Kitchen ReFAB-Week 2

I’d love to say I’m ready to paint my cabinets, but that isn’t the case.  I didn’t even touch the kitchen the first 2 days of the week.  I needed the time away after the pain the crown molding gave me.  I did get up the bottom molding and I’m really loving it.  It’s starting to come together now and I’m seeing my vision!  The first thing I noticed when I tried to put up the first piece, is that I had already put the side molding back up, and did not account for the bottom trim.

I needed about a 1/4″ cut off in order for the bottom molding to sit flush against the cabinets.  So I have a huge saw in the garage but I didn’t want to remove all the nails, just for that little piece.  So I hacked at it with every wrong tool you can think of.  My husband came in and I was using the tree clippers to nip the little piece off.  I’m serious!  He laughed at me and then helped me do the same thing with the other cabinet.  I found this molding at Lowe’s and it has a small lip on the inside, that fits nicely on the cabinet bottom.

The only problem is that there really wasn’t a place to nail it into the cabinets without splitting the wood or damaging the cabinets.  So out came the liquid nails.  This stuff is awesome but you have to work fast and be accurate.  I couldn’t get a good angle with the clamps, so I had to hold each piece in place for a few minutes.  Wednesday night I had to finish off the last section but I needed help holding all 3 pieces in place.  So I enlisted the help of the 2 youngins and the hubby.  Only to realize one of the pieces was too long.  I cut a small sliver off, still too big, cut another small sliver off and now it’s TOO SHORT!  Of course this was my last long piece.  We quit for the night and I’d go back in the morning for another piece.  I also realized that the cabinet is bowed a little so it would work better if my molding bowed a little too.  This morning I packed up the car to head to Lowe’s, only to realize my purse was in my husbands car from the day before.  I wasn’t letting this stop production for the day.  I stole borrowed money out of the kids’ piggy banks and off I went.  I promise I’ll pay it back!  Can you see the previous piece with all the dried up liquid nails on it?  The new piece is next to it with it’s slight bow inward.  It fit perfect!

Here is the finished top and bottom molding.  I’m LOVIN it!

Now I need to caulk all the edges and clean the cabinets.  Then onto the priming.  This is my favorite part because I know I can paint! Hopefully by the time I’m done I will have picked a paint color.

I also did a little countertop shopping in the last 2 weeks.  If you remember I originally wanted to do tile granite, because it is cheaper.  But after the trouble I had with the crown molding, I’m rethinking my DIY skills. Especially with something like that.  I priced the real granite at Home Depot and I’ll have to save for a while for those if we want to pay cash.  I also need to learn the benefits and drawback to all the different countertop surfaces.  Granite maybe pretty but I hear it’s pretty porous. Then I saw what Kristi did to her laminate countertops.  Aren’t those granite countertops beautiful?  Well you’ll be surprised to know, it’s NOT granite.  Kristi did a faux paint job on them!

(Photo: CreativeKristi.com)

This is genius! I’m not sure I’m that talented, but I might enlist the help of my super talented sister!  What’s the worst that could happen?  We have to rip it out and get new countertops?  :)  Head on over and check out Kristi’s website.  She has some fun projects that will inspire you.

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