Last Summer’s Project

Replace, resurface, or transform?

Is it a good time to be thinking about last summer given that I’m snowed in with more snow on the way? The answer is yes—if nothing else, to relive the memories of warm weather and easy travel. But there’s another reason. The results from a project at Treasure Island (see “before” photo above) easily beat my expectations.

The project idea germinated after a Bathfitter rep provided an estimate to remodel the shower in our vacation place. My co-owner vetoed their proposal based mostly on design. She also remarked that the kitchen floor needs to be replaced. I responded that a new floor would make the old cabinets look even worse. (I’m not sure if that’s true—the converse isn’t.)

Then I started to really think about the cabinets. Their dated appearance screamed “1980’s,” but underneath they are solid, quality cabinets, better than you might expect at a vacation place. Perhaps they could be saved.

Through research on the Internet—mostly YouTube videos—I learned that cabinet transformation is just an upscale term for painting and is a DIY project. It’s also inexpensive because not much is needed in the way of materials and you do the work. Cabinets can also be replaced or resurfaced by professionals. We didn’t have the budget for that.

The videos I watched made the process seem easy, straightforward, and reasonably foolproof with results so stunning that, suspiciously, I wondered if the cabinets being transformed were new instead of used. In particular, the video on the Rustoleum web site stood out. Rustoleum sells a cabinet transformation kit so a lot of care went into making their quality, somewhat-inspiring how-to video.

Even after allowing for Things That Can Go Wrong That They Don’t Tell You About, I decided to go ahead with the project. Things did go wrong, but not nightmarishly so, and the project took about three times as long as I estimated. But I like the results (see photo below):

The new color is Pond Frost.

I bought the materials separately rather than a transformation kit, including a container of deglosser, scrub pads, brushes, and primer. For the finish coat I used Ace Hardware door and trim paint. Deglosser dulls and strips the old finish, which allows the new paint to adhere to a previously glossy surface. In my case, using deglosser by itself seemed insufficient, so I sanded the cabinets using a cute new Black & Decker mouse that was a reward for doing the project by myself.

I won’t detail all of the steps in cabinet transformation as the Rustoleum and other videos do a far better job than I could. Instead, here are a few things I learned:

• Do add door knobs, drawer pulls, and felt door pads.
• Don’t worry about the toe kicks. The videos don’t and you would need to be extremely agile to prep and paint this area.
• Assemble a team for the project unless you don’t mind dining out for a week or so while your kitchen isn’t usable. The “single weekend” estimate is a fantasy if you are the only worker.
• You don’t have to return everything you took out of the cabinets back into the cabinets. It’s a great opportunity to toss or donate duplicate, no-longer-needed, and seldom-used dishes and utensils.
• Be happy with the results and be sure to show your friends. If your cabinets needed transformation in the first place, they will look better and you deserve to brag a bit.

Now about the kitchen floor…