Having Your Cabinets Painted

A week or so ago I told you that Mr. Bill said we could get the kitchen cabinets painted.

I showed you some before shots.

Here. 
I debated this for a long time, but finally knew that nothing would update the kitchen more than paint.
We did a new tile counter and sink about 4 years ago. 

We put in new microwave and stove about two years ago. We also updated the lighting.

Last winter we got a new dishwasher.

It still looked like an 80's kitchen.
One of my other attempts was creating some open storage.

Here:

The process is nearly completed but I thought I would give you a run down of the events in case you are thinking of having this done.
I have only had professional painters once so I am a novice to this whole thing.
I read many blog posts about painting cabinets yourself. I have painted kitchen cabinets twice before  and did not look forward to doing it again. I am not a spring chicken and I knew that it would be hard. 

There are some things to keep in mind if you have professionals paint your kitchen cabinets.

Here is my time line of events.

Sunday Night: 

• I placed the e-mail to my painter. 
• I fixed my final meal for the week. 

Monday: 

• The painter e-mailed me back and asked if they could come Thursday and Friday. I already had a quote from him so I didn't need to schedule a consultation.
• The first thing  we had to decide was whether to paint the interiors of the cabinets. I read blogs and talked things over with Mr. Bill and my painter, John. Bill wanted them painted but John and I both felt that the laminate insides wouldn't wear too well.  (Thank you, bloggers for that info.) The insides are a light to medium maple color so they aren't that offensive to me. For twenty years I  have felt that they have been very easy to clean.    Since they were clean, I thought it would be less noticeable to have maple interiors rather than scratched interiors. 

• Next I picked out my color. We went with Dover White from Sherwin Williams. I looked at Google Images for hours Monday night. I went with Dover because it isn't a bright white but it reads white.  I had used it before and I knew the color and liked it. Next I had to pick the sheen. This is important. The sheen I picked is semi-gloss. (I will be talking more about this later. Maybe in another post if this one is too long.) 
• I picked up store bought meatloaf for dinner.

It was time to prep the kitchen for the painters.

Tuesday:  

• I began cleaning out the junk drawers. I knew that the kitchen didn't have to be empty, but I was too embarrassed to have the painters see inside my drawers and cabinets. I have 4 junk drawers. (see below)
• I worked on that from about 5 p.m. until 9:30.
• For dinner I made sandwiches from the leftover meatloaf. I think Mr. Bill was less than thrilled.

Wednesday:

• I finished cleaning out the cabinets and removing stuff from the counters and the top of the cabinets that evening. 
• We had pizza for dinner.   

I overcompensated for the uglies of the cabinets by having lots of knick-knacks in the kitchen. It was an attempt to warm things up in a sea of oak.  We did decide to paint the inside of the top of the buffet cabinet in case I ever want to take these doors off. 

Thursday: 

• I came home that night to plastic draped everywhere. Everything was papered off. 

• The house had a horrible smell. I think it was the stuff they sprayed to prep the cabinets for the primer. I saw a can of deglosser. 

I loved seeing it white with primer.

• The drawers were stacked up and the cabinet doors were all open. I assumed they would take the doors off and spray them outside. They sprayed them on and they sprayed the hinges. The hinges were brassy so I am conflicted about  that. On  the one hand I can change pulls when ORB is out and not have to worry about the hinges. Yet, I don't want hinges with paint chipping off. This is something I should have asked.
• We went out to Abuelo's for Mexican Food. (Comfort Food.)

Friday: 

• I was off from work, waiting on my new T.V. cabinet so I stayed home all day. I tried to do some stuff upstairs but was stir crazy waiting to see the cabinets. I wanted to stay out of the painter's hair but it was hard.
• The oak kept soaking up the paint so I thought I kept seeing spots they missed. I didn't want to seem like I was hovering  but I felt like I was.
• They left by about 4 o-clock. All the cabinet doors  were left propped open with tooth picks. 
• The smell was not nearly as bad with the paint as it was the day before. 
• If you are sensitive to smells, I suggest staying in a hotel for a few days.
• Friday night I ate leftovers and Bill picked up something when he was out.

Saturday:

• The cabinets were wet but I started putting things back on the counter. I had a farmhouse vibe going before. I think I will be going a different direction this time.
• Bill got McDonald's for lunch and I ate a sandwich I picked up at the grocery store. 
• We ate dinner at a wedding. (And no, we weren't wedding crashers ;)

Sunday:

• The cabinets are dry to the touch but some feel a bit tacky. 
• I rearranged some dishes and put them back in the cabinets, but really have tried to stay out of the kitchen. 
• Bill ate lunch out and I sort of foraged. At this point I am getting sick of eating on the fly. We had a brisket for dinner. It has been almost a week since I cooked. 

I tried closing the doors this afternoon, but a few were sticking a tad, so I  propped them all open again with tooth picks.   

I hope that everything will be dry tomorrow. I don't like things in disarray and I can't wait to see this kitchen with the knobs back on.

Since this post is so long I won't talk about sheen. You will have to stay tuned and check back in. :)

I will also take some final pics once the open shelves are staged.

I hope this give you insight into what to expect when professionals come in to paint.

Sprinkled with painters,

Katie
Linking with,

    The 1929 Charmer Blog 

     Debbie Doos  

 Between Naps on the Porch

Savvy Southern Style                                                   

Crib Part Re-purposed for Fall

This summer it dawned on me that I had two old cribs in the attic.
I re-purposed the head and foot board from one of them and used it as a headboard.
Here:

The spring I used as a memo board in my sunroom.
Here:

I had two side rails that have been kicking around here for the past two months.

I looked and looked at them and decided that the crib sides looked like  sections of fencing.
One of my yearly bulletin boards at school proved to be my inspiration. 
Every year we have the kids make scarecrows, crows and pumpkins and 
we put them in front of a picket fence.

I decided to try one of the rails in a similar display.
I put the crib side up on top of my china hutch in the dining room.
I added a garland that I spray painted brown.

I have never spray painted a garland so I wasn't sure it would work.  I was afraid that the needles would disintegrate as soon as the paint hit it.  But it creates a nice beefed up background for a fall garland.

I added some cute sunflowers that I grunged using stain and wood glue.

I wired on a darling scarecrow that I got at the Christmas store.

 His overalls have gold threads in them.

 I love the Dollar Tree crow.

 I added some pumpkins.

 I love this twiggy pumpkin vine. 

The cute ribbon was in the Christmas section.  

Here it is on my antique china cabinet.

 A few twinkle lights for moody fall evenings.

The yellow lights make this a fun non-spooky display when the 
trick-or-treaters come by.

Sprinkled with a faux fence,
Katie
Linking with,
Feathered Nest Friday  
The Brambleberry Cottage

  

Getting a Bound Carpet

We have been on a quest to warm up our living area.

Read about it here.

and here.
Mr. Bill and I had a dilemma.

 
 We tiled about 500 square feet of our downstairs about 6 years ago when we had a big flood. 

I hated carpet.

2 dogs

3 birds

2 cats

3 teenagers.

Do you see where I am going with this?

 Tile just seemed like the smart thing to do with in a family with so much potential for messes.

But...

One by one the birds died. :/

Sadly 3 of our older pets went on to their great reward.

And finally the three teenagers grew up and moved out.

 The new hot mess of a pup is house broken and now it's just  the three of us.

Well.. except for this guy.

But really he only comes in to eat  

  and sniff shoes.  

 So we were stuck with  this huge sea of tile everywhere with no real need for it anymore. 

A bound carpet would be just the thing to warm up the space without cracking up 500 square feet of tile. 

When we bought our new carpet for the upstairs last year, the carpet guy told us that we should consider a bound carpet for our living area.

We measured how big we wanted the carpet, keeping in mind that the front two legs of each piece of furniture have to sit on the carpet.
I don't know why, but that seems to be the "rule."

We were thrilled that they still had the same carpet as the upstairs. It is a different dye lot but the edge of the carpeted stair and the rug are about 5 feet apart. 

Basically we paid the price of the carpet per yard 
+
the pad
 + 
a small fee to bind the carpet.
It took exactly three weeks and only $340 dollars for our completely custom area carpet. There is no way we could have found any kind of rug for that price in the size we needed.

We laid out the pad and cut it to size. It needs to be 2 1/2 inches smaller than the carpet so the carpet will lay flat over the edge of the pad.
Bill used carpet tape to adhere the carpet edges to the floor until it is trained to lay down.

Oh vacuum cleaner lines, i have missed you so. :)
I am smitten again with the flooring down here. I have the comfort and warmth of carpet but tile in the entry where I need it,
Double win!
Next up? 
 T.V. storage. 
Stay tuned....
Sprinkled with carpet,
Katie
Linking with,
Savvy Southern Style