La Cosina – Phase 2

The kitchen is done!! I am so excited! I think it may have been the absolute most trying time ever and I am glad that E and I survived it as a couple (things got really rocky around our third coat).

When I last left off, E had removed the cabinet fronts and we set up a spot on our deck and kitchen table to prime, paint and dry the cabinets. While he worked outside on the doors, I primed and painted the cabinet frames. First of all, taping off absolutely everything is a nightmare. How annoying and it took forever! For the parts closer to the floor I had to lay down and tape underneath the dishwasher, ugh, it was not good. However, once it was done I was super happy as it meant that E and I could finally embark on the project he had dreaded the most and about which I could not stop dreaming.

Our first coat was not that great. E and I used an angled 2 inch brush and I am not sure what happened, but those streaks looked terrible. I assumed that it would go away once the first coat dried and we applied a second but the second coat looked just as bad. E and I freaked out and ended up trying a thin and small roller that I purchased on a whim at Lowe’s, and lo and behold that finally did the trick. The roller made all the difference and after that it was simply a matter of determining how opaque we wanted the cabinets to look. I wanted really really white cabinets and had no interest in having the wood grain show through so this process took us four coats.

I am glad that we spent the extra time and money getting the tools necessary (we ended up taking two more trips to Lowe’s) because the finished product looks exactly as I envisioned.

After letting it cure for two days, E and I reattached the doors and I added the hardware. It looks so clean and bright and like a place where I really want to cook now. It even makes that icky green laminate counter top look so much better.