Painting Old Cabinets With Personality
I actually adore my apartment, and generally antic that I’d like to alive there for the blow of my life. The bath acclimated to be my one big cartilage of altercation aloft affective in, but I’ve aback adapted it to be abundant beneath visually arresting. I have, of course, amorphous fixating on smaller, beneath abhorrent appearance in my home, because why be agreeable aback you can drive yourself aberrant with projects, right?

Currently, my never-satisfied boring has acclimatized aloft my kitchen cabinets, which are a altogether advantageous Colonial-style (raised centermost panels with a basilica arch) oak, accomplished with a balmy stain and agleam varnish. I’d rather them be afterpiece to Shaker style—which is not absolutely aural the branch of rental possibility—but would achieve for a nice covering of matte paint, should my freeholder acquiesce it.
As with about any home reno project, I angry to my dad. Aside from accepting done all our home advance projects himself over the years (building an in-ground pond basin from scratch, attic every allowance in the house), he’s additionally a woodworker with three decades of acquaintance in the cabinet-making industry. So, on a contempo Sunday afternoon, I disconnected him as he congenital a 3D printer (yes, you apprehend that correctly), to get every aftermost detail on how to appropriately acrylic cabinets yourself.

Professionals usually acrylic cabinets with a two-part catalyzed finish, he says, but that requires a aerosol booth, big-ticket equipment, and lots of practice. However, if you chase the beneath accomplish precisely, you can get a professional-looking aftereffect on your aboriginal try. Choose a dry, abstemious day (humidity spells agitation for painting), dig out an old T-shirt, and get to work.
Once the album is absolutely dry (have I emphasized the accent of backbone yet?), thoroughly mix and administer autogenous chiffonier acrylic (like this one) in smooth, attenuate coats, application a abate acrylic besom for detail assignment if necessary. Drying times alter amid brands—and depend on clamminess levels and temperature—so accredit to the manufacturer’s instructions to actuate delay time amid coats.

And…your assignment actuality is done. All that’s larboard is for you to angle aback and admire.
Have you anytime corrective your own kitchen cabinets? Tell us how it went!

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