Happy Wednesday, my friends! Today is day 3 of the Butler’s Pantry painting project and I admit the fumes are starting to get to me. Oil based primers are pungent! But, little by little we are getting there. Want to see our progress thus far?
Brad and I started on the Butler’s Pantry painting project bright and early Monday morning. With a rainy forecast all week, we figured it was the perfect time to stay indoors and tackle this project! To see the whole back story of the Butler’s Pantry you can go here: Butler’s Pantry Remodel Project!
If you can recall, this is where we started: The pantry cabinets are beautiful and high-end, but the cabinets in this area of the room and in the laundry area, are two different colors and styles. Plus, we wanted to add two more cabinets for extra storage. Ultimately painting the cabinets were a must.
First we removed all of the doors, drawers and labeled each one. We ended up drawing a diagram of the room and labeling each door and drawer sequentially. As we removed the metal cabinet hardware/hinges, we used a Sharpie permanent marker to label each number in the hole. Then we placed the coordinating hardware back in the cabinet space from which it came. We are hoping this will make it easy to reinstall the doors. In theory. Here are the doors lined up in the garage with the first coat of primer.
In case you are curious, there are 26 cabinet doors and 7 drawers.
We taped off the ceiling, floors and walls with paint tape. Then we were off! We ended up using two coats of Kilz oil- based primer on all of the cabinet surfaces because we started with such a dark base. We had the doors and windows open despite the chilly weather because the fumes are so strong. We did get a quote for painting the cabinets in this room and it was about $3500. We thought it was crazy at the time, but now I’m starting to understand why. This is a TEDIOUS project. This is after one coat of primer. Obviously it will take two coats.
Two coats of primer did the trick. After this coat, we lightly sanded the rough spots.
And here’s how it looks after two coats of paint! Woo-Hoo! I love it! The paint color looks white in the pictures, but it is actually a creamy beige that matches the trim in the rest of the house. The color, by Benjamin Moore, is called Smokey Taupe.
After the paint dried, we put the warming drawer back into place. At least something is done!
Today my husband bought an electric paint sprayer. I can not tell you how excited he is to use this thing! He even read the directions. (Sort of.) Tomorrow we will sand the backs of the doors and set up our paint station. The plan is to make a painting “tent” inside the garage so we can spray the doors and drawer fronts. If the weather would cooperate we could do it outside, but that’s not happening and we need to get this project done asap.
Meanwhile, I’m really pleased with our progress, albeit slow. Here’s the area over the washer/dryer. Doesn’t the lighter color make such a huge difference? I can’t tell you how much I love it!
This area has changed most dramatically. Before, the cabinets sat on top of the granite leaving little useable work space. To remedy the situation and make this room more functional, the carpenter added a bottom to the cabinets and raised them all the way to the ceiling. He built two new cabinets and replaced all of the crown moulding. We added under the cabinet lighting, new chandeliers and now it’s painted! Almost there!
Hopefully we can get the doors and drawers primed and painted tomorrow and re-install them by Friday. The hardware in the room doesn’t match either. The knobs in the washer/dryer area are different from the rest of the room. Since we are trying to make the Butler’s Pantry seem more cohesive, we’d like for them to match. (More specifically, I want them to match.) The solution may be to use the existing drawer handles on the cabinet doors, and purchase pulls for the drawers in the same finish. At any rate, it’s almost done! Hallelujah! Just in time for the holidays!
Here are a few more before and after pictures. On the left you can see the original light fixtures and how the cabinets were lower. In the photo on the right you can see the new double chandeliers and how the cabinets are raised to the ceiling. Plus you can see the new cabinet. (in white on the upper right) We are SO excited about the extra space!
And the before and after of the cabinets. We are thrilled with our extra counter space now! And once the cabinets doors are painted and put back into place, we will be ready to tile the back splash! Yippee!
And what a difference in the Butler’s Pantry with the under-the-counter lighting, new chandeliers and lighter paint! It makes my heart SO happy!
We are down for the count. It has been a LONG day! I hope you have a lovely evening. Thank you for stopping by! I love it when you do! xoxo Dell