I am one of those people who constantly has to be working on something. Don't get me wrong, I spend quite a lotof time in bed watching TV, but I always have to have some kind of project in the works at any given time. In my last post we talked about me getting out of bed at 11 PM and starting to rip out our vinyl flooring, which I gave up on and decided to leave that to a professional... Until I get bored again ;) Instead, I decided to purchase the Rust-oleum cabinet transformations kit in pure white- I am such a victim of Pinterest. After reading a ton of reviews I figured "what could go wrong?!"
I started by pulling the doors off of the cabinets. Of course I happened to strip three of the screws, which made my husband have little faith in my restoration ability. The kit itself was about 70 bucks at Home Depot. I had them mix the color for me, as the box instructed- make sure to read that fine print, people!
I took the cabinet doors into the garage and got to work.
Step 1: The Deglosser coat strips the cabinet of shine, dirt, and grease. My cabinets weren't very dirty so it didn't take much elbow grease, but I've read a lot of reviews saying people spent 15 minutes on each door! I only spent about 2. I thought it was fairly easy.
Step 2: I had the bond coat mixed in pure white, and I painted it on each cabinet going with the woodgrain. Make sure you do this! There are some tiny areas where I didn't and you can definitely see it! I think I ended up doing 4 coats to get a good solid white color. I put only 3 coats on the inside of each door.
You can still see the woodgrain! Hooray! I was so worried that they would not look like wood once I did this project; we have builders grade oak in our home and it's very sturdy and surprisingly good quality. I'm glad you can still tell it's real!
Step 3: I wasn't sure if I wanted to use the decorative glaze. On the box, and on the instructional DVD that comes with the kit, it looks really good. It looks like a distressed, shabby chic type of thing. Not so much in real life. You're supposed to put the decorative glaze on in very thin layers and immediately wipe off with a clean piece of cheesecloth, included in the kit. This is what I ended up with:
That is NOT hot. I am very into things looking a tiny bit rustic, but not overkill. This was overkill. My husband hates anything looking country or unfinished, he's so into that sleek modern stainless steel look. I knew this wasn't going to fly, for either of us. Luckily, I had tested it on the inside of one of the doors so I was able to go back over it with the bond coat and turn it back white.
Step 4: The protective glaze/topcoat is like a milky color, which is good for the bright white cabinets.
I had read that this is one of the hardest steps of this process, but I didn't find it to be hard at all. Make sure you're using a synthetic brush because real brushes tend to leave hairs behind in the paint. This coat tends to bubble, which you do not want, and a foam brush would only make those bubbles worse.
It's very glossy at first, but it dries really quickly so you have to make sure to get out any bubbles or fibers right away. I had some teeny tiny bubbles that seemed to disappear overnight.
Then it was time to do the whole cabinet face- this seemed to take a thousand coats! What a hot mess. However, the results? FANTASTIC! See for yourself:
After three coats.
The final product!
And with the new tile :)
The Bottom Line: Would I use the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Kit again?
Because I have so much leftover, sure. But my girlfriend did her cabinets in black paint with just a bonding coat underneath and they look great too. The kit took a good four-five coats, which I wasn't wild about, but the final look is beautiful. So it's completely up to you!
I had a ton of the paint kit left over, so I did a dresser while I was at it! Knobs are from Cost Plus!
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