a dramatic kitchen

I had a client contact me to help in updating her kitchen. They’d just moved in a new (to them) house and couldn’t take the faded yellow maple cabinetry (can’t say that I blame her really). While we are both thrilled with the results of this dramatic kitchen, I did it differently than I have done cabinets before, and won’t do parts of it like this again.

Here is where we started:

They wanted a particular color and the paint brand they chose is one I am not quite a fan of. So I had their chosen color custom mixed at the local paint store. When I chatted with the store employees about the specifics of the project, I was talked into an alkyd “hybrid” paint and told that while the longer dry time (SIXTEEN HOURS between coats) was a little tricky, the enamel-like finish when fully cured was worth it (told in person and on can- full cure was 4-5 days- real life? it’s truly closer to 30). After consulting with my client, we decided we would head down this route and dove in head first.

Pulled all the doors off:

Day one was all about cleaning, scuffing and priming… grey primer was used because the paint color was a dark brown.

I even managed to get the first coat on those boxes…

Day two I got a second coat done… and that is kind of where the efficiency ends. I don’t have photos, but the coverage was not at all what I was accustomed to or expected from this brand. It took three coats in many spots and then I had to come back and glaze. (remember 16 hrs dry time between coats). Then the doors and drawers…

Ugh.. the doors and drawers…. there were 56 of them. When you have to do 4 coats on each side, that’s 8 days of painting. BEFORE the glaze! (glaze only took 5 hours to dry between coats.. but needed two of them on each side). I can’t tell you how grateful I was the client was so understanding. Literally watching and waiting for paint to dry feels painful at times- this is certainly one of them.

It was finally finished and I think the end result is quite a dramatic kitchen…. I gave you some after in a couple different lighting styles so you can see the color and glazing.

The really neat thing is that with the way they did the backsplash and the light countertops, the dramatic kitchen space is not dark and still feels very open. It was a huge job and over all the end result is great. I can’t recommend Alkyd paints though… not for cabinets. Maybe walls as I have had pro painters tell me it’s amazing for that… but I don’t know that I will ever try this one again.

What do you think of the transformation? Pretty dramatic, huh?