on the cabinet. Another thing I like about this hardware family is that they are not too feminine so can appeal to both women and men, an important selling point when marketing to couples.

I also like to pick hardware that matches a theme in the room. For the kids bathroom, the light fixtures had a bit of chrome and white. I repeated that in the door pulls and toilet roll hanger. These door pulls are industry standard; the cup pulls are from Overstock.com and the handles from Lowes.

A word about installing your hardware. We were at a recent open house where the homeowner (or their paid help) put in the knobs wrong. It looked wonky and just plain wrong and crooked. I would have expected a lot more considering the price of the home! Please take your time and put your hardware on correctly!

On cabinet knobs, I aim for placement in the top corner section of the door. I like the knob to sit where the circle does not overhang the corner of the cabinet.

I also like it not to be too low from the cabinet’s corner. All of these examples have the knob too low or off center on the cabinet door.

On the overjohn cabinet, I like the tail end of the pull to sit comfortably in the corner like shown in this photo:

Placing them in the middle for an overjohn cabinet would make them too high.

Here the tail is higher then the corner and looks slightly off.

If you are putting in multiple pieces in many drawers/doors, use a jig. This is a pattern that helps you get your alignment correct, door to door, drawer to drawer.

Remember, you don’t have to be matchey-matchey, just pick things in color or shape that repeat elements in the room. For example, if using brushed nickel faucets go with the same family, or ceramic for the cabinets. Oil rubbed faucets? Try the same for the hardware. If arched cabinetry, go with arched drawer pulls; straight angled cabinetry? repeat it in the look of your hardware.

Have fun with it – it’s like choosing earrings!

Changing paint color mid-stream

Usually I’m pretty good at picking paint but this time I goofed. I originally planned on using Lowes’ Waverly Tawny Green WV36007 on the master bathroom walls. I’ve been very pleased with Waverly’s Nordic Blue WV37007 (changes colors in different lights and isn’t so “baby” blue but a little cooler) but this green just didn’t do it for me.

Probably this would be fine in a baby room or somewhere you wanted to go soft and pastel-y but I wanted a strong, green-gray in the master bathroom and after a week of living with a test patch, I gave it the thumbs down.

Instead I’ve gone with Sherwin Williams SW Escape Gray #6185 (this is in their HGTV line) and I LOVE IT!  This is a dark gray-green color which makes the moulding really pop out and brings out the gray tone in the mosiac tile we had picked for the backsplash.

The weekend was spent painting – painting walls, trim, doors and more. I’ve got some more touchups to do but here are some rough photos too share; the photos were taken with a flash at night. See the before paint photos here… BTW the wall paint doesn’t go all the way up to the ceiling as we are putting in crown moulding.

Because the room has a lot of natural light and white moulding/doors, this darker color works. I don’t know that I would put it in a bathroom with no windows though.

The point is if a color isn’t working for you, don’t hesitate to ditch it. You’ll regret painting an entire room and then saying yuck so if your test area isn’t wowing you, re-group and go with another color. Paint is generally the cheapest thing you will do in a room so feel free to change it.

Replacing brass with oil rubbed, bronze on doors

I tried spraypainting my brass doorknobs and it just didn’t hold up at all just as I expected. Yep, I prepped, primed it, sprayed it and waited between coats, and sealed it.

use poles or dowels to spraypaint door knobs

The only thing that really held up to being used were the door hinges. I did spray those as well as the screw heads. To do this I just used a screwdriver to punch holes in a pizza box and then slotted in the screws. I gave them a light spray as I like a bit of the brass showing through myself.

Overall, I considered it a huge waste of time as the doorplate was scratching within one day. However, the prototypes did convince hubby that dark, oil rubbed bronze door hardware was way more desirable then brass. The problem is the expense of replacing an entire house with new door knobs…

We had a lucky day as we took some stuff over to the Habitat for Humanity Re-store shop to give them some items we had removed during our own remodeling such as recessed can lights, doors etc… that we knew they could sell in their shop. Re-store is the storefront for Habitat for Humanity to sell donated items and stuff pulled out houses they are renovating.

While there Saturday, we hit paydirt! We found a huge amount of new door hardware that had obviously been bought as a quantity closeout or something. For example, these were available in oil-rubbed bronze: Lever, non-locking handles at $10 (for closets such as our Master Bathroom, Pantry, and downstairs Closet); Oval shaped locking door handles $8 (bedroom and bathroom doors), and Oval shaped non locking door knobs at $5 (bedroom closets and laundry).

At this price we could replace the entire house for about $150. Wow! It makes a huge difference! Take a look at our new closet door hardware for about $25!

Beware! Curmudgeon Post

It’s bad enough to have to kill a man without having to listen to a lot of stupid talk from him first.  ~ James Garner, Support Your Local Sheriff.

Just some grumbly stuff that I’ve been feeling:

Heavily advertised blogs. I’m tired of all the mom-home-decorating-blogs with so many friggin’ ads that the blog freezes my computer! Everyone seems to want to make a buck out of their blog, and this is a huge turnoff to me. If you have to have ads, select a few good ones and keep your blog clean and neat.

Pinterest links that don’t work or are to articles that are no good. I’ve tried a few of the tips that are being heavily bandied around on Pinterest and a lot of them simply don’t work. I’ve decided to have an Epic Fail board! LOL!

All-White rooms. Does every piece of furniture have to be painted WHITE!? I was really hoping that the all-white-Shabby-Chic trend would have been tempered with some reality. All white with kids in the home? Good luck with that people. If I see another piece of white painted furniture with a flour sack on it, I think I might barf up my breakfast.

Chalkboard everywhere. Guess what? Chalkboard is dusty and dirty. It smells, well chalky. If you have asthma or allergies it’s going to promote those. When you put chalkboard paint on your fridge what are you thinking? Because as soon as you put some words on there, it will get smeared within an hour and then look like crap. You’ll have to clean it off completely and re-write, to have it smudged again within an hour. I don’t get the chalkboard craze at all. Just more to clean up IMO.

There’s more that is pissing me off lately but that’s it for now…

more open houses

We got to visit two more open houses in the neighborhood so let’s update what we’ve seen with houses on the market in our housing division and price range…

BTW what type of homes are these? Less then 14 years old, mostly two stories, with full brick (meaning the first floor is completely bricked exterior walls), mostly over 3,000 square feet, with two (some three) car garages and generally four bedrooms, 2 and a half baths, with either one living and eat in kitchen or two living and two dining.

Comparable homes on the east coast would demand twice if not three times this much so take it into account that I live in the cheaper SW and homes are priced accordingly:

House #3 @ $250,000

Pluses

Extremely clean home with fresh wall paint and mouldings. The paint was a medium khaki with white trim.

House was staged well with the right amount of furniture. There was no overcrowding or too-empty feeling. However, there were too many paintings on the walls, especially those with a religious feel.

Additional, higher end, moulding over doors and crown moulding throughout especially downstairs near the entry.

Large floor plan that flowed easily. Although for me personally, I don’t like the formal dining and formal living being placed on either side of the entry as you come in. Something about this room flow removes privacy for me.

Clean and appealing curb appeal.

Hardwood and Tile all downstairs; carpet in the bedrooms and stairs.

Had a greenbelt behind the house (protected watershed).

Extremely clean (2 car) garage with new floor.

Large laundry room.

Covered porch.

Had large kitchen pantry.

Back half of the living areas had a light of natural light.

Master was downstairs, with three bedrooms up.

Minuses

WALLPAPER! In at least 50 percent of the house, including dining room, the formal living room, the kitchen and two of the bathrooms (powder room and the master) and wallpaper trim in the laundry room and boy’s room.

The kitchen – while clean and neat, had significant issues. The counters were 4×4 tile! That is way outdated and with the grout lines looked horrible. The cabinetry were a medium yellow oak that is outdated. The cabinets had a plasticky feel to the surface – not sure what was up with that. This kitchen could easily be updated and needs to be. No cabinet hardware and the kitchen is smaller then ours.

The bathrooms were also extremely dated and cheap for a house in that price range. For example, the master bath had the cheap Delta fake plastic crystal central knob you see in APARTMENTS! You must be kidding me!? The two baths had cultured marble counter tops with builder grade cabinets and in one the bathroom hardware was installed wrong on the doors. The powder room, while large, had a pedestal sink (put in by the builder). Overall, the bathrooms were clean, large, well lit, but boring, forgettable and dated.

The lighting fixtures were not noticeable so I guess not a plus or minus.

No privacy fence in the backyard. If you had young children or dogs this would be an issue.

The hardwood floor downstairs was some sort of cheap laminate. Did not like it at all.

Some elaborate window treatments that were dated. Just remove them people.

Overall, the dated kitchen and the dated bathrooms would be my guess why this house has not sold. Personally, if I was paying in this price range ($50,000 more then our house!, same neighborhood) I would have expectations of granite and new fixtures in the bath and especially the kitchen.

House #4 @ $230,000

Now we are cooking with gas! This has all the same redos we are talking about. This was the first and so far only house I would make an offer today if I wanted to replace the house we were living in with something comparable or a bit better.

The agent said that it used to be almost completely wallpapered but had recently been redone and the price dropped $10,000. Which IMO if they had started with the improvements most likely they would not have had to drop their price:

Best floor plan to date with many usuable rooms. Master down, 3 beds up.

New granite counters in kitchen. Island distressed black, and cabinetry was hickory.

Crown moulding throughout painted white. Walls throughout were in Khakis’, green, and gold. Mostly mid-to deeper toned neutrals.

Hardwood floor or tile throughout the main floor of the house.

Upstairs all the same carpet. I’ve asked the agent to email me the color, brand and installer. The carpet was a wonderful neutral with a slightly deeper plush then you see on builder grade.

All lighting fixtures and fans upgraded to contemporary oil rubbed bronze.

Bathroom fixtures in master, powder and kitchen upgraded to oil rubbed bronze.

Extra full bath had the cultured marble double sink but had upgraded faucets and lighting fixture as well as cabinet hardware. It made the counter liveable.

This is the first master bathroom we’ve seen COMPLETELY upgraded. Granite counter, additional storage installed, tub with contemporary tile front, and oil rubbed bronze lighting and light fixtures.

The only minuses were that the powder room and the additional full bath had wallpaper but at least it wasn’t horrid and everything else updated it a bit.

Now what will be interesting is to see how quickly this house sells now that it has been redone. I would guess within the next 45 days.

An interesting side note – the agent confirmed to me what I had just been discussing with hubby 10 minutes before we entered the house. We bought this house when we were in our early 30′s ad leaving the neighborhood in our late 40′s. Too many residents are trying to sell a house decorated for an older generation — the couples the agent is seeing are in their 20′s and 30′s and want contemporary, neutral styling with NO fussy, big cabbage rose wallpaper! LOL!

Master bathroom decisions and progress

We spent yesterday making a lot of decisions which meant a lot of running about, getting tile samples, going home to see them in the light of the master bathroom, and then taking them back. I did buy the chandelier for the vanity and husband completed the wiring of it today.

We also have some really good choices now for cabinet hardware (French Farm by Schaub Hardware 6: 6 1/2″ drawer pulls and 4 round knobs):

After looking at some of my possible choices of tile, some were discarded because they were too busy, too plain, or the colors didn’t match up well. I decided on this tumbled stone mosiac tile from Lowes. The lightest cream matches the marble countertop almost exactly. 

It has a bit more gray in the pattern then we would like so we will remove some of the darker gray and put in some of the lighter creams when we actually install it. This means buying some extra sheets and just doing some cut and paste work.

We also visited a store that sells corbels as I wanted to decide on this with hubby present and this store is open with limited hours. 

The larger corbel ($50 each) will go over the tub arch, the smaller, flatter one ($25 each) over the vanity sink. This is priced for paint quality.  We worked out the dimesions on the arches:

The trick to making arches complement each other is to make the longest drop the same ratio as the arches peak (as measured from the top to bottom). The vanity is 24:18 and the tub is 16:10 – each has a 6″ difference.

Instead of replacing the heater fan unit (another $150 and another hole to work around) we decided to spraypaint the cover white and just keep the old as it is perfectly functionable.

The two can lights over the vanity were removed, their holes covered in drywall and a new chandelier installed. The ceiling will be plastered tonight, sanded and then plastered again tomorrow, to prepare it for the ceiling color (Lowes Pale Glow Brilliant Metal) which really needs a flat wall surface.

Ooohhhh Sparkleee!

Next weekend the ceiling should be done, the walls painted, the trim worked out… the arches may delay us as the corbels have to be ordered and this store is slow about getting this stuff.

Planning: Master Bathroom

Since I’ve changed so much on the planning of this bathroom, decided to re-post this and move it up as we’ll be working on this project for the next 6 weeks or so.

The trend with master bathrooms is the “spa feel.” I translate that to mean: calming, tranquil and soothing with the almost bland, rich neutrals you see at resort hotels. From viewing a lot of bathrooms on Pinterest (see my board for inspiration) and talking to local suppliers of cabinets and countertops, these are some common themes:

Look for medium to light wall tones. Venetian plaster seemed to be too heavy so I removed it from the plan;

Lots of cream/white especially in mouldings, tubs and sinks;

Granite or marble countertops (in lighter colors esp. marble), many with rectangular sinks (especially in white), either vessels (especially in glass or white), or undermounts (in white or cream). BTW vessel sinks can be hard to clean the outside of the bowl (try removing toothpaste) so I reserved ours for the powder room.

Granite or marble countertops. Lighter colored, neutral tone instead of strong patterns;

High end looking faucets (usually in dark colors such as oil rubbed bronze) with shower heads that offer more then just a handheld such as rain showers, jets etc…;

Dimmer and accent lighting with chandeliers and sconces;

Tubs are moving to stand alones; Showers are becoming bigger;

More open storage options are being added with built ins around the tub and vanity.

What you won’t see - wallpaper or dark colors and patterns (i.e. burgandy, browns, wallpaper on walls). Busy rooms with lots of color contrasts.

Current layout of the master bathroom won’t change:

The vanity has been upgraded with a new cream paint finished glazed with brown, and added wood detailing. Look here for the popular How-To post using Annie Sloan Chalk paint and Dark Walnut stain.

Walls - Lowes’ Waverly Tawny Green WV36007 a mid-tone green that errs on the khaki-tan side of the green family as opposed to the yellow or blue. It should go well with the cabinet and countertop colors.

Ceiling – Lowes’ Brushed Metal EE2069 Pale Glow – a metallic and reflective pale yellow.

Moulding – cornice moulding will be put over the four doors (two closets, toilet door, and entrance door). I had considered replacing the closet doors with vintage, but they were too expensive. Will reserve that idea for the kitchen’s pantry door.

The entire bathroom will have a crown and base moulding combination:

Lighting -  a chandelier over the vanity and new sconces.

$175 on closeout sale

Vanity – I decided to go with a much lighter counter color… from my original darker, busier pattern:

With a moulding curve over the vanity like this:

which will match the curve over the tub:

Shower – needs an updated showerhead combo in oil rubbed brass. The tile needs cleaning and re-caulking.

Toilet – will install the same one we did in the Powder Room. Really love the easy clean features on this toilet. I’ll replace the toilet roll hanger and put one double towel hanger in the tub alcove. Perhaps a shelf under the cabinet in the toilet room?

Linens – Spa white!

The master bathroom should wrap by the end of February.

fact finding mission (to sell a home)

Because I am aiming to sell the house in about 14 months, it’s important for me to know what exactly is appealing to house buyers in my area, in my price range. I’ve already written about how you can visit houses for sell and those having open houses, as well as going on a Parade of Homes tour. Keeping an eye on the MLS and finding out which of these homes sold fast vs.which have sat on the market for a long time, also helps especially if you can get inside to compare the selling and the non-selling.

BTW an update – House #2 sold in about 4 months. Another house listed two doors down from us, sold within 60 days, for asking price, and two weeks before Christmas! This house had a LOT of curb appeal, but looking at inside photos, our house will show even better! Hm good news! House #1 needs to redo the bottom floor colors and remove all the wallpaper in the bathrooms for sure.

Must-Do Updating to Sell a Home:

1.) Organize, pack and remove. I am still shocked at how cluttered homes are that are listed for sale. Remove ALL personal photos, decorations, the extra furniture and the fake plants! Especially, remove those religous or “Love our Family” signs! While they mean a lot to you, they will turn off home buyers.

The majority have too much but some go overboard with the moving-minilimist look. If this confuses you, visit Builder Models. They decorate just enough and in a neutral fashion to appeal to many home buyers.

2.) CLEAN. Anything dirty or scruffed, especially moulding, doors, walls, need to be cleaned/painted. One scruff mark will turn off a buyer. For that reason, we plan on all four indoor house pets (two cats and two dogs) to be living with hubby in Missouri when we put the Oklahoma house up for sale. My daughter, another big mess maker, will also be in Missouri

3.) Update colors. Choose one neutral and use it for all public area rooms such as living, dining, kitchen, etc… It makes the home interior look bigger. Home Builders are using a medium tone neutral such as a khaki or putty; I’m using Lowes allen roth paint Rock.

Bedrooms and bathrooms can have color but be aware it still could be a potential, turn off. All wallpaper MUST GO… I don’t know why design shows are still promoting it – buyers hate it.

4.) Update Counters especially in the kitchen but also consider the bathrooms. In our area, and house price range, usually granite is a top choice but marble and glass are popular too. If you can’t afford to do the counter, at least update the faucets and wall color.

5.) Update kitchen. Cabinet colors such as white washed, pickeling and some stain colors are definitely out. If you can’t afford much, at least change the backsplash which is usually very fashion-dated.

Also, you can update appliances cheaper by using Craigslist (have seen a lot of good prices on very new fridges and stoves due to people moving) or change the front of the appliances with speciality paint.

6.) Update fixtures. Upgrade the bathroom faucets and the kitchen faucet, especially if you can’t upgrade the counter. Get rid of ANY brass hanging light fixtures even if all you do is spraypaint them. Brass is VERY dated.

7.) Update flooring. Flooring in main rooms should be tile or hardwood, keep carpet for bedrooms. Remove vinyl – even cheap ceramic is better then vinyl! It’s expensive to replace all of this but worn or stained carpet will be the number one reason your house doesn’t sell.

Yesterday, I met with a countertop and cabinet showroom designer (it’s best to meet with several and I had already had a lengthy discussion with a carpet-tile-flooring salesperson at another store). I wanted to know what colors in kitchen cabinets was selling in my area and what countertops were popular. Take into account this is my area (Central U.S., the conservative “Heartland”) but this is what I found out:

1.) People want a spa bathroom experience. Everyone says that but what does that mean? My translation – calm, soothing, with a lighter look, more airy, then what we have had in the bathrooms in the recent past.

Look for medium to light wall tones; lots of cream/white especially in mouldings, tubs and sinks; no wallpaper or dark colors and patterns (i.e. burgandy, browns, wallpaper on walls); glass in showers and accents, maybe in tile; granite or marble countertops; high end looking faucets and shower heads; dimmer and accent lighting with chandeliers and sconces; and lots of white towels.

Creama Luna Granite Transformations

Something interesting that I didn’t know is that if you have undermounted sinks (which I’ll be going with in white) and want top mounted sinks it can be done. If you start with top mounted sinks and want to convert to undermount you have to replace the counter.

Permastone Marble Cream Marfil (cell phone photo more creamy then shown)

The color for the bathroom walls is Waverly Seafoam (WV36007), which is a mid-tone green.

2.) Go with traditional. While I might like modern, traditional way outsells. The more uncertain the times due to economy, war, politics, etc… the more people seek traditional comfort.

When we sold our mod 1960′s house (our first home) we were told that it generally takes a year longer then it took to sell a price comparable, traditional home. OTOH, we picked a great real estate agent who adored our house and he sold it within 90 days.

3.) Most popular kitchen cabinet color is an off white (I would call a cream) with dark brown glazing. Distressing is out. Pickeled oaks and washes are out. Dark cherry remains popular.

We discussed the bright white that I keep seeing and both the designer and I agreed on several things: Bright White looks CHEAP! It looks like the fake wood crap that Lowes and Home Depot was selling off the truck back in the 1980s. And who would want to live in a KITCHEN with bright white and try to keep it clean?? “White” may be the top searched kitchen color but I wonder how many want to live with it?

JMO but the solid wall of cabinets is out. Mix it up with open shelving and glass faced doors. Moulding trim across the top of cabinets that is ornate is hot. Our kitchen was originally all solid door and we are changing that as the wall of cabinets was overwhelming. The eye needs some variation.

After looking over the choices and comparing my test cabinet door to their bestseller, I’m going to go with the whitest part of this test board with Sherwin Williams Van Dyke Brown glaze. The glaze hopefully won’t darken the white to cream as much as the Dark Walnut stain glaze did on the bathroom vanity. I will only be distressing the very edges of the cabinet relief and not the main flat areas.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Old White

4.) Glass mosiac or subway tile for the backsplash is very hot right now. I didn’t like their choices but this was the direction I was going so that was good to get that affirmation. If I do a glass counter, I’ll do a stone backsplash or put the backsplash in the same medium as the countertop.

5.) My favorite for the kitchen countertop was a recycled glass composite, solid surface. Choosing this would be a daring move as granite still way outsells recycled glass counters.

6.) Make the island stand out - through the use of a contrasting color on cabinetry vs. main cabinetry and/or using a different counter then main counter. In just looking at many photos, having a different counter then the main counter color, makes the kitchen appear smaller - it stops the eye in it’s movement across the room. We’ll go with keeping the counters the same, but doing a different color on the cabinetry of the island.

The only problem with that plan is that it is very hard to get a good brown color in paint. Stain would give a better color but since we are rebuilding the island with some new and some old pieces, I need to get them looking coherent and I have a hard time doing that with staining new, unfinished wood and finished wood side by side. That project will be a challenge.

To get more ideas, look at my Pinterest on Kitchens.

2012 planning for the house renovation

The plan is to put the house on the market in March of 2013. To make that deadlline, I’ve got to keep to a general schedule of getting the house pulled together design-wise and deal with the budget to make this all happen.

2012 Design Timeline

Jan: Master Bathroom – paint walls, paint ceiling, replace venting fan, put in vanity mirror trim and hang vanity chandelier. Finish the tile backsplash in Kids Bathroom.

Feb: Master Bathroom – replace toilet, replace sconces, replace shower head, curved ceiling treatment over tub, trim out crown and doors. Finish cabinet doors in Kids Bathroom. Plan out front landscaping and plant bushes.

March: Master Bathroom – buy faucets and cabinet hardware, plan for granite installation on counter. Re-do closet doors? Kitchen island – rebuild and paint.

April: Master bedroom ceiling treatment in alcove, install chandelier, replace sconces, Board and Batten behind bed headboard.

May: Master bedroom – ceiling beams installation in main roofline area and paint room. Replace carpet in MBedroom and Office.  Garage door replaced?

June: Flooring in Entry, formal Living Room, and Formal Dining. Board and Batten and moulding installation in front hall. Touchup stair moulding with paint and stain.

July: Replace carpet in Daughters and Son’s room (at this point all upstairs has been completed). Kitchen – install faux beams on ceiling, replaster and paint ceiling.

August:  Kitchen cabinets carpentry and paint job started. New dishwasher and stove vent hood (stainless steel). Replace pantry door with glass one. Moulding renovation in breakfast room’s bay window. Charging station built in wall in kitchen.

September: Living room – fireplace renovation, rewiring for wall television, wood floor installed and room painted.

October: Outdoor front landscaping – new sidewalks at entry and side gate area. Replace hot water heater. New Refrigerator.

November: Start packing daughters room for move to Missouri. She starts school Jan. 2013 there. Deep clean office, master bedroom, attic and garage in preparation for packing. New Stove.

December: Review what is left on the list. Start thinking of packing and staging the home. Look for rental in Missouri.

Project: Transforming builder grade cabinets to Old World (ASCP Old White with Dark Walnut glaze)

The Project: builder grade, oak cabinets installed when we built the house 14 years ago. They have one layer of stain and varnish to deal with and are in excellent condition, needing no repairs. If you have older cabinets, with more paint layers you may need to do more prep work (more sanding or a chemical stripper) then I did.

Here is our master bathroom (before) ~ nice but still a builder grade cabinet with a medium oak blah finish that is very dated:

Before working on paint colors know exactly what else you will be changing in the room. Eventually the counter, sinks and faucets will be replaced, the mirror framed, new lighting installed and paint color changed (for the Pinterest Idea Board look here). Overall, the room will be in the brown-tan, off-white creamy family (here’s the overall planning post).

Hardware was removed; drawers and doors were taken off and moved to the garage. All the cabinetry was first sanded (electric sander, 80 grit and then 120 grit) to remove the top, shiny coat and encourage paint adhesion. The Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) states you don’t have to sand or prime but if you are re-doing cabinetry, either bathroom or kitchen, I would at least give them a good clean with detergent to remove oil, grease, or any residue before painting.

needs a cleaning!

To make these cabinets special, I’m adding wood appliques and some very nice hardware. These appliques were found at Lowes but you can also find them online in a wide variety of patterns and sizes:

To apply, two tiny holes are pre-drilled for small (brad) nails. Wood glue is applied on the back and then the small nails are tapped into place after the applique is properly aligned:

checking alignment

Three coats of ASCP in Old White was applied to the vanity, cabinet door fronts and drawers with a 1″ brush and a 4″ foam cabinet roller. Love it!

For the cabinet door appliques, I first painted the door with one coat of ASCP, and spraypainted the wood applique white before gluing and nailing it down. This made it easier on getting the second and third coat to look even.

The first day cabinet door backs, drawer fronts, and the vanity were painted. The second day I painted the cabinet fronts with three coats and applied their wood appliques.

Tip: when painting both sides of a project like doors, be aware when you flip it and the newly painted (but dried) side is down, it can be damaged. Make sure you have a clean and non-stick surface for it to rest upon when you paint the second side.  When I’ve used plastic garbage bags they also removed fresh, but dried, paint. Now, I use a plastic sleeve from a box that originally contained blinds, over the top of the sawhorse.

Quart cans of paint and stain are used to elevate cabinet doors so I can paint the edges and let them dry. You can use cans of vegetables/fruit from your cabinet too.

The drawer runners make these drawers stand slanted, so gallon cans hold the drawers in place so all painted edges can dry without falling over.

Tip: If you are uncertain as to your color choices on your cabinets, it’s always best to do a test board; this will save a lot of time and aggravation! Especially, if it is a project that would be a big pain to redo or is a very important feature to your house (we can all afford to experiment on a small table!).

After doing a test board, I decided to go with ASCP Old White and a glaze of McColkseys (same as Valspars) Buff glaze with the glaze applied with a ragged on/off method (used about 2 cups). This method was done on the cabinet door fronts, the drawer fronts, and the front board where the appliques were mounted on the vanity. Other flat surfaces were left ASCP Old White.

Ragging on is the application of glaze with a clean cloth (i.e. cut up t-shirt). This method works well across large flat surfaces. Depending on the color difference between undercoat and glaze, you can have a high or low contrast. The cloth is saturated with glaze (how much depends on how much color you want applied). I like it soaked but not dripping.

The rage is crinkled in a long tube and then rolled across the surface. I re-crinkle the rag about every 3 to 4 times of rolling and every other roll I change direction. This gives a random pattern.

Ragging on randomly applies paint to a surface

If you get too much glaze or want more exposure of the undercoat you can rag off. Take a clean cloth with no glaze and roll across the wet surface to remove glaze. You will need to keep using clean rags to keep removing; using one that has glaze on it will re-apply the glaze to the surface.

Here I use a clean rag to pat/blot off excess (pat down and lift straight up so pattern is not smeared) or I can use it by rolling it across the surface to remove paint (ragging off) which softens the overall pattern.

ragging off with a clean rag removes excess paint

For comparison, here is a ragged on, glazed door with Buff (left) and an ASCP Old White only (right) cabinet door comparison (click photo for a close up):

You could stop there if you like that look but I wanted to take it further. After the glaze was left to dry for the afternoon, the edges were distressed with an electric palm sander (Black and Decker Mouse) with 120 grit. I blew off the sanding dust with a hair dryer (set on cool) before moving to the next step of glazing with Cabots’ dark Walnut stain (project used about 1 half pint).

A coat of dark Walnut stain was wiped on and off (wear a glove if you don’t want to get your hand stained; I clean my hands with NEXT brush cleaner).  Or you could use a chip brush which I did on the door backs and vanity.

Saturate the rag or brush with some stain and then wipe on your cabinet door, paying careful attention to the distressed areas. Because this is a distressed finish, the stain can be applied in a criss-cross pattern or rubbed on in circles.

worked in circles over center panel

Wherever you have sanded down to bare wood, the stain will be asborbed. Aim for raised areas such as the edge of doors and drawers. Work in circles and straight lines to get the stain worked into the crevices. If you put on too much and it gets drippy, just wipe and blot off with a clean rag.

A stain glaze is asborbed by the undercoat paint more then a traditional, glaze medium; depending on the product it may have a faster drying time then a traditional glaze medium. It’s important you immediately get a feel for how quickly the glaze you are using dries. Different brands have different working times which can be further extended with other products.

The ragging caused the stain to make a really neat, aged pattern!

Doors for overjohn cabinet

Why did I go with the Dark Walnut stain and not the dark wax? To use dark wax properly, the entire piece has to be coated with clear wax first then dark wax, making this project even more expensive ($28 a can of wax) and time consuming. I also find, for my taste, the dark wax can start looking dirty over certain colors.

I like the clean lines of a liquid product such as stain or glaze and the variety of colors to choose from (ASCP can be diluted into a glaze also). A similar door glazing project (using black glaze over gray paint) is shown for the downstairs bath. I guess it comes down to a personal choice but I prefer glaze over using wax for distressing cabinets.

I left the Dark Walnut stain to dry overnight and the next day (fourth on the project) I darkened the back of the cabinet doors so they would be more in keeping color-wise with the overall project when opened. After everything dried, Annie Sloan clear wax was put over the cabinet doors and drawers. All the hinge hardware was given an oil rubbed bronze spraypaint and left to dry overnight. The vanity was stained and also left to dry overnight.

cabinet door backs

The fifth day the vanity was was waxed and buffed. MISTAKE! When I brought the doors and drawers back in, I realized I had made a mistake on color. The vanity was more chocolate, the drawers and doors a bit lighter. To correct, I sanded them down lightly with 120 grit on my palm sander and applied more stain glaze. This set me back a day as I left them to dry again overnight.

Sixth day, the doors and drawers were waxed and buffed, the hardware installed and the door  and drawers put back in place. I’m still looking for the right drawer and door pulls but for now… Wow!!! So happy with these new cabinets! (but totally disappointed with the photos which don’t show the loveliness as the flash washes out the color)

This was the first time I’ve worked with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on cabinets and here are my thoughts on the matter:

~ The paint dries incredibly fast with good adhesion, has little drip factor (in it’s original mixture it’s quite thick), and has very low to no odor. This makes it great for in-house projects and “get-it-done-in-a-day” projects.

~ This paint screams to be distressed. Over sanded wood that was quite smooth, when being brushed applied at full strenght it did not go on smooth and clearly wanted to become distressed when being brush applied. The unsanded, test door immediately displayed craquelaure when paint was applied in the second coat.

~ It gives a flat, chalk feel and color to the paint; there is no shine unless you wax or coat it.

~ It sands amazingly well! This makes it ideal for distressing as over the counter latex paints peel when sanded.

~ I was concerned about how it would work with other products but it did well with the Cabot’s stain and the Buff glaze.

~ The chalky feel concerned me that it wouldn’t be protective for cabinets, but once it was glazed and waxed the surface is very protective.

~ The project went faster then using the enamel white paint in the kids bathroom so working in a team of two we were able to get them done with three coats of paint, front and back of doors, along with a glaze coat of ragging, a stain coat, and a wax coat in five days (not counting a mistake day).

~ It was brushed on over oak, the hardest grain pattern to conceal with paint. After two coats the undercoat of stain and oak grain were still visible. This is not a high conceal paint. If you want a solid, smooth coat, like I did on the kids bathroom cabinets, I would pass on this product for that purpose.

~ The paint produces the same amount of brush strokes as other paints, latex and enamel, when used without Penetrol. Because it dries so fast it is a bit harder to “feather out” brush marks.

After working with it, I do think it’s a do-able paint for the downstairs kitchen as long as I wax the doors twice. I’m excited that we’ll be able to trim costs and have me give the kitchen a professional finish without paying a professional. woohoo!