How To Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets

Painting the kitchen cabinets was one of those projects that’s been on my to-do list since we first stepped foot in the house. I guess to some people (Eli, my family, and coworkers – y'know, just to name a few) painting new cabinets sounds silly. Yes, they’re in perfect condition. Yes, the shaker style is modern. Yes, the color of the cabinets "goes with the floors" (OMG, do you think that’s why they chose this floor stain?!)  

Sorry, back to what I was saying – the cabinets were fine; the oak was just crampin’ mah style. All the wood felt very dark and heavy in a kitchen with zero natural light. I spent weeks – nay, MONTHS – showing Eli pictures of white kitchens on Pinterest (which was thrilling for him, obviously). I was trying to prove it was worth the effort, but instead I proved that natural sunlight beaming on countertops always looks lovely -__-  Do you know how hard it is to find a windowless kitchen on Pinterest for fair comparison?! It’s an exercise in futility. You could turn it into a game if you're really bored, but the judge has to be a photographer who can spot the window cropped out of the frame because there is always a window out of frame. I believe this one and that one are the only kitchens I ever found…

Nevertheless, I eventually made my case and one Saturday morning not so long ago we got to work. If you're following along on Instagram than you already knew this! I selected a bright white from Benjamin Moore called Chantilly Lace for the upper cabinets and a light gray called Nightengale for the lowers to complement our dark purplish/blackish countertops. I thought white would be too stark butting up to the counters and gray would be too dark on top – so two colors it was! In any other house I would opt for a much deeper gray on bottom for higher contrast, but with our space I worried a dark gray would totally dominate the small first floor. In retrospect, I probably could have gone a shade deeper, but don’t tell Eli I said so! ;)

The space feels much brighter and bigger now! Of course, paint was just the first step so this isn't a true "After" photo. We plan to add tile backsplash, under cabinet lighting, refinish the floors, and the fridge wall still has big transformations coming its way, too!

But as kitchen renovations go, painting the cabinets is the biggest bang for your buck. At less than $300 it wasn’t chump change like I thought it would be, but it was way more palatable than the thousands of dollars typically sunk into kitchen renos. Honestly it would have been cheaper had I not spent almost $50 on paint samples just to decide the colors and then when I chose 2 colors having to double supplies like paint, rollers, and trays.

I could type all day about choosing the right grit for your doors and the wipeability of semi-gloss vs. satin finishes, but wouldn't a how-to video be so much more fun? Take a gander, and I'll include some more details at the bottom of the post for the book worms in the house.

Yes, "If you like the video, like it." Gah – Newbie on camera alert! I meant like it on my new Youtube channel! If you need me I'll be spending the foreseeable future doing Ron Burgandy vocal exercises and practicing my non-regional diction. Huge thanks to my (literal) homeboy Eli for putting together the video! 

If you're still dying for more details, here's a supply list and some tips not mentioned in the video. Feel free to ask questions in the comment section, and I'll do my best to answer them!

Here’s what we used:

• Power drill
• Orbital hand sander ($60) & detail hand sander (had this already)
• 220 grit paper for the hand sanders 
• 80 grit and 220 grit sanding blocks – $4 each
• Liquid Sanding Deglosser – $7
• Plastic Tarp & painter's tape to quarantine the kitchen – $10
• Tarp zipper (optional splurge) – $10
• Builders paper or dropcloth for the floor – $11
•  1 gallon of Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Water-Based Primer (only used half the can) – $20
•  1 gallon of Benjamin Moore Advance semi-gloss paint in Chantilly Lace (only needed half a gallon but store was out of quart cans, so they gave me the contractor discount) – $43
• 1 gallon of Benjamin Moore Advance semi-gloss paint in Nightengale (again, only needed half a gallon) – $43
• 2” angled brush (one for each us) – $7 each
• 4” paint roller (one for each us) – $5 each
• 4” foam rollers (we went through 12, and I’m still kicking myself for using woven instead of foam) – $3 each
• Mini paint trays (we went through 6) – $2 each

Some tips we picked up during this DIY: 

• Number your doors and hardware

We numbered our doors and drawer fronts in the hole left by removing the hardware and preserved the label with painters tape. Then we drew a quick-n-dirty reference map of the kitchen to keep track of what went where. We also collected the hardware for each cabinet in its own baggie labeled with the corresponding number. 

• Careful with the tape

We put down builder paper to protect the floors and put up a tarp wall to protect the living room, but the tape (both painters and gaffers)  ripped up bits of the floor finish here and there. How ironic, right? Weirdo that I am, I was actually happy about this because i think it means sanding will be easy when we go to refinish the floors!

• Use a sander that hooks up to a vaccum

The orbital sander is the bomb. It's faster and more effective than the mouse hand sander, but arguably it's best feature is that it hooks up to a shop-vac to minimize dust. That was half the reason I got a second sander because I knew we'd have a huge mess on our hands. If you do get the orbital sander, I'd recommend practicing with it on a big wood scrap or something you don't care about before sanding anything precious. I bought it minutes before we started this project and was terrified of ruining the cabinets, so I stuck with the sander I knew and let Eli handle the orbital.

• Keep an eye on the door edges

Any excess paint around the edge of a door can turn into a drip that adheres the door to the builder paper. There were a couple instances where we had to do touchup sanding and painting because of this.

• Give yourself time and use thin layers

Painting your cabinets is a lot like painting your nails. Thin coats and adequate drying time are really the secret. This whole project took us 7 days, but we should have allotted 9. We painted one coat per day (prime front, prime back, 1st coat of paint on front, 2nd coat of paint on front, 1st coat of paint on back, 2nd coat of paint on back), but the fronts really needed 36 to 48 hours to cure before flipping them over to do the backs. Because we rushed it, the paper stuck to the paint in a couple places and we had to touch it up. Also keep in mind that we saved a bunch of time and effort by sticking with the same hardware and painting our cabinets while they were still in perfect condition. These two conditions meant we didn't have to fill in holes with wood filler or deal with the anxiety of drilling new holes in freshly painted cabinets. 

Anything else you want to know? Leave me a question in the comments below! And if you paint your cabinets I'd love to see them – just tag them as #CabinetRefresh!  

There's still a lot to do in this room, but it feels so good to finally cross this big project off my list! What do you guys think I should do for the tile backsplash? And I'm all ears on suggestions for floor stains! I'm considering options all over the board, from dark brown to white wash and even gray. Lay it on me!

Happy Fourth of July – Let There Be Light!

I hope y'all are having a crazy fun holiday! (or recovering from all the excitement if it's now Monday) Last week I shared how I built a knock-off West Elm headboard and I didn't even mention my bed's fancy new earrings. The nerve!

They’re new, made by Kenroy Home, and I’m so happy they’re here. Especially since this is what we were rockin' before:

Those mismatched lamps have been traveling with me from apartment to apartment since college, but their ramblin’ days are over. And that white conehead on the right is a sunrise simulator to peel me out of bed in the dark winter mornings. Thank God it's now summer, the sun is shining, that ugly monstrosity is stashed out of sight, and I got me some bedside bling!

Bedside sconces are a great option for small bedrooms because they don't take up any real estate. They're like a top-notch waiter at a really nice restaurant – so good you almost forget they're there (except magically your water glass is full, the crumbs on the table have disappeared, and you feel like royalty). Yes, sconces are just like that. If you don't have space for a big nightstand (or any nightstand at all), you can hang a stylish light fixture and save room for other nighttime necessities. No fumbling under a big lamp shade to turn them on and off, either – just function and polish. 

Speaking of lampshades and polish, I picked up this pro-tip from Emily Henderson when E & I were working on set for the Suite Style Contest: fabric shades are preferable to metal ones in the bedroom because they diffuse light for a relaxing ambience, whereas metal creates a very directional light that's better for reading. By this time my light fixtures had already been sitting in my living room for, oh, 2 months. No matter. It makes total sense and you can put that tip to good use but it was too late for me – I'm a lost cause who is (gratefully) still happy with my metal accordion lights. Here are some other sconces I was considering:

1. West Elm Accordion  |  2. Etsy Brass Scissor Sconce  |  3. West Elm Lens Sconce  |  4. Crate & Barrel Jax White Sconce  |  5. Vivianne Gold Brass  |  6. Addison Pharmacy Swing Arm Lamp

Installing these lights was a super quick update – we knocked it out in less than an hour and still had time to catch the season finale of GOT before bed. There are just four steps: Position, Secure, Cover and Plug. 

1. Position that puppy

We decided where we wanted them by taking turns holding them up on the wall. Very scientific – I know. They needed to be high enough to provide some reading light, easy to reach from bed, and centered over our nightstands. Once we found the spot, I marked it on the wall with a pencil and we moved on to step 2.

2. Secure it to the wall

The mounting hardware included with our light was a circular plate with two screws. I positioned it so the screws would be level and marked the holes we'd need to drill. The headboard was hogging all the studs, so we had to use drywall anchors for these guys. We drilled pilot holes, placed the anchors and came back with the wood screws included in the packaging. Before tightening them down all the way, we busted out the level again to check our work. The mounting plate gave us some wiggle room to adjust once the screws were in – love good product design. Then we tightened down the screws, slide the fixture onto the plate, and fastened it with two ball bearings. 

3. Cut  Cover the cord

There's nothing like a jankity plastic cord to ruin a good thing. Our sconces came with cord covers (not all do), which are essentially two tunnel-like strips that fit together like a Russian doll. One piece attaches to the wall, the cord lays inside the tunnel, and the second piece slides over the first to hide it all. You can always pick these up at Lowes or Home Depot for a couple bucks if they didn’t come with your light, and I imagine you could spray paint them to mimic whatever finish you’ve got goin’ on. To make sure these were perpendicular to the nightstand, parallel to the headboard, and centered under the light, we enclosed the cord with the two covers before attaching anything to the wall. Then we got the level out again and did all of our positioning & marking before drilling any holes. Once we had our mark, we removed the front cover, moved the cord aside and screwed the base in. Tada. 

4. Light it up!

We have a conveniently located outlet behind the bed, which was already home to a power strip for plugging in our phones. We added these guys to the electrical party and shared an epic, across-the-bed, slow-motion hi-five. BAM!

Going to bed feels so much more luxurious when you're not banging your shins on the corner of the bedframe. 

How to Build a West Elm Knock-Off Upholstered Headboard

When I started telling my friends that we bought a house, the most common reaction was, “Whoa – you guys are grown ups now.” Nay, friends! I didn't become a grown up until I got a real headboard and solid wood bed frame (that you can look under and not find my old ballet shoes and Pink Floyd tees).

I’d been eying this beauty from West Elm for a while, but like I said – I wasn’t quite a grown up (or fabulously wealthy) yet so I just didn't feel OK forking out $600 for a headboard or $350 for this bed frame. It's no wonder my generation still uses metal bed frames that you have to hide under a bedskirt. You can pay a grand after taxes to get the bed of your dreams, or you can pay $10 to the grad student on Craigslist for a bed that serves the same purpose! 

What is a bed frame & headboard other than some wood screwed together, really?! (I learned it’s a little more than that ... foreshadowing ... ) So I decided we'd build that dream bed for less than $200, or my name isn’t Chloe Joy. I took to Pinterest, which is in no short supply of upholstered headboard tutorials – the hard part is choosing which one to follow. They all look something like this: 

1. Cut wood ,   2. Cover with something cushiony ,    3. Add fabric

Other things to consider include: desired shape, cushion material (foam or batting, or foam + batting), type of fabric, decorative details (like tufts or nailhead trim), and installation method.

Here's what I used:

• 1 sheet of MDF – 4 ft. x 8ft. x 5/8" thick board cut to 63 inches wide x 40 inches tall – $35
• 2 in. x 4 in. x 6 ft. – $3
• 1.5 in. wood screws – $7
• 3 in. wood screws – $9
• 10 yards of polyester batting – $15
• 2 yards of duck canvas fabric – $14
• Staple gun & staples – $21
• 15 yards of nailhead trim (in antique gold finish) – $45
• Rubber mallet (or a jerry-rigged version – more on that later)

Step 1: Tape your desired shape on the wall

The West Elm headboard I chose is a simple rectangle – hardly a coincidence. I knew it would make my life easier when building it, and it had the added bonuses of being a little more masculine and unlikely to go out of style any time soon. Even with a simple silhouette, it helped to outline the shape on the wall above my bed with painters tape. This allowed me to fiddle with the dimensions by moving the tape up or down until I felt like the proportions were right. I relied on the West Elm specifications for queen-sized headboards to determine it should be 63 inches wide, which leaves an inch or so of overhang on either side of your mattress. As for the height, Eli and I took turns sitting on the bed and pretending to lean back on our "headboard" to make sure it was a comfortable height for both tall and not so tall persons to rest their heads. 

Step 2: Create the frame

I picked up a 4 ft. x 8 ft. sheet of MDF from Home Depot and had them cut it to be 63 in. wide. If I'd been smarter I would have written down both the width AND height and had the guys cut it to spec. Alas, I had to pull out the circular saw and sawhorses to finish my cuts when I got home. From the leftovers, I cut 4 additional pieces – one for each edge of the frame – that I then screwed to the main board with 1.5 in. wood screws, making the outside edges flush. This gives the illusion of a thicker, more substantial hunk o' wood when you catch a side view of the headboard but it doesn't add much extra weight or $$.

Step 3: Prep your hanging mechanism

I decided we would hang this headboard on the wall with a French cleat instead of trying to attach it to the bed frame. Gotta come clean here – I had no idea what a french cleat was before this project. Turns out it's a rudimentary way to hang heavy things, like cabinets or headboards. We cut a 2 x 4 x 6 down to 5 ft. long – a few inches shy of our headboard's width – and then halved it longways at a 45 degree angle. Our circular saw has an adjustable blade that can be tilted to make cuts on an angle. We carefully cut this angle down the entire length of the board. This gives us two long pieces of wood that fit together like a puzzle....or like a french cleat. We attached one half to the back of the frame (same side as the other scrap pieces) and the other half would be attached to the wall later. Notice that the 2 x 4 comes out further than edge pieces of MDF. If you decide you want to make your headboard much thicker than mine,  just make sure that the 2 x 4 will reach the wall before the back of the headboard does when you go to hang it. Our MDF was 5/8 in. thick, so we used 1.5 in. long wood screws and made sure that the pizza slice edge pointed down and away from the frame. I tried to make sure this board was level, but it was tricky because the 2 x 4 wasn't perfectly straight to begin with and I knew I could make small adjustments when positioning the other piece on the wall.

Step 4: Add batting

Many tutorials suggest using foam for cushion, which is certainly the higher quality choice, but I was going for cost effectiveness here. A big piece of thick, high quality foam could have cost anywhere from $60 to $160, whereas this large roll of batting only cost me $15. To compensate, I used six layers of it. You heard me right – SIX! I rolled the first layer out on a clean rug, laid the frame facing down, and wrapped the batting around the edges, stapling it to the back. It gets harder with each subsequent layer to find space to staple...and harder to staple through all the batting into the actual frame. Hindsight is 20/20, so I suggest stapling your first layer pretty close to the frame's edge (meaning there's very little overlap on the back), trimming the excess, and making each additional layer reach a little further than the last, with a slightly bigger overlap on the back of the frame. Make sure the batting is pulled taut across the front of the frame to create a smooth surface – check the front occasionally for bunching.

Corners get especially bogged down with batting on the back, so I ended up cutting into them at a 45 degree angle to thin most of it out. 

Step 5: Attach your fabric

The West Elm headboard is in a really beautiful dark gray linen weave. I chose a much cheaper, readily available alternative: duck canvas. I only needed 2 yards and it was on sale for $6.99/yd at Joanns. This was my first attempt at making a headboard, so the durability and affordability of the fabric gave me piece of mind that if I totally botched it I could start over without wasting a ton of money. It all worked out, though and I'm still perfectly happy with how the canvas looks and feels.

The rug I'd been using as my work surface was clean, but I layered a freshly laundered sheet over it to feel 100% confident I wouldn't be getting shmutz on my new headboard. Then I laid out the canvas and actually ironed it on the floor. You really don't want to be looking at the same wrinkle above your bed for the rest of eternity. 

I followed the same process for attaching the fabric that I did with the batting – lay the frame facing down, pull the fabric around the edges and staple to the back. That makes it sound easy, so let me clear my conscience here and tell you it was NOT. Eli had gone out of town by this time, and I was too impatient and cocky to wait for him – figuring I was plenty strong and skilled to do it on my own. Luckily I was right (Girl Power!) but it was not as easy as the tutorials made it sound. You really have to be careful on this step – making sure to keep your fabric straight and pull it really taut, so that you don't get wrinkles or bagginess. I struggled to pull the fabric hard with one hand, lift the headboard with the other to check all was well and good on the front side, lay it down again without messing it up, keep pulling the fabric with that one hand and fire the staple gun with the other. Sure, it's fun to impress yourself, but it's more fun to have a friend help so you don't have to shout obscenities to an empty room.

I started by stapling in the middle of one edge, then hopping over to the opposite (parallel) edge to pull the canvas taut and staple in the middle again. Then I'd work my way out from the middle on those two sides, hopping back and forth, before repeating the process on the remaining sides. 

When I got to a corner, I stapled one edge completely smooth, trimmed the excess and then carefully folded the other side over it to create a nice smooth appearance from the front, top and side. Luckily no one will see the hack job on the back ;) 

Step 6: Install nailhead trim

If you want, you could stop here and have a totally acceptable upholstered headboard. I would have if West Elm's geometric nailhead trim hadn't hypnotized me. I ventured ever so slightly from their pattern, sketching my own on paper before laying it out on the headboard. 

I ordered 15 yards of Dritz Home nailhead trim in antique gold off Amazon, but only used 12 or so. This stuff is amazing, because as you can see in the top picture, it's just a long strand of metal that looks like individual nailheads. In reality, you only have to bang in a decorative nail every 6th one or so. I'm all for things that look more complex than they are. It's highly recommended that you use a rubber mallet for the banging, so you don't dent or scratch your pretty nailheads. I, however, did not see a rubber mallet at my local store and was still feeling antsy/impatient/cheap. Instead I just jerry-rigged a "gentle hammer" by stuffing a big wad of batting on the head, covering it with a canvas scrap and tying it together with a rubber band. #MacGyver

I really made a rookie mistake on this step (but I later forgave myself since I was in fact a rookie). I started hammering in the nailhead trim along the top edge first. Do yourself a favor and start somewhere that will be covered by your mattress or pillows or pretty much anywhere except the most visible spot. It took me a while to get the hang of the trim, so my lines were wobbly to begin with. I considered removing them and starting over, but that would have damaged the fabric so I just forged ahead. I didn't get the factory-straight lines I was hoping for, but I just try to ignore and/or embrace the imperfections.  

Step 7: Hang the headboard

To hang the headboard level, we taped the second half of the cleat to the first half and held the headboard up to the height we'd marked with our tape. One of us (Eli) kept holding it in place while the other (me) marked where the cleat should go on the wall. We did it this way because of the less-than-perfectly-straight nature of the 2 x 4. We didn't want to hang the board level and then find the headboard was all wonky.

We marked our studs, drilled pilot holes through the 2 x 4, and then secured it with 3 in. wood screws. Our studs are 16" apart and our 2 x 4 was 60" long, so we were able to attach it to 3 studs. Feeling confident in that sturdiness, we hung the headboard on the cleat, et voila!

We are very happy with our new headboard!  Especially since it only cost us about $150 and approximately 12 hours.

You guys know I'm always gonna keep it real with you. When I finished hammering the last nail, my arms were tired, my back was sore, my fingers were raw, and I realized why it costs several hundred dollars to buy this from a store. $600 still feels very steep to me, but now I could see myself paying $350 or so for an intricate headboard with perfectly straight lines. That being said, it would have taken me another year or so to pull the trigger and my bedroom is feelin' much more sophisticated now. In a future post, I'll finish the bed saga and show you how we got a solid wood bed frame for $FREE.99 !

Have you ever built an upholstered headboard? Was it easier or harder than you expected? Anything you would have done differently?