The project is moving along and so far it is a witch. I'm washing, stripping and sanding the doors, starting with the worst ones first. Between washing, stripping, sanding, filling dings etc., it's about three hours per door. There are a lot of them that only need scuff sanding so it will balance out. As for paint, I am going to the dark side with 2k Centurion 2800 as there is a dealer only 45 minutes away. On a pro painting site, one guy showed a test where he applied straight lye to a cabinet door painted with 1K Centurion 2800 and on one painted with 2K Centurion 2800. The lye ate through the 1K but did nothing to the 2K. The catalyst is nasty stuff and requires a chemical respirator and Tyvek suit which I have. Catalyzed paint has a pot life of three hours so it's going to take a few days to spray, clean out the sprayer, scuff sand and apply the second coat.
And, the project continues with final sanding of the cabinet doors. Next up, washing, sanding and caulking the frames. And then two coats of primer on all surfaces. And then two finish coats on all surfaces. And then install new hinges and cabinet pulls. and then re-hang the doors and drawer fronts. And then move on to the next house project.
We thought about painting the dark oak cabinets we have in the kitchen. But the dark oak stain cabinets and doors there continues throughout the house. Less than it did when we bought it, but I did enough other updates to the kitchen, lvp over the linoleum, paint walls, and a stainless steel backsplash that the look of the cabinets is fine as it is, aside from getting updated hardware on the doors. About the only other thing to do would be get an updated countertop, and I know a guy that owns one of the better stone countertop places around here. It's just not been a priority. Wife is totally happy with what I've done.
Give me good old laminated countertops. Easy to clean, cheapest option. The tales I have heard about stone and granite countertops scare me off. I would consider the fancy epoxy countertops but I have no where to do the work or the knowhow to do it.
I finished spraying and re-installing the doors in mid July. This project took four months and was far more labor-intensive than initially expected. But the results are nuts. And yes, a fly did land on the cabinet above and to the left of the sink. Dang things.
You can do it. My approach was to go all-out on prep and take the time to do it right: scrubbing all doors with LA's Totally Awesome and Scotch Brite pads, a Festool RTS 400 and MIDI Vac, DAP Patching Compound, Bondo Glazing Putty, Aqua Coat, Crawford Spackle etc. A high-powered shop light was used to find imperfections in the finish before priming. Two coats of primer went on all surfaces with sanding in between each coat, and then two coats front and back with Centurion 2800 2k paint. I have used countless paints over the years and have never worked with anything like Centurion 2k.....after mixing in the catalyst there is a pot life of 5 hours before it hardens. There was always some leftover paint in between coats which went into old paint cans. By the next morning the stuff was like concrete. I bought a semi-throwaway spray booth which contained overspray when shooting in the garage. 2k paints require serious PPE and I had to wear a full-face 3m respirator with chemical cartridges. The sprayed paint dried quickly and high speed fans vented the fumes but that stuff is nothing to mess with. But the amazing thing is the finish itself......it came out like glass and seems to even provide impact resistance. You can't scratch this stuff with a fingernail no matter how hard you try. Even more surprising is that Centurion 2800 went for $105.00 per gallon which is on-par with paints from local paint stores. I did buy a professional Graco sprayer and Airless finishing kit which is now a white elephant sitting in my garage.
toss it up on facebook and/or craigslist, works for me to unload items that are white elephants. might take a bit or it can almost overnight.
thanks for the advise. It will be quite the project and I think one that I will have to dedicate a block of time to.
I worked at a stone/granite company for not very long. I was the office manager under him and he kept wondering why I didn't get them, almost pressuring me. I heard tales too, but my total refusal was because they're cold. My laminate counters never get that cold.
Two schools of thought on this: "One and done" or "Low and slow". I took the latter and feel that this was the right choice. I would take down a cabinet door or two, scrub them, prep/sand and put on a rack. There was no pressure to get the job done quickly and I admittedly went overboard in a lot of prep and finishing steps but there's an old saying: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right". Some additional steps including making toe kicks out of PVC ceiling tiles they sell at Lowe's. For some )^#$%^*^%^ reason, toe kicks are made from MDF which blows up like a balloon when exposed to water. PVC doesn't give a stuff. Hindsight being 20/20 I would have gotten some paint samples in various colors and painted test patches to see how they looked in varying lighting conditions. The color chosen was Benjamin Moore Stoneware which looked to be a beige/cream color on the swatch but came out much more white than I had expected. Too late now. Centurion 2800 2k was incredible to work with and it blows away the prior factory lacquer finish. There are all kinds of DY "experts" who recommend Sherwin Williams Emerald, Benjamin Moore Advance, even Joanna Gaines paint whatever the fork that stuff is. Professional cabinet refinishers use Centurion 2800 2k, Renner 851 2k and Milesi. They have to warranty their work and 2k paints simply have no equal in terms of physical durability and chemical resistance.
I am beginning to think low and slow might be more my style as long blocks of time are at a premium. Who knew retirement would be so busy? Definitely not spending a lot of time in the sewing room playing.
You did a much nicer job than I did at our old house. I cleaned everything up, used smart prime and Ben Moore Advance, white. I used a 4" foam roller. We sold the house 2 or 3 years later. Yours should last nearly forever with that 2K paint. Perviously ours were that fake looking blond wood finish that was the rage in the late 50"s or very early 60's
