Painting The Wood Cabinets Cloud Cover by Benjamin Moore

Ok, so we completed the door-painting process a few days ago (picture us doing the droopiest especially-tired glad dance that you’ve ever seen) and we are now into the “waiting game” portion of the cabinet painting process. But we could not wait to share all the photos of everything both during the painting-process and now that they are all glossy and wrapped up, so here ya go:

We used Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint in Cloud Cover in a satin finish (it is a soft tonal taupey-gray color, so it is not quite as bright as our glacier white counters for a subtle layered look). Benjamin Moore Advance paint (in the satin finish) in fact came recommended by a few pro cabinet painters that we know. We used it on our office cabinets a few months back (which still look mint after Clara has beat on them relentlessly with wooden toys) so it is safe to say that we have been extremely glad with it. The fact that it is low-VOC, self-leveling, and amazingly durable is fairly much the cabinet paint trifecta.

Simply like we did for the office cabinets, we applied it with a high quality 2″ angled brush to get into all the cracks and a small foam roller to smooth everything out and ensure that we were applying especially thin and even coats. As for applying any sealer or topcoat, the general pro recommendation for cabinet painting is to use high quality stain blocking primer and 2-3 thin and even coats of especially high quality paint with ample drying time between coats (Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint is meant for cabinets without any top coat, since sealers can drip, yellow, and even cause things to stick/crack since they thicken the application). We will be back with a video on Wednesday to share more actual application details/pointers along with the big full monty reveal (we thought it would be helpful to share one exhaustive how-to-paint-cabinets-post with a detailed walkthrough, application video, and the after pics all in one spot).

Using high quality primer and good self-leveling paint helps hide a lot although it does not guarantee 100% invisible grain (we do not see any evidence of grain on the oak cabinets in the office but do see a hint of it on the kitchen cabinets, so it likely simply depends how much grain your cabinets have to begin with). We do not mind painted wood that looks like painted wood though, so a little grain is ok with us, as long as the paint is pleasant and even and glossy.

For those wondering how those few retrofitted doors that we whipped up are doing with primer and paint (more on that process here), some of them are fully seamless (the two corner cabinet doors might even stump a detective) while a few others are a tad less than ideal. By this I mean if you look at them from an inch away for five minutes (bobbing your head back and forth to catch the light bouncing off of them) two out of ten people might notice a compact seam. See the über light horizontal seam on the door with the arrow in this pic below?

Yeah, me either. Haha. It is nearly invisible and impossible to photograph. But once we hang them all we will take some close up pics for ya. Even in person it is so subtle that we cannot decide if it is worth doing anything about (thankfully at least two of the five doors are seamless, so we are leaving those for sure). We will keep you posted if we decide to sand the other three one more time and use some sort of buildable primer and a few more coats of paint to hopefully make them as ideal as the two corner cabinet ones).

We are psyched to have two ideal ones among the group because it gives us faith that if we want to be especially type-A about things, we can likely get all of them to look that good with a little more work (if none of them worked out we’d bag it and go with Plan B). All in all I’d say we are truly glad about being able to work with our existing cabinets to save some major loot (thereby making other upgrades like new appliances, cork floors, new counters, new backsplash tile, and a big opening into the dining room possible).

So for $40 in paint (ya know we used a $10 off coupon, haha) and $22 in primer, we are beyond overjoyed at the new layout and the lighter look! Painting cabinets is right up there with painting wood paneling or dark brick – we think it is one of the biggest bangs for your buck. It is remarkable what 60 bucks can get ya. Well, 60 bucks and a week of puttying, sanding, deglossing, priming, painting, and waiting not-so-patiently to put everything back together.

Oh and we primed and painted the outside of the frames and the front and back of the doors while leaving the inside of the cabinets oak. This way we can toss things in there and pull them out without worrying about scratching or peeling paint. We also like the two-toned effect of clean paint with wood interiors (we did that in our old kitchen and in our office built-in cabinets and truly enjoy the surprise of natural wood when you open the door).

Of course the room’s still fairly white-washed since the rich cork floors are not in yet, but we will get there eventually. And now for a bunch more random doorless pics. This is lively because you can spy on all of our kitchen items like my fairly blue cassarole dish:

This shot makes me long for our backsplash tile to go up (after we hang our cabinet doors and add hardware it is next on the agenda!).

Yes, our tree is still up. I consistently hate taking down my glowy glad friend.

It is so light and airy in here now… except for that terrible bisque dishwasher. Egads. Cannot wait to install the new one (after we lay the new flooring so it can run under it).

These two views (the one above and below) are a lesser seen angle (taken from the office doorway). I still do that “ahh!” thing when I walk in that way because I keep picturing the dark old kitchen that used to be there.

You know, the one that looked like this (although John did not consistently stand on the counter like that).

I like it a lot better now.

And once we add the 12″ deep floating shelves and a range hood over the stove, things like the sink window will look a lot more balanced (there will be 14″ of space on either side of it):

We will be back with an whole cabinet-painting walkthrough complete with a detailed video and plenty after photos on Wednesday when things are at last cured sufficient to hang the doors and add hardware. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, even typing that is more thrilling than I should admit. I am off to watch paint dry. Literally. Ok, and write more book stuff. There is nothing like an whole-manuscript deadline of the 4th to get the year off to a ca-razy start! But simply like fiiiinally finishing our painted cabinets, handing in our large 260+ page beast of a book should feel fairly darn good! Then we simply have to shoot 100 secret photos/projects in our house over the next two months. Ah chaos, come on in and get comfortable. I hope you do not mind an in-progress kitchen…

Psst- In case you were off caroling and cavorting, here is a roundup of all the posts that you may have missed over the “holiday break”:

• Our ribbon-rific holiday card (here)
• A whole lotta cabinet puttying and sanding (here)
• Making some 2012 resolutions (here)
• Priming our pants off (here)
• A superlative-riddled December recap (here)

Glad to have ya back!