“Ew. You’re going to paint the cabinets black? That’s going to look terrible.” These were words my mother and my husband said when I told them the plan. No one has any faith in me.
“Look,” I said. “Here’s my rationale : these cabinets are not the final cabinets. Someday, we’ll get real wood cabinets that we love. But these are horrible. All the woodwork in the house is dark, so I think white will look weird. Black makes sense, especially with the countertops [a dark green laminate that we couldn’t afford to change], and the eventual apple-green walls. It’s going to look great.”
My husband reminded me that painting wood is against the law. Normally, I agree. But the sides of these cabinets weren’t even real wood. And the color was awful. I’m doing it. Done. It’ll be great. Doubt away, doubters.
We took the uppers off as a unit, and took them to the yard.
This gave us a chance to wire for a microwave and such, plus add some reinforcement supports for the cabinets.
I primed them by hand, because I wanted a bit more control when working with the cardboard fake wood sides and the real wood faces and doors. Since they were going to be black, I went with a gray primer to help with coverage. (Also to help with coverage, you should wear sunscreen when painting outside in the summer. Good tip.)
It was raining or hot or there were lions about. Something. So for some reason I primed in the library one day.
I sprayed the rest of the cabinets, but I wasn’t planning on painting the insides, so I used a bunch of paper and tape to get everything masked off.
Back outside, and I used a paint sprayer for the first time. I put some floetrol in the paint, and it worked beautifully. Even though I know that paint dries darker, outside it looked really, really gray. So I was nervous.
But of course, once they dried and we got them inside, they were great. There probably is just a hint of gray in them, which is totally fine. It gives them a bit of softness. Â
We hung them up, and moved them to the ceiling. I’ve always heard that cabinets that go to the ceiling make a room feel taller, but I didn’t realize the extent of it. They really made the room feel two feet taller! The step after this is to build some open shelving / storage underneath.
Also, the walls are painted! And the ceiling, one shade lighter than the walls. I like doing that. Â And we got appliances! Hooray!
Sanding the doors was next. Perhaps it was raining? I can’t fathom why I did this inside. I’m ridiculous.
Priming the doors. I think there were 17,128 of them. Once one side was painted and dried, I was paranoid about them sticking, so I used plastic cups to keep the airflow moving.
So. Many. Doors.
Which I guess equals a tons of storage, so I should just stop whining about it.
Also, new hardware? Look familiar? Yup. It’s the same was what I put in the current kitchen.
The favorite part is seeing the grain through the paint. It’s just perfect. For the base cabinets, I opted to paint them inside, and not remove them from the walls. I did this before the new floor was in, and I hand painted everything.
And guess what? Both my mother and my husband LOVE the black cabinets.
Sometimes, you just need a little faith. And to take a risk.
