Finally Done

This beast of a project is officially done. I applied the last two coats of sealant on Tuesday. It. Was. A. Lot. Of. Work. If I had known how much work it was going to be, I don't think I would have done it. It could have something to do with me not knowing what the heck I was doing. I did do a lot of research on the process of antiquing and even watched some youtube videos. Everyone said how easy it was going to be. Yeah right!

I started with using TSP and cleaning the heck out of the cupboards. I seriously had to chisel yogurt and dried oatmeal off of them. My cupboards had never looked so clean. I really like that stuff! I started with the two hutches and island. My inspiration came from Paula Deen's kitchen on tv. I love her kitchen. She has some hutches that are green and then her main cabinets are an antiqued cream. I did two coats of the green, which I really liked. Then came the antiquing. First off, I mixed my glaze too dark, but I didn't know. You don't know what you don't know. It came out really streaky. And I didn't like it at all. So I started over. I diluted the glaze but it was still a little dark. It still turned out a little streaky, but I didn't want to start over again. I like them now even though they are a little streaky.

I kept the base color the same on my main cabinets, which saved me a lot of work. I just touched them up with the base color, let them dry, and then started antiquing. I had the same streaking problem with these, even though I lightened up the glaze. I redid these three times. After the second time, Mike came and looked at them and said, "it looks like the kids threw mud on the cabinets and you wiped it off." And that's when I started the third time. To fix my muddy looking cabinets, I took the base color and really toned them done. I then put yet another glaze over top, but this time, it was very light. I like how they turned out. Finally!

I bought some oil-rubbed bronze bin pulls, knobs, and latches. They were a pain to put on because I had to drill new holes. I did almost all of them myself. Mike and his dad helped with the last of the bin pulls. I'm so glad it's done! I'd say I spent around $400 for paint, hinges, knobs, pulls, and latches. If I were to give anyone advice it would be to start with a really light glaze. You can always darken it or add more, but it's really hard to lighten it if you've gotten it too dark. Also, start with a small table and get the hang of it first before you dive into an entire kitchen! :)

THE BEFORES:

This is when the previous owners still lived here. Wow! It was so clean. It's amazing what three little kids can do to a place!

The cabinets weren't bad at all. I just wanted to change them up.

This lady was obsessed with gold. There were gold hinges, gold on the knobs, and gold accent paint on all of the cabinets. I'm not a huge gold person. You should have seen the downstairs of the house! Those pictures are yet to come!

THE AFTERS:

Still a little streaky. I love my dishwasher. If you are ever looking for one, go with a Bosch! The previous owners put those decals on the cabinets. She had them accented with gold metallic paint. I could not stand the color. I like them a little better now that they don't stand out so much. See? The paint doesn't go with the cabinets very well. I think it was sponge-painted.

I was going to try and save the hinges because they were very nice. I bought some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, but it turned out to be too much work.

I still need to get a new faucet and kitchen sink. I would also like to do something with my kitchen counters. I would like them darker, and now the paint doesn't go with the rest of the kitchen. I would also like to change the tile backsplash. Mike said I opened up a can of worms! And perhaps I did!