I have been very frustrated that other blogs have introduced the idea of a Shaker kitchen cabinet update and then provided next to NO details on how to do it. No mention of what wood, what thickness, what width strips, how they cut it, what type of adhesive they used. Nothing. Very frustrating.

So for better or worse, I’m going to provide excrutiating detail of what I do with this Shaker kitchen cabinet update. I will tell you what I do and whether it works or not.

The paint

Since I want the paint to bind really well to the cabinets my plan is to err way on the side of caution with drying time.

I put the primer on yesterday, so I allowed the cabinets to dry overnight before painting.

After reading the post at Young House Love on cabinet painting I purchased Benjamin Moore’s Fresh Start Primer and Benjamin Moore’s Advance Waterborne Interior Alkyd Paint – Satin Finish. The primer went on yesterday and I applied the first coat of paint today. For both primer and paint I’m working with a mohair blend roller for the smoothest finish possible.

I followed the same routine I used for the primer written up in a previous post. The primer had allowed a lot of the green paint on the cabinets to show through, but this first coat of paint finally covered it up. I was not sorry to say goodbye to the green paint.

I am hoping I can get by with 2 coats of paint over the primer, but will do a 3rd coat if it’s needed to cover well. I will allow a lot of drying time between coats (more than specified on the can) to make sure I get good adhesion.

First coat

Here’s how the cabinets are looking after a coat of primer and one coat of paint. The can says 16 hours drying time — I gave it 24 hours.

Second Coat

I took a day off to let my hands recover. Between the split skin on my thumbs from all the drywall work and the oops cut I added today when carving the polystyrene I think my hands need a day off to recover. It would give the paint more time to dry.

 

The second coat looks great. Note how nice the trim I added at the top of the cabinets looks with a coat of paint on it 🙂 It all looked good enough that I pushed the stove and refrigerator back even though I feel I need to put another coat on the bottoms of the upper cabinets. I’ve been laying on the counters to do that so the appliances won’t make a difference.

So far I’m happy with what I chose to paint. I think painting the front edges of the shelves in the upper cabinets is going to give them a great appearance when the doors are open.

I do think I will roll a third coat of paint on the fronts of all the cabinets because I’m applying such thin coats.

Now if I can find someone to help me cut the wood I need to make-over the door and drawer fronts. So far I’m not having any luck. I’ve started wondering if I should just them white as is and see how that looks.