I was super excited when a customer approached me to paint her kitchen with Chalk Paint®. She had those typical builder grade oak cabinets that were in desperate need of an update. She was on a budget so replacing them was not an option.
She had new laminate counters installed that had soft grey and cream tones. Her flooring was a warm wood look laminate and the walls a creamy white.
We originally planned on painting the cabinets all one color. She was leaning toward French Linen, which is a warm, grey tone. There was plenty of natural light to handle the darker cabinet color. After much discussion, we decided to go for it and two-tone the cabinets.
I think is was the right way to go. It gives the cabinets a more "custom" finish and adds character. The Old Ochre and French Linen are picked up in the counter top color as well as the black veining that lead us to choose the black hardware.
We sprayed the cabinet doors with about 2 coats of paint and I brushed out the final coat and a half. I hand painted all the boxes (the customer was kind enough to take care of all the cleaning and masking) and applied 2 coats of Clear Soft Wax to the entire kitchen, and a third coat to higher use areas. It took about 5 days to complete the job-mostly due to dry/cure time for the paint & wax. She is thrilled with the outcome and I have to say it is a HUGE improvement! Chalk Paint® is fantastic for this type of project. Krud Kutter was used to clean the cabinets and I did a light sanding of the doors due to some flaking clear coat. That was it for prep! Oak tends to take more paint due to the grain. We allocated 2 quarts of each color and had a surprising amount of paint left.
I finished up just in time to set the table for Easter breakfast. Now that is over I can put the drop cloth back down and get to work on some small pieces for the shop!
