DIY

Painting Tile & Painting Cabinets – ORC Week 4

This week I’m sharing my plans for painting tile & painting cabinets for my kitchen makeover. I’m going to be transforming my kitchen with painted cabinets, new hardware, and a pressed PVC backsplash.

Painting Tile & Painting Cabinets - Kitchen Makeover Progress from A Heart Filled Home

I have been working on my kitchen makeover for the One Room Challenge, and this last week I’ve been doing lots of work on my DIY backsplash and kitchen cabinets! I’m excited to share my progress and my plans!

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Painting Tile & Painting Cabinets

This last week has been filled with preparation for painting my oak kitchen cabinets. I have been doing lots of research on how to get the best results for painting oak cabinets, and have come up with a plan!

I got my plan of action from Nina Hendrick – she has an amazing blog post about how to paint cabinets! Her recommendations have helped me for a plan that will hopefully yield beautiful white cabinets for years to come!

Painting Supplies

How To Paint Oak Cabinets

First I started by removing the hardware from the cabinets and removing the cabinet doors and drawers. Then I started cleaning the cabinets with Krud Kutter to clean and de-gloss the surface.

Then I sanded the cabinet bases and drawers with a 220 grit sandpaper. I left the sawdust on for the next step of filling in the wood grain.

I really wanted my cabinets to have a smooth finish. With my research I have read that after painting oak cabinets without filling the spaces, sometimes the grain can show through later down the road and ruin your painted finish. I really didn’t want that to happen, so I planned to fill the grain with spackling.

On the recommendation of Nina Hendrick, I used spackling compound and a putty knife to give a light coat to the surface. I made sure to go against the direction of the grain to get into all the nooks.

The next step is to sand the surface after the spackling is dry. This step creates a lot of dust, so be prepared for a mess! I used a fine grit sandpaper for this step, to get a smooth finish without roughing it up.

Then I used a tack cloth and cleaned the surface. This ensures the surface is free of dust so that your oil based primer will go on smoothly and adhere well. You really want your primer and paint to stick well to the cabinets and cabinet bases so they will last!

Next I applied primer using a paint brush and a mini foam roller. I plan to add 2 coats of primer to create a good bond to the wood, and create a white base coat for my white paint. I’ll be using the color Pure White by Sherwin Williams

DIY Backsplash

I also worked on the backsplash and painted it with 2 coats of water-based primer. My plan is to cover it by gluing on these pressed PVC panels with liquid nails. This will change the color and look of the backsplash without having to demo it.

The next 2 weeks I’ll be working on painting alllll of the rest of the cabinets, the island, and finishing up the DIY backsplash. I know these projects will have the largest impact on the space, and they will take a lot of hours to complete!