Grandma’s Kitchen Makeover

Happy post-Memorial Day! I don’t know what you did with your long weekend, but Brandon and I helped Grandpa makeover Grandma’s kitchen by painting her kitchen cabinets.

Grandma still wants to paint the walls, maybe add a backsplash, and install new counters, but what a huge transformation, right? We’re all pretty excited about it.

Here’s the before pictures. Pretty much all the cabinetry in the kitchen is original to the kitchen, which was built with their house in 1984. We started here on Friday.

(Oh, but they did change out that cabinet over the microwave, when they got the combo microwave/range hood. The doors are different, but they all blend so well with the new paint!)

We labeled all the doors and drawer fronts before taking them down (great idea from Evolution of Style!)…we kept moving the tape labels from front to back as we painted, and boy was that ever helpful. We would have never known what went where if we hadn’t labeled them!

We used Zinsser Paint Deglosser on the fronts and backs of all the doors and drawer fronts, as well as the cabinet frames.

Then we primed with Zinsser FastPrime, an oil-based primer. We brushed it and used a foam roller on the cabinet frames, and used the Wagner Wide Shot Power Painter on the doors.

I wasn’t sure about cleaning the oil-based primer out of the sprayer, but it was really easy. I sprayed mineral spirits through the sprayer, then took the sprayer apart, and let everything soak for a bit. Just a little wiping and it was all clean! No real scrubbing. I couldn’t complain at all!

We spray primed the door backs, let them dry the 2+ hours that FastPrime recommends, then sprayed the fronts and let them dry overnight.

On Saturday, we painted the first coat of paint on the cabinet frames, and used the Power Painter to spray the cabinet door backs (just like I did the other day with my pantry doors!)

We used Benjamin Moore’s Advance, in an Ace Hardware color called Warm Scones, that Grandma had color matched. (Thanks to Young House Love for turning us on to this great paint!)

On Sunday, we flipped the doors over and used the sprayer to paint the fronts with the Advance, and put the second coat on the frames.

While we were waiting for all that to dry, we spray painted all Grandma’s old cabinet hardware.

We realized that the hinges on the doors showed, and Menards didn’t have the right style of hinges in stock. I told her that instead of buying all new hardware, we could just spray paint everything to look like new!

We soaked all the hardware in mineral spirits for an hour+, then scrubbed it all down.

Most of the finish on the handles came off, and they were ready to paint!

We used Rustoleum American Accents Metallics in Classic Bronze.

And instead of a Memorial Day picnic, on Monday, we put Grandma’s kitchen back together! (She fed us plenty, though!)

Here are the after pictures!

I’ll keep you updated with any future updates we do! :)

Happy Memorial Day!