The Kitchen 1

I have started on the kitchen. We decided to do the kitchen in segments, because it seems much less daunting  that way. I started with the sections around the stove. 

Here are  the cabinets with the doors removed.   I forgot to take a picture before  I took them down :) . See the yucky yellow paint inside? UGLY.  When we moved in , I had put shelf liner paper all over everything, but it has been there for two years. It got gross, so I have decided to paint the insides of the cabinets screaming  bright white.  That should clean things up  and help us to more easily see inside the cabinets. 

Here is a close up of the back of the cabinets before. 

  

I didn't really want to paint the insides of the cabinets as that is a ton of work, but once we really looked at them and realized how insanely ugly they are, I realized I had to paint them. 

Here are the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, so you can see what the cabinet doors look like. 

Here is what the lower cabinets looked like- this is after scrubbing! After I took this picture, I took off the doors, and I sanded the whole thing.   

The insides of the cabinets will be painted 4 times-  2 coats of primer and 2 coats of white interior semi gloss.  The shelves will also get  a coat of Miniwax Polycrylic for extra durability. 

Here is the first coat of primer. Oh the difference!!! 

Then the first coat of stain!!! Ermergerd look at this!!! 

 This is the area above the sink before staining. 

 Here is the sink area with the first coat of stain. Applying the stain on the window was a pain. All the little corners were really hard to get to while standing with one foot on the counter and one foot on the ladder. 

 My hubby suggested using one of his head lamps   while painting, as I had mentioned it was kinda hard to see up in the corners of the cabinets.  I wore one for a while, then went and found the other one so I could have two on. Two was perfect! I had them kinda facing diagonally so the light overlapped in the  middle...  Yep. I'm a nerd. :) 

So far,  I have painted two coats of primer and  two coats of semi gloss on the inside of the cabinets.  Tomorrow, I will apply the Polycrilic, let that dry  for two days then  the insides of the cabinets are done. We can move stuff back in! All of our cabinet food/spice/sauces  are in totes and boxes in the dining room. 

There are two coats of stain on the outer cabinets and above the sink.  The stain needs to dry for five days, then I will coat them with two coats of  the sealant/ top coat.   In the meantime, I will be working on the doors. I am going to lightly sand them, wash them and then stain them.  My problem right now is finding space to lay them all out after staining. My spare room is full of furniture drying awaiting top coat!  

We are reusing the hardware that was on the cabinets, they are all in good condition. But they were nasty- I scrubbed all of them with a scrubbie and Dawn and the amount of gook that came off them was amazing!  After cleaning them, they look a little blah so  I am going to give them a coat of Rustoleeum Primer and then a Glossy black spray paint.  I think they will look fantastic!