1 Shade of Gray

CASTLE .. Thats the shade of gray we picked!

When we first looked at the property back in August I knew immediately I wanted to change the color of the cabinets! I started researching how to paint or stain the existing cabinets because we didn't want to invest a crazy amount of money into new ones! We know in about 8-10 years we want to do a renovation that includes blowing out the wall in the kitchen and completely redoing everything in the kitchen, so investing in new cabinets now didn't make sense, when the existing ones were in great condition.

The thought of spending a thousand + dollars on new cabinets didn't make sense to us, so in my research I found the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation Kit! It comes in so many different colors from white to black.. even red! The kit retails for about $69 at Home Depot, so we figured if we get 2 kits spending under $200 was a heck of a lot easier on our wallets then the couple $1000.

We knew it was going to be work and not something that was done over night but that was fine. I did most of the work myself and had some help for a few things! 

So simple a 8.5 month pregnant lady can do it ;)

They had a regular light stain and to me it was not aesthetically pleasing. I knew the vision I had for the house .. neutral grays with pops of color in the main areas, and colors in all the bedrooms! The light brown stain did not match this!

First off all the cabinet doors had to come off and be put in a work space, we used the basement, as it has tons of room, as well as windows and a vent so I was safe painting there. I also used a face mask to avoid inhaling any of the fumes.

The first step of the process is "de-glossing", basically throw on some gloves and scrub the crap outta the cabinets! You get the de-glosser and some scrubbing pads in the kit, this helps avoid having to sand (yay!). Do all 21 doors/ drawers took about 3 hours.. I scrubbed so hard to make sure to get all the dirty and gloss off!!

The following night Chris' cousin Kate came up and helped me de-gloss the frames which took us about 2 hours, we also taped the inside of the of cabinets so when we painted it didn't bleed.

The next day the painting started!

To do the first coat on all the drawers/doors took me about 2 hours.. then they needed 2-3 hours to dry.. so by the time I was finished it was time to start over!

Then came painting the frames.. this took longer as it is more tedious, to make sure you don't get it inside the cabinets!

 I luckily got some help with this part .. one of the men that works with my father in law finished it off for me as I had to get to work! Later that day I did the 2 coats on the front of the doors. The following day the "finishing coat" was put onto the frames .. we decided to skip the "glazing" step as we liked the more clean, modern look. This saved us a lot of as well.

Chris then did the final finishing coat on all the doors, as I was having a rough day and wasn't feeling up to it. 

When I came back the next day the hardware was on and the doors were back up! The whole process took about 5-6 days. If I had time to just focus on this project it might have gone a little faster but it was finished in time for us to unpack the POD and start putting things away!

I originally planned on going with white, but it was actually my mother in law that suggested going with a charcoal or a gray, because our counter is white and our backsplash (still to be completed) has white in it with pops of charcoal and greenish-blue. I am SO glad I listened to her .. we LOVE the color we picked.

This kit was super easy to use and the DVD it comes with, as well at the instructions are easy to follow! I am so please with this product and would have no issues using it again or recommending it to other people!

Chris was little iffy on the whole thing and I think was worried about it not turning out and ruining the cabinets BUT in the end he is so pleased with it and feels it completely changes the feeling of the kitchen! It got Chris' stamp of approval ;)

We HIGHLY recommend checking out this product for a quick easy change! It can even be used in bathrooms to change up your vanity!