DIY RED Kitchen Cabinet Redo

Remodeling my kitchen on the cheap!  My house was built in 80's.  The cabinets are oak and solid but lacked something… I din’t have a ton of cash to replace them and the ones I dreamed about $$$$$$$$$. 

After lots of research I finally got brave! I talked the Mr. into taking a risk and this is the project.

Step 1:
Inspiration kitchen: Black Cove Cabinetry http://www.blackcove.com/about/index.html

Step 2: Get the paint and supplies!
I took the magazine page with the kitchen cabinets to Sherwin-Williams, they helped me match the red base color and described the how to for getting the result I wanted. 

Step 3: Create a plan and a sample
It went like this:

·         Used my new supplies to make a sample a door and plan. Sample lessons learned:

Luckily for me we removed a bar in the living room and the Mr. kept the cabinet doors. I used one of the doors to create a sample. I cleaned the door but didn’t go through every sanding finish step I used for the real project. I primed and painted the door. After discovering it took 400 coats of paint to get the deep dark color I wanted I returned to the paint store with primer in hand and they re-tinted it from a light pink color to a dark gray color. Perfect, now it only takes 5 coats of paint to get the right shade. This is going to be a LONGGGG project! Once I liked the shade and found a distressing technique I liked I had the plan ready. Sample done project next.

Step 4: Execute plan



Kitchen before with a few doors removed.  It was a big mess for a 2 weeks.



·         Remove the doors (marking all hinges, doors and screws for exact location when replacing)

o   I created a simple sketched map of the top and bottom cabinets and labeled them a-z.

o   With a sharpie I marked the inside back of the cabinet door with the letter (small and in the corner. Note: I remarked the letter during each phase of painting).

o   I rolled a bunch of recycled paper into a funnel shape, and labeled the front A top, A bottom, etc. I placed the  hinges and screws in each package and folded the pointy top down and taped close.

o   We took down every door

·         Wash the cabinet frames and doors.  I started using TSP and hot water. I quickly learned warm dish soap worked better (but don't get the wood really wet). Cabinets have a greasy film on them and when washing them vigorously it becomes a gummy black substance. The dish soap cut the grease really well and I finished each washing with the TSP. I was finished when the cabinets had a dull finish and no sticky texture.

·         Lightly sand the cabinets (front and back) and frames with a fine sandpaper block. I used one that had a spongy core and it nicely contoured around the molding on the door. By the time I finished I used about 7 of them. I did not sand all the finish off just roughed up the finish for good primer adhesion.

Note: I choose not to spray the primer or paint for this project. I really wanted the paintbrush lines and hand applied look.  This would have gone much faster if I had sprayed.

·         Painted primer on all cabinets front and back 2 coats.

·         Painted red color on all doors (front and back) and frames. (I taped the inside of the cabinet boxes to ensure the color only went where planned). I painted about 4-5 coats on all surfaces and frequently held them next to one another to ensure the uniform color was achieved.

·         Antiqued all surfaces. I used a dremel tool and sand paper to “rough up” areas of the cabinets that would normally receive wear (corners, sides, etc.). Once I liked all the distressing I lightly washed the entire surface with ebony stain. I let stain darken the distressed areas and cracks most.

·         I purchased standard crown molding, trim, and bead board at the hardware store.  (For some reason cabinet molding is very expensive and they looked the same to me). I repeated all of the above steps and gave them the same finish.

·         Bead board was applied with liquid nails and finish nails to the sides of the cabinet boxes.  The bead board was cut to the same dimensions as the side.

·         Added thin edge trim (tapers on one side) to the outside frame of the exposed sides. Mitered corners and crafted a frame around the edge of the bead board sides. This made it look really “done”.

·         We built a support structure on top of the existing cabinets with 1x2 lumber. This provided a frame to add the new molding and support for a new cabinet top (painted and finished to match..   As I was adding a top molding I wanted the cabinet top to be level so I can still put things for decoration on top and not have sit down below the molding.

I get a lot of compliments now.  I will be the first to say Red is not for everyone but I LOVE IT!