Island Time - Part 2

After building the island, it needed a little lipstick to make it pretty. So I followed the same steps we did for painting our bathroom cabinets in our last house

Deglossed

Primed

Painted (ended up being 3 coats)

 

I'll post pictures soon with our new flooring! I'm in love!

Island Time!

Unfortunately the title of this post isn't referring to a getaway vacation (I wish). I'm talking about building a kitchen island. Ever since moving into the house we knew this big 'ole kitchen was begging for an island. See the space below from when we moved in

 

 

Before being able to lay down the flooring, we knew we needed to get to work on the island. While a custom-made island would have been wonderful, it just didn't fit into the budget. After walking about Menard's and Home Depot's island/cabinet areas, we wandered into the free-standing cabinet island. Bingo! We found two sets of cabinets that we could pair together. It was the perfect width (at a minimum the spacing between cabinet and island counter tops should be 3') and beautifully in our price range. So we brought them home...

 

 

 

 

To secure them to the floor, Mike drilled 2x4 planks into the ground. We, then, set the island over top of them because the shelves create a natural gap at the bottom. See below, Mike drilling the island into the already secured 2x4's

 

 

Because we used a basic set of cabinets (which we secured together), we had to put some sort of back on the cabinets to give it a finished look. We chose wainscoting for the back, which we bought in planks similar to this. To secure the wainscoting, we used wood glue. Because the planks fit together with a tongue-and-groove system, we put glue in the grooves to make it more secure.

 

 

Note: We taped the boards together and let the glue bond for 24 hours. After this, we used the same glue to secure the wainscoting (now) board to the cabinets. Mike went a little crazy with the glue the next day...

 

 

 



 

Again, we let the glue bond for 24 hours and taped it for extra security.

 

 

 

To add the finishing touches, we bought base and corner material. Mike used the miter saw to cut the pieces to the correct lengths and angles

 

 

 

Next up - more painting! (P.S. You may be wondering about the counter top. It's actually an old door that was doubling as a workbench tabletop in our basement. It was left behind by the old owners, so we're putting it to good use until we can afford new counter tops. I'm still brainstorming finishing ideas in the meantime!)

Kitchen Cabinets Complete

Our cabinet doors are hung up and the hardware is installed! WooHoo! Here's a brief tutorial on how we installed our hardware. This was a little bit different than the first time because in our last house it was a blank slate. The previous owners had now existing hardware so we were able to drill holes wherever we pleased.

However, in this house, the cabinets already had holes drilled where the previous hardware had been. So instead of using wood putty and sanding down each hole, we chose to work with the existing holes for the knobs on the doors. However, for our drawers, we chose pulls that could cover up the existing holes. See below! (Please excuse the hideous countertops)

First, we Mike measured the width between the holes

Then we assumed (maybe that's too trusting - but I also think Mike measured) that the existing hole was correctly centered. So Mike divided the width of the previous measurement and marked the distance. Using a piece of tape helps with marking these measurements. It also keeps the wood from splitting when drilling the new holes.

 

It's literally that simple. Mike drilled holes at those markings and the screws tightened from inside the drawer. So simple and so lovely!

 

 

Oh, and in case you're wondering how we remembered which doors went where, I made a diagram where all the doors were numbered. It's not the prettiest looking thing but it definitely helped. We just taped a number on each door and, while painting, we put the number on the table so we could match them back.

 

Because I love Before/After!

Here is an OFFICIAL Before and After for our downstairs bathroom. I'm sure I'll decorate a little differently once I find things I love (always buy things you love, not things you can live with), but here it is!

Before:

After:

Yay! Tomorrow another post about our never-ending list of projects, but for today - Yay for celebrating another project coming together!

SUCCESS!!

I know I already posted today but I'm just so excited!! Hopefully this will be first of many "Before and After" pictures that I'm BEYOND EXCITED to post about. Even though as I type my lower back is screaming at me in pain, my joy is not dulled.

Okay, ready?!

BEFORE - KITCHEN

BEFORE - DINING AREA (and very DIRTY stairs)

AFTER - KITCHEN

AFTER - DINING AREA

I'm absolutely IN LOVE. There are still a lot of little projects to do in the kitchen but it's 95% complete (aka post-worthy). You can even see the beautiful faucet Mike installed himself (post still to come; I just got excited about this one). There are touch ups on the cabinets (scratches from installation) and I'm going to look for a rug for in front of the sink. I also plan to do something about the table and the light fixture.

For two weeks of work - this kitchen is a dream. So white, so bright, so clean! I know Mike and I are crazy, but we get things done!

The cabinets continue...

So we moved in this weekend - it's been a whirlwind! We're unpacked - sort of. Considering we had a 2 bedroom apartment that we couldn't even fully furnish, our new 3 bedroom, 2 bath house (plus a living room and family room) is a spacious to say the least.

We've set up the furniture we do have, and we're waiting for our living room couch and our new KING bed. (I emphasize the size because apparently I sleep on a diagonal in our current queen bed. So needless to say, Mike is excited for the new space).

As for the title of the post, our cabinets are so close to being done I can taste it! We started hanging the doors before the move on Thursday night.

Above you can see the progression. It took some time to get the doors level with each other. Thankfully, there's an apt for that!

On each door we put a clear bumper on the corners of the doors and drawers. This will hopefully cut down on an scrapes. It already helped with the drawers sliding out easier and not sticking to the cabinet frame.

After a lot of labor (on Mike's part) and anticipation (on my part). The doors were up! Look at them in all their glory!

Pardon the mess, we were still in the midst of the move. Unfortunately, Mike and I (the crazy home owners that we are) took little time to revel in the glory of the cabinets. We went straight into hanging the hardware. Mike bought a template from Menard's so that the hardware were all in the same spot on the cabinets.

 

On each of the doors, Mike lined up the template and marked with a pencil where he should drill. We ended up using the placement for hardware that was a little larger than ours beacuse of our long the handles are (see below); but all in all, the directions are pretty self-explanitory.



So that's where I'll leave this post - doors up and hardware going on. We're about 95% done with the hardware. We had to go out and buy 1.5" nails (longer than the 1" nails that came with the hardware) for the drawers. The drawers are thicker because of the faceplate.

Once Mike installs those I'll post a COMPLETED picture (complete with a brand new faucet that Mike installed himself). All I can say is - I knew I married Mike for a reason!

White - new favorite color?

Below are is the picture for my kitchen inspiration. Isn't it beautiful? So clean, so white, so crisp. It absolutely wonderful

For our kitchen, I took the wall color a tad darker (we got it at Sherwin Williams)

So far we have sanded, deglossed, primed, and painted the cabinet structure (we're still working on the doors.) The first part was to sand. Mike used a hand sander with (60 grit sandpaper) on the flat surfaces. For the crevices (such as the crown modeling) Mike used the sand paper and some muscle.

 

(Note Mike's mask - dust was flying everywhere!) After we sanded everything down, we deglossed all the surfaces to get the dust, sanded wood, and any other grit/stain left on the cabinet's surfaces. We used a liquid deglosser - it's awesome! We used some of Mike's old white t-shirt and you could see the left over stain on the shirt coming right off!

Below you can see us beginning to prime after these two steps. We used Zinsser Primer - it covers so well it's ridiculous! Below is another of the same picture I showed in our "Sneek Peek" post.

At this point, I already loved the white - streaks and all. Everyone thought I was crazy but this is when they started to see "my vision." At this point, we also started cutting in the walls with its paint since any slip ups could be covered by 2 coats of paint. Below is another shot of the primer coverage!

For the flat cabinet surfaces we used a foam rolling brush (and bought a lot of replaceable brushes). The prime (and paint afterward) went on so smooth and covered all the nooks. On the tighter spots we used a foam brush - I like that they don't leave brush strokes.

We let the primer dry overnight, but the can said it only needed about an hour to dry. So the next day we did our first coat of paint (and the second coat the next day). Below is a picture of the cabinets after the second coat - look at that wonderful coverage!

Don't mind my shadow picture of the coverage - it was later! You can also get a peek at our wall color in the kitchen too. It travel throughout the entire first floor and I'm IN LOVE.

And if you're wondering why the fridge is out in the middle of the kitchen - that would be a floor problem. Because we had to layer the new laminate floor on top of the tile, we had a slight refridgerator issue. The top of the fridge was flush to the two cabinets above it. So by adding a little more height to the floor, the fridge no longer fit. Good thing Mike is handy! Apparently the cabinets were detached from everything else and only drilled into the wall. So with a quick cut and patching up of the crown molding it was good to go (I'll have pictures later)!

So in summary for the cabinets

Step 1: Sand all surfaces (with 60 grit paper)
Step 2: Degloss all surfaces (we used old t-shirts and gloves along with this process)
Step 3: Prime all surfaces (with foam brushes and rollers)
Step 4: Paint all surfaces twice (with foam brushes and rollers)

Eventually, we'll get to the cabinet faces and pictures will come!