I had gotten a couple of bids from our local ad magazine from companies who refreshed kitchens, and made cabinet doors. And frankly, I was shocked! For a shaker-style door made of MDF, for 19 doors whose square footage was less than two sheets of plywood, they wanted $5,000. >gasp< excuse me? And I politely showed them the door. And put the project on the back burner for 5 years while I mulled this over in my mind.
I had finally decided to attack the project myself, after seeing my friend and neighbor make their own cabinet doors for their kitchen. Seemed simple enough: one rectangle for the door, and four trim pieces attached for the shaker edging. I have no doubts as to my own capabilities and am willing to try my hand at anything. With a little guidance, practice, and adjustments, I'd do a smash-up job! All I needed was a table saw...
One of my personal mottoes that makes me, well, me, is "it never hurts to ask". I've borrowed everything from trailers to carpet cleaners. The worst they could say is no, right?
My friend's husband and his father are cabinet hobbyists. They have a full shop with all tools, and I knew that if I could spend a few hours in their shop cutting the pieces, and with a little bit of help drilling the hinge holes, we'd be set. So I asked.
Absolutely not, she said. My husband will do it for you. Let me ask him. This was my first no, but turned in to a very big YES. He ended up being totally willing. Realizing that what would take me several days, to a practiced cabinet maker would take hours. We discussed materials (MDF, cheap), style (shaker), and he brought over a sample door that exceeded my expectations. Go ahead, I said, and PayPal'ed him the money for supplies.
Two weekends later I had 19 doors completely done. I was unbelievably, ridiculously, immensely, overwhelmingly grateful and happy!
I put the hinges on and pre-hung them to make sure they all fit, because a 60-year-old house settles over time and things get out of level, out of plumb, and crooked. We only had to slightly sand the side of one door. Miracle!
In the meantime, I sanded and stained all the light wood laminate that is on the drawers and sides of cabinet bodies. The dark really updated the overall look and turned out amazing. I patched some spots and painted the walls & ceiling. I really dislike painting, but was super happy to find that the original white paint from Ralph Lauren that we used to paint walls and ceiling 12 years ago was back! I love the quality and color of this paint. I was glad to get back to it, and leave the "color matching" behind! And even though I really hate painting, I will say, I'm actually quite good at it.
I went to my local NPS, a warehouse that carries various and sundry items, and found long bar handles, similar to this Liberty pull family, for 75% off. I love a bargain! It was dirty work, and took three trips to find enough that matched exactly, but it was worth it! (sorry for the crazy collage. it's a lot, i know.)
The next step was paint for the cabinet doors. Again, I felt fully capable of setting up a spray booth in my back yard and spraying them with my air compressor and a paint sprayer. So I called another friend who is a cabinet maker by profession to ask what paint he suggested I use, to get the best finish. The last thing I wanted was to get these doors finished and paint them with a latex paint that would peel off and ding and dent after one week.
He suggested a conversion varnish from PPG/Porter Paints. And while I was asking about what the best sprayer tip would be he said he'd spray them for me, at a reasonable! Does no one have faith in my abilities? But really, do I care? If it meant I didn't have to deal with paining and the result was professional, AND it fit our budget, it was a no-brainer.
He picked up the raw doors and then began the waiting. It took much longer than I was anticipating to prep the doors for painting. We had finished everything else and it was so hard to look at the door-less kitchen every day!
I had picked a Behr Lemon Lime Green at the beginning of the project and I was hooked. It's a slight problem when you try to match a paint chip to another paint brand & type. He finally came for the paint chip, picked up the varnish, and luckily, brought it to me for approval. It was waaaayyyy off, much too cool & shallow. I was panicked! I drove the paint up myself to the store, with the original chip, and sat at the desk (for an hour) and directed the adding of brown, yellow, and gold drop, by drop, until it was exact. Or close enough that I knew that one more drop might ruin the entire thing, so I said "stay". Lesson: get what you want and don't leave until you are satisfied.
When we finally got the doors back we still had to drill the holes for the hardware. We had picked all the same size, so that made it simple to make one jig, and drill-press the holes. We bought a cheap drill-press at Harbor Freight. Bless them for their cheap tools. It saved our marriage. Stuff like this sends us both over the edge.
I snapped up the finished doors, added the handles, and hung them myself. Being too insanely impatient to wait another second to be done. The new hinges are fully adjustable: in, out, up, down. Piece of cake, even for me. Sure beat the pants off the old knife hinges.
Those old things were never straight.
And here we are, finished at last!
The under-cabinet puck lighting was something we did when we put in the tile counter-top in 2002. We used WAC pucks, similar to these. It makes the biggest difference, is so modern, brightens the counter up, and provides a great work environment.
EVERYTHING is covered! And I'm loving my new Frigidaire gas range we put in January 2014.
It's a miracle worker.
You can never have enough lighting in the kitchen, and this new fixed-track light has met my expectations.
If you think the kitchen has looked as clean since, you don't know me well. Seriously. I'm so glad I have these pics! It was such a rewarding change. I still don't have a dishwasher, but I'm okay with that. Repetitive tasks relieve stress. Or so they say.
Overall the entire kitchen cost less than $2,000.
The clever take-away for today is: it never hurts to ask. The worst they can say is no, then you have to think of another way. We all have talents, tools, skills, and resources to share. I can hem jeans and suits and sew just about anything, and I wish my friends and acquaintances would ask for my help more often. I love to help people. If we all shared our different talents, what a community it would be!
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