DAY 5-Kitchen Cabinet Painting Project

Wed. June 15th, 2011

This is about the time in the project when it's not fun anymore and you just want it to be done. Although I have to say, I haven't felt stressed or rushed since I have basically 9 days and no big party to throw afterwards. 

Surprisingly, I've been enjoying it! 

Until today. Today I encountered frustrations, mishaps and disagreements.

Late start today as I think I had a headache from the fumes. After dropping off K and my usual DD run,  I stopped at Home Depot to pick up some more sanding blocks and some more cheap, throwaway brushes. I decided to try the foam brushes as well for the 2nd coat to see if that would help with the brush strokes. 

I had to do a little work and then I finally started around 10am or so. However, I got distracted by the 2 fighter jets flying around in circles above the house.  Not sure what that was about? Of course I took video.  Maybe they were after that small plane?  maybe it was just a test flight?  i don't know.  I'm sure we'll never know.

 Finally, I first inspected everything to see how the Brushing Putty did and then started sanding the 2 test doors and 2 test drawer.

HERE are 3 VIDEOS, hopefully you can see?

As you heard, I have mixed emotions about the FPE Brushing Putty.  In some areas it's "Wow" and "smooth as glass".  Then,  in some areas you can still see grain or brush strokes. Now, the FPE guy did say I would probably need 2 coats. However, for as expensive as this stuff is, I thought it would be the miracle solution to fill the grains.  In my experience, it DOES work better than just primer and paint (of the ones I used).   

However, it's REALLY thick (hence the name putty) so its more difficult to work with than regular paint. 

(BTW, if you are new to this and didn't know, you CLICK ON any of the PICS in the blog, you can view them bigger)

I guess it's all about quickness before it gets tacky, putting it on thick and brush stroke. SEE PIC ABOVE.

  For a DIYer, that is hard.  Although, this isn't my first time painting. 

However, so far it's coming out MUCH better than my bathroom cabinet experiment where I believe I did TSP, sanded, 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint (I think?)  At least better for a first coat than the primer and 2 coats of paint.

HERE is a video and some pictures of my downstairs bathroom test cabinet that i mentioned in the videos and above.  I did this in December before Kaitlyn's 1st Bday. The videos and pictures make it look shiner, but it doesn't look that way. And, you don't really notice the grain unless you REALLY look, or are just anal like me. I don't know, it just bothers me.  It's fine for this cabinet as we are eventually going to toss it, so I just used it as a test and to freshen up the look of the downstairs bathroom the best I could.

Hence,  it's why I researched online and came across the Fine Paints of Europe Brushing Putty.  I thought it would be the ultimate solve!  And, it is, sort of.  I guess I just have to see after a 2nd coat of the Putty, 1 coat of Primer and 2-3 coats of paint.

For a 1st coat, I guess it DOES cover very good, knowing at least 3-4 other coats will be on top of it.  

I'm being anal and a perfectionist, I know.  I drive my own self crazy.  ;o)

I guess I just need to relax and realize that the fact is:

• I AM painting cabinets and they aren't brand new professionally painted cabinets.  
• b/c they are Oak (which is the worst cabinet to paint b/c they are so grainy and porous) I may never completely get rid of the grain.  
• I'm doing a better job then most people, so they won't look shitty and hopefully our realtor will like them as when I mentioned that we may paint our cabinets, he sort of cringed. He just said "I've just seen a lot of bad paint jobs". (we aren't selling our house, we just had our realtor come by 6-8 months ago to give us his opinion on what our house may be worth since we want to refinance)
• They will look fine, and no one else will give a rats ass about it but me and any professional cabinet painter that happens to come to my house.  ;o)

 ANYWHO....

I went on to sand all the faces. The 220 grit angled sanding blocks worked well. I even used the 150 sometimes if there were drip spots were bumps may show.

Then I marked the areas with blue painters tape where a 2nd coat would be good.   

Then, after Hubby told me I didn't need a 2nd coat on the ends, I went ahead and did it anyway.  ;o)

All was fine with the 2nd coat and then something BAD happened.

This is what it looked like before I put on the 2nd coat.

Then, after the 2nd coat....well, there are no pictures, as that is where I got frustrated and walked outside for some air.  I then decided to get hubby involved and tell hubby "ok, I know you said not to touch this panel, but I did anyway (of course), but I don't know why it's doing this?  You were right."

Then it turned UGLY and into arguing.

It was doing this bubbling/globbing thing, but ONLY on this 1 cabinet.  (much later it did it minimally on a few other areas, but not as bad.  This is what it looked like, but it was probably over 1/2 of this panel.)

At 1st I thought it was just brush strokes at 1st, so I added more BP, and then it kept doing it.  So I thought, maybe it's dust or just when the paint sits too long it tends to glob.  Then,  "Maybe it's this crappy brush and the parts of the brush are coming off".  I don't know, I had to walk away.  

I decided to tell Hubby and he came to look at it and said I put too much on (the can specifically says to put it on thick) or that maybe it was wet underneath (it dried for the 16 hours and I was able to sand it and it wasn't wet or tacky).  So, the argument ensued.  

I just kept thinking maybe that panel in particular had something wrong with it that made it react funny, since at that time, NONE of the other panels did it. and, it was the only panel that I had used the brush on. I went back to the foam brush after it started doing that.

Anyway, finally, he said it would have to be scraped off.  So, he did that.  If you touch it, it was actually still smooth. so, we're just going to leave this one, and see how it turns out with just primer and paint.

I continued with my 2nd coat touch up and decided I would return these really cheap brushes to Home Depot, in case that was part of the problem. 

I didn't use these on 1st coat, I used these.  So I'll probably just get more of this level/brand.

Then, Hubby went out to look for the crown molding to go on top of the cabinets, as we might as well spray those with the sprayer while we're at it. NO Brushing Putty for those!

Peace and quiet.

It was a sunny, 70 degree and dry, CA-like day and it was shady, so I went on the back porch to scuff - sand all the doors and drawer fronts.  I was speeding along and focused and blew through 14 doors/drawer fronts in 1 hour.  I had about 7 more left Hubby and K came home and it took me an hour to do the rest of those.  sidetracked.

 I used the palm sander for the flat parts of fronts and backs.  Then touched up with angled sand blocks.  (GET THE ANGLED SAND BLOCKS) You need to use the sand blocks if you have grooves in your doors.  A PIA, but you just need to get into a rhythm, with the grooves and all.  BOTH sides of doors need to be scuff -sanded.  Backs will only get primer and paint, not BP.

Also, I when you sand into the grooves, more grime may come that the TSP didn't get out and get stuck in corners.  Use a screwdriver, push pin, whatever, to help get more out. Then brush away with toothbrush.

Remember, NO dust or grime.

Instead of vacumming, I just lightly dropped each panel face down on the deck to tap the dust out. Worked great!  Then, I just need to use the tack cloth/damp lint-free rag to get the rest off.
Hanging the door off the edge of table to sand the edges worked well with the angled brush, and then you just spin to each side.  Again, a rhythm of what works.

Tomorrow I'll sand 2nd coat of all the cabinet faces.
Then Hubby will get the sprayer out and spray on the primer.  While he's doing that, I'll wipe all the dust off all the doors I sanded, and then apply 1st coat of BP to those!  Yippee. 


We figured if we can get the cabinet boxes done first, we can start to get our kitchen in some sort of order in the next few days.  The doors I can just do in a spray booth in the garage or on tables (for the BP party).

And, look, about 6 weeks in, our grass is green and growing. Some bare spots still, and weeds popping up. But, we need to wait a few more weeks before we can add more weed killer.
(oh, Hubby decided he needed to mow the lawn when he came home, so I had to shut all the windows to not get more dust in...thus suffering in the fumes for 1/2 hour.)