Pantry Progress!

Oh man am I excited!  It’s not a lot of progress, but after months and months of zero progress, anything is exciting to me!

Remember this pantry?

It’s been that way for over a year now.

I was lucky enough to get these unfinished cabinet doors at Bailey’s Discount Outlet for $.99 each.

$.99 each!

I bought 30 of them, and actually designed the pantry (sizes and whatnot) to fit the doors. The pantry will end up using 24 of them.

24 is a lot of doors.

I primed them with a brush and Zinsser’s FastPrime2. It took forever. And a lot of space in the garage. Then I began to paint them. One thin coat on about 12 of the doors. And it took forever. And I didn’t love the paint (regular wall latex). And I gave up. So they’ve been piled up in the garage since then.

Till today!

Grandpa and Grandma want to paint their kitchen cabinets as a great, inexpensive refresher. I’m going to help! (I’ll take pictures and post all about it!)  So in the meantime, I thought I’d re-start my own doors as guinea pigs before we start on their kitchen.

I bought a gallon of Benjamin Moore’s Advance in Simply White (to blend with our existing Ikea cabinets). 

            

(I was almost talked into using Benjamin Moore’s oil-based Satin Impervo. You know I love oil based paint. But I decided against it for fear that it’d yellow sooner than later, and although I would love the hard, tough finish, I really don’t want to do this project again.)

Grandpa’s got a trusty Wagner WideShot Airless Paint Sprayer that’s sprayed our basement ceilings (the open joists and pipes and all) and cinder block walls, his deck, a friend’s basement ceilings and walls, and a set of Ikea shelves that I have. It sprays the paint on thick and it always works.

I started by cleaning off the doors (since they’d been stored in the garage for so long) and sanding the grain that had been raised by the primer (with 220 grit sandpaper). I used the air compressor and a blow gun to spray off all the dust.

I didn’t thin the paint, filled up the sprayer, and went to town. I set up some horses outside (where I wouldn’t have to protect the ground – lazy!) and began on the back sides of the doors. I wasn’t sure if it’d spray on too thick and textured-y, but I thought I’d give it a shot. The doors were just $.99.

I adjusted the flow knob a little – decreasing it for a slightly finer spray. But it turned out that the nice thick coat is just what the doctor ordered. I kept the finer spray (which is still thicker than something like an HVLP gun would produce, I think) but went over each side in 3-4 directions to ensure nice, even coverage in all the grooves/corners. It’s so hot out that the Advance is probably drying a little faster than it’s supposed to, but it doesn’t seem to be adversely affecting anything.  The nice thick (but not too thick!) finish is drying perfectly smooth and making for one-coat coverage! That’s something I can never complain about!

Here’s some of my 24 doors:

I couldn’t be happier! They look amazing! And I painted one side of all 24 doors, including some sanding and cleaning, in about 2 hours. That’s waaaaay better than how long it was taking me to do by brush…that was so bad that I gave up! :)

Isn’t it looking great? In person the finish is so smooth and beautiful!

To sum up: unthinned Benjamin Moore Advance sprayed great in an airless Wagner Wide Shot Power Painter!

I’ll keep you posted when I do the other sides, and along the way to speak to the paint’s longevity.  This also means that I have to get moving on the pantry itself…there’s a little more to do before I can install the doors. And attach all those hinges…ugh!

Anyway, for now I’m excited! Woohoo!