Bright White

Even before we moved in, I knew that the cabinets would NOT be staying a dark cherry color.  It was just too, too dark for my taste.  I have always loved white cabinets, and I planned on changing our cabinets as soon as possible. Also, for whatever reason, there was a trend when the house was built that said it was cool to lower the ceiling in the kitchen to the level of the cabinets, and a lot of houses in our area have this feature.  It is horrible.  Who wants lowered ceilings???  Isn't it luxurious to have as high as possible, yea even vaulted ceilings?  I always thought so.  Anyway, the long-term plan is to knock out a wall and raise the ceiling and make an island and do all sorts of fun things to make the kitchen just boss.  Until then, the dark cabinets have to go to at least help a little bit with the feeling of crampiness in there.

(I know it looks really bright in this picture, but that's because they have all the lights on and the blinds completely open.  This was a trick of the photographer when selling the home.  Who normally lives with all their lights on?  Not this gal.  It was significantly darker even in daylight than it looks in this picture.)

We started as soon as we got reasonably unpacked and settled in.  The first step included taking off all the hardware and doors and filling any holes with some wood filler.  

After waiting for the wood filler to dry, we sanded all the fronts and backs of the cabinet doors and the fronts of the frames first with a low grit sandpaper, then again with a high grit sandpaper to make them as smooth as possible.  This took forever.  Like 10 hours.  But from what I've learned, prep work is the key to anything looking and I didn't want to cut corners.  

After sanding, we used a deglosser on everything, which for sure removed any leftover grime or sheen that the sanding may not have gotten.  After deglossing, I used a tack cloth to remove any dust that may not have been wiped off with a wet wipe down.  These babies were ready, I tell you.  Ya done been prepped!

The most logical place for us to prime and paint the doors was our basement.  There is a ton of floor space down there, and since it was indoors, we wouldn't have to worry about wind, dust, bugs, or rain.  We laid down some plastic and some boards to raise up the doors a bit.  Then came the primer.  For each door, I cut in the corners with a brush, then rolled the rest of it to smooth it all out.  I used a sponge roller to keep the texture as smooth as possible.  We used Zinsser's Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer and gave each side two coats.

Emerson helped me get some of the coats on.  He would roll the middle area while I cut in the door, then I would finish with a final roll.  He was such a great little helper and loved to be involved.

I put two coats of paint on the backs of the doors, but did three coats on the fronts for the added coverage.  This means I scooted my tush around these doors nine times.  We used Behr Ultra paint in their standard white with no tint added.  After each coat of primer or paint, I inspected the doors just to be sure there were no drips or stuck hairs or anything unsightly.  If there was, I gave it a quick and very light sand, then used a tack cloth to remove the dust.

All of these steps were completed on the frames, but I don't have any photos of that process.  I scooted my tush atop the counters plenty of times.  For the frames, we had to tape off the walls and black trim before starting anything, then caulk the seams, but other than that, we followed the same process as the the doors. 

The final results look really great.  I love how they turned out.  We didn't use a coat of polyurethane since we got a high quality paint, but maybe sometime down the road we'll put one on for added protection and some gloss.  The kitchen is definitely a lot brighter.  It is refreshing to see white on the top instead of the dark cherry.  We kept the bottoms black for the two-toned look.  We are tossing around the idea of making them white as well, but for now the contrast is fun.  

Love or hate?  I love them, but have to say that now the counters are in dire need of a redo.  The bright white cabinets make that tan counter look just slightly dingy and outdated.  We can't wait to carry out our kitchen renovation plans and change the counters to a gray something.  In the meantime, we're loving the fresh white cabinets.