Turquoise Kitchen Cabinets with Eclectic Hardware on Houzz this Week

When I saw this article on Houzz, I knew I must share it with you. I absolutely love turquoise! Amazingly, it never occurred to me to paint kitchen cabinets in this color. But why wouldn't you? It's amazing!
They used a mix of hardware which is a little out there even for me. I prefer more consistancy in the hardware. What do you think about mixing several style of hardware?
The phone is busy with calls right now for homeowners wanting to paint their cabinets. Most requests I get are to paint them ivory with a chocolate glaze. It would be awesome if someone would be bold enough to paint them this way! What do you think?

Kitchen of the Week: Turquoise Cabinets Snazz Up a Space-Savvy Eat-In

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Black Distressed Kitchen Island

Finished Kitchen Island

My services were recently requested by Scott from http://www.aurorabuildinggroup.com/. His company was doing a total kitchen remodel for his client. They had beautiful, new cherry cabinets installed and a huge new kitchen island. She wanted the island to be black and very heavily distressed, with the wood tone showing through the same as the existing cabinets. I got to start with all natural, unfinished wood. That never happens! It's always, old and dirty and in bad shape. What a joy!

I decided to use a product that stains and seals in one step. I used Bombay Mahogany to mimic the stain color of the new cabinets.

Even though it was oil, it did slightly raise the grain of the wood enough that it needed a light sanding when dry. I was going to use my usual awesome bonding primer/basecoat but I knew with the amount of distressing she wanted it would be difficult to remove so I needed something to allow me to easily chip away the paint. I went old school and used a wax candle. I rubbed it randomly over the cabinets, being sure to hit the natural high points of the cabinetry.

I used my trusty black bonding paint, only available online, and began to paint. It has great coverage and great bonding capabilities so I had to make sure it didn't dry too long.

Once they were dry to the touch, I used a plastic scrubbing pad to remove the paint, reveling a distressed, aged look.

The paint rubbed away perfectly, giving a naturally distressed look! The finished cabinet door.

The black paint needed to be sealed when finished. We didn't want a shiny finish, so I mixed a water based satin varnish with a flat varnish, at about a 1:1 ratio, so that the cabinets would still look old. Here's another  shot.

You can see some of my existing work at http://www.paintingthetown.us/cabinets_furniture.shtml or keep up with my new projects at http://www.houzz.com/pro/paintingthetownus/painting-the-town-inc. 

Painted Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

Have you priced a kitchen renovation lately? It's very expensive and extremely disruptive to your day to day life. With the economy and housing market like it is, many clients are staying in their homes longer. With that comes the desire to modify and make a space more enjoyable until the market turns around.
That being said, the easiest way to update your kitchen is to paint your kitchen cabinets. It's not the same as painting your walls, but with proper preparation and products, painted cabinets will hold up as well as stained cabinets.
My process takes about 3 weeks, but only 3 or 4 days are onsite. I take your doors and drawer faces with me, to my studio. There, I can sand, wipe down, prime, paint, glaze and polyurethane the fronts and backs and allow adequate dry/cure time between layers. During this time we also work on your kitchen onsite. You can still use your kitchen during this time, although many wives tell their husbands they must go out for dinner! I'll back you up on that if needed. :) Once complete, we return with your doors and drawers and reinstall everything. It's like a brand new kitchen! Most of the projects I do are between $2000-$4000. There have been a few for less and a few for more, but that's the average range. Even refacing is much more than that!

Here are some photos of a recent kitchen makeover. They left the back splash, but did change the counter tops and modify some of the cabinets.

After painting and glazing

After painting and glazing

Before Paint

Before paint

A simple paint and glaze technique, but such a dramatic change! Of course, you can achieve any color or finish you desire. And yes, we can paint over the white melamine/laminate cabinets. I have done many, with great success. If you'd like to see more examples of painted cabinets check out my website http://www.paintingthetown.us/cabinets_furniture.shtml. Here's another site with lots of great before and after cabinet shots. http://www.r2rfaux.com/faux%20wood.htm