I have emerged from the shadowy depths of baby hibernation a butterfly transformed by your kind comments. Thank you for reading all about my room tour last week, and double triple googleplex thank you for letting me know you’d like to see more of them. I’m working up a tour of the nursery for next week, so please do tune in for that there goodness.
Today is not so much goodness. Both kids have/had crazy high fevers and I’ve gotten 4-5 hours of broken sleep every night for a week. Right about now I’d like to punch winter in the face. Since winter is an intangible being with no face to punch, let’s talk kitchens for a minute or two.
You knew it would come to this, right?
So, Ben and I tried to strip a door in the hopes we might turn our dated glossy honey oak cabinets into something with this vibe:
And the door laughed in our faces. I’m guessing the finish applied to our cabinets is some kind of super space age polymerized diamond hard coating designed to resist grease and terrorists, because it is NOT COMING OFF. At least not like it does on tv, when you apply the stripping compound and 72 layers of paint slough off in one fell swoop, revealing clean and sparkly wooden goodness beneath.
First we tried denatured alcohol, then we tried lacquer thinner. Then we glopped on the citristrip and left it on for 30 minutes. Then we glopped on more citristrip and left it on overnight. Then in desperation we tried acetone. Basically, we dumped every chemical we could find on that door and only a fraction of the finish was removed.
And so, paint it is.
I’m pretty sad and keep mooning over this kind of stuff:
But maybe for the next house.
I did consider trying to copy this look by refacing our cabinets, but I think it’s just not financially feasible. We may as well gut the kitchen and rebuild at that point.
Sadly, we are not rich. We’re real people on a stupid real budget that makes me real mad. But at least we have a house and food and cars, so it’s time to get over it and move on. Maybe to this?
But with light uppers, yes?
I’m still pricing out replacing our doors with paint grade shaker style doors. What we spend on new doors miiiigggght save us a few bucks in paint labor. Maybe. I’m not sure if it’s going to be worth it or not.
While my kitchen plans continue to incubate, go check out the power of paint over at Styled Thing:
Not too shabby, Miss Julie.
See you dudes next week for the next tour.
Related posts:
Thank you, Erin! Sending HEALTHY juju your way.
Oh my God…all that and nothing? Well, at least you can be satisfied that you did everything humanly possible. Paint them thangs! It will look fabulous. Satisfy your need for wood by piling up fireplace logs directly in front of your door. That should do it.
Oh Rosie… I needed that laugh super bad. Thank you.
Heee…fun with styling! Lordy, I hope you guys kick this damnable bug…you start to understand why they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture.
Paint would be great, but if you *really* want to strip the varnish off, try Stripeeze (do it outside with no children around and wear gloves). Then sand. It will come off.
Yes, make your peace with paint. I think in the end you will love it! Is there an island that you could do with new wood?
Erica, I spent too many years up to my elbows in nasty photo chemicals to get down with the serious paint stripper. I think. I could change my mind.
Kim, no island. Bummer.
Ooh, I love the blue in that AD kitchen. (Maybe because it’s not entirely dissimilar to the blue I chose for my cabinets. Though that one has a smidge more green. And with all the cabinets in that color, instead of white uppers, it has a certain moodiness my kitchen lacks.) I think it works particularly well because that kitchen seems to get a lot of sun (of course, you can tell me whether it’s obvious to a photographer that the look of the room is constructed entirely of flash and spotlights). Also true of your kitchen, I believe?
Also, I love the table-in-the-middle-of-the-kitchen look, but let’s be honest: it’s just there for the shot, right? With those chairs there, the space would be totally unuseable. And nobody better stand on that stool to reach into the higher cabinets. Somebody needs a stepladder.
Hmm… sand blasting?
I feel your pain about crummy wood, budgets and sick kids. I want my cabinets painted and new flooring. Take heart in the fact that other rooms in your house that we all have seen are so freakin’ amazing that we are massively envious of your talent. At least I am.
No idea if you can get this in the US but we’ve just used linseed oil soap (direct translation from Swedish!) and it has stripped off 70-year old paint from brass window fittings that we have. The paint came off a treat. Maybe worth a try if you have not convinced yourself fully on the paint option? The plus is that it is natural and eco and all that, and it leaves your hands lovely and soft. Seriously soft. Paint stripping and manicure in one – what could be better?
Glad to have you back blogging again! I hope your kids feel better soon. Great post too, I always love reading your thoughts.
Dude, what were those cabinet makers DOing in the 80s? Or 90s for that matter? I say, if you can’t afford to reface them now, just make peace with the paint and try to get some headway. A future you will want new cabinets (do you sell your photos on the interwebs? are you averse to selling prints via etsy or other such venture? cause we’ll buy your art, of that I’m certain, especially for your new cabinet fund), but a future house buyer might not know the difference. Cut your losses and save yourself the time and the chemicals. Paint WILL help immeasurably. Plus, we want to see if it works, so you’re our guinea pig. Good luck, and crush those fevers, and have them driven before you so you can hear the lamentations of their women.
Okay, I found 2 sites that have re-stained their groovy oak cabinets using General Finishes Gel stain.They may be darker than you want but they have lighter stains. Maybe they will be helpful to you.
http://she-can-do-it-herself.blogspot.com/2012/10/restaining-ugly-honey-oak-cabinets-part.html
http://www.monicawantsit.com/2012/02/staining-oak-cabinets-espresso-color.html
The only thing that worked on getting the finish off of our honey oak cabinets was a belt sander. Had to sand those puppies all the way down to bare would for even our ebony stain to take. It took us over 8 months (!!!) to complete the project, and my husband and I almost killed each other in the process, but damn it looks good. I won’t be doing it ever again though!
citristrip does not work, it’s a joke. you need to use zipstrip or stripeeze. After stripping you will need to do a great deal of sanding. After that you will need to use a really dark stain. I would say it would be easier to paint them. I recently painted my kitchen cabinets. They look great! Got as much of the finish off as possible, then primed, and then used really good paint. I used Benjamin Moore Advance and I invested in a Graco airless spraygun. Spent over $600 between primer, paint and spraygun but well worth it. I practiced on the back of the doors before doing the fronts. Also watched a few youtube videos on refinishing and spray painting. If you are absolutely set on having a stained, dark finish, you may not be able to achieve that with what you have to work with. Remember you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
Great to have you back blogging again! I hope you start to write more often. I really love reading your posts.
So, I found you on Pinterest and pretty much have been stalking your blog for an undetermined amount of time. I read this post and must tell you about some crap my husband (a wood shop teacher) brought me home. I had been using citristrip–total crap. He walked in the garage and said I can’t believe you are using that. I’ll bring you home the good stuff tomorrow. He brought me this stuff called Zip Strip. It is magical and will burn the shit out of your flesh and also melt a plastic solo cup
I have pictures here: http://thesunsetlane.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-love-strippers.html
Anywho, I hope this helps you with your cabinet adventures!!
Kari
Thanks for the stalking and the tip, Kari! Can’t wait to melt my flesh off