Exhausted, but Happy

It all started innocently enough. The big dude was humoring my need to shop through all the little quaint stores in Occoquan, Virginia - land of the little country store. I was in a really cute place called Personally Yours with all manner of americana decor and in the very back of the third floor we happened to spy a display of Caromal Colours paint. I was curious and when I read the description was impressed to see that no sanding is needed and it will paint over anything - really anything?? Hmmm.

A few weeks later I picked up a jar of paint and refinished my half bath cabinet in one night - I'm saving that one for another post. But I liked the paint so much I decided it might just be possible to tackle my kitchen cabinets after all.

You see, years ago when we lived in Barrington, NH and M was just a baby, I did the whole kitchen painting remodel thing where you take off all the doors, sand the hell out of everything, and paint it, and sand it again, and paint it, etc.. only to get it all back together and have it start chipping in the first week. It was most definitely a "never again" project...so exhausting. So I was not exactly jumping at the chance to take on another kitchen paint job but I was also told by the ogre "no new kitchen", so was starting to feel a tad desperate. The paint I used is for rustic finishes, in fact I think that is what gives it it's durability. Caromal Colours does not feel like latex, nor does it smell like it. The finish is drier and almost powdery to the touch. It dries really fast so you have to work pretty quickly, but it is the most durable finish I've worked with.

With the need to go rustic I decided a French Country look would work well with my house and was something I liked myself. Normally I would go for something a bit more modern, I tend to like traditional mixed with modern and antique elements, but the paint was the driving force here so I was going full out French Country - roosters, toile and all.

We started the project by washing the cabinets down with a solution of TSP and letting it dry. We did not remove the doors and we did not sand anything!! My skilled laborer created trim boxes for the cabinet ends to give them a more finished look. We were lucky enough to find small moldings that mimicked the cabinet door detail. After that we taped off everything with painters tape and we were good to go.

Caromal Colours does not go on like a smooth coat paint, it is more of a mishing and mashing of the brush. You can make it more or less refined depending on how you like it, I tried for more refined. After two coats of paint I then antiqued the cabinets with a combination of hand sanding and electric with my mouse sander - for me this is the fun part. I find I start off pretty conservative and get more aggressive as I go, necessitating some backtracking to even things up. After the sanding I applied a toner which is essentially a wood stain that goes over the paint and sanded bits to give depth and tea stain everything. This was my most challenging part as it dries quickly and you have to brush it on, then wipe it off to the color and look you want. I stumbled a bit during this part but all in all it turned out well.

Here is the finished look. We really love it, so much prettier than what it was before. At some point we plan on switching out the appliances to all stainless steel and get new dining chairs because the ones we are using are borrowed from the dining room.

From Kitchen Remodel

From Kitchen Remodel

If you want more pictures, click on the slide show below: