My Bathroom Cabinets part two

Remember back during fall break when I painted my bathroom cabinet doors and drawer fronts and spray painted the knobs and drawer pulls? Because we all know that I can't have time off from school unless something is getting painted. I'm apparently not acquainted with the works rest or relaxation.

I wasn't happy with the way that fake drawer thingy stayed white. I wanted it to be blue like the other real doors, and it needed something. Also, the base cabinets looked, well, weird. I used some of the previous owners left over paint, but it wasn't a great color match. Plus, the white annoyed me. So, I started over.

I removed the door and drawers and sanded down the base cabinet to the original primer coat (or bare wood in some places). I primed it with Zinsser water base primer for all surfaces. A lot of people prefer oil-based primer in the bathroom, but I hate cleaning up after using oil-based paint. I chose Valspar semi-gloss latex paint in Humboldt Earth. The can says it's "scrub safe," so hopefully it will stand up to daily use. It says one coat coverage, but because I didn't tint the primer to match, I needed two coats. I prefer two coats anyway, and I didn't want to tint the primer to match because I've been using this same primer for everything lately.

While I was at Lowe's getting the paint, I found the something that the fake drawer thingy needed. A little wooden architectural bling. Perfect. I lightly roughed it up with sandpaper and sprayed it with my trusty oil-rubbed bronze from Rustoleum.

Here's the final result.

I love the contrast between the brown and blue. I love the bling. And I love the nice, crisp edge that results from using a really tight tape line on the PAINTABLE caulk edge along the side and floor. That will be important in the next post. Oooo, foreshadowing. It's almost as if I'm a writer again.

Next, I'll be posting about painting the boys' bathroom cabinets. Stay tuned for a great opportunity to alternately feel sorry for me and/or laugh at me. Stay tuned.

Boys Bathroom Cabinet Redo (and Redo)

Last Christmas I recaulked the boys' bathroom because all the old grout and caulk was crumbling and nasty. This Christmas break I wished I could go back in time to last year and kick my own butt. If I knew that someday I would be painting the cabinets, why did I caulk around them with UNpaintable caulk? Because I was caulking the shower surround with silicone and I didn't bother to change the caulk tube. I paid for that this week.

After sanding, cleaning, tacking off, taping off, priming, and painting two coats of paint on the cabinets, I had to start all over again. When I removed the tape, all the paint around the edges of the cabinets peeled off because latex paint doesn't adhere to silicone caulk. Duh. I know better.

So, I could've cried and then thrown up OR thrown up and then cried. Instead I went shopping. Hi, I'm a girl. It's how I roll.

While what was supposed to be the FINAL coat of paint was drying, I went to WalMart and bought some paintable caulk. Key word here being paintable. I also bought myself some really cute pink leopard print slippers for $10 and a few T-shirts and some yoga pants because I needed retail therapy after that debacle. Don't judge me.

When I got back home, I scraped away all the old silicone caulk, which took forever and several razor blades. Thank goodness for my iPod and my totally schizo music selection. I listened to a crazy variety of music while scraping caulk for hours, so it was very therapeutic. Then I sanded the rough edges of the paint, re-primed those areas, and then painted two more coats of brown paint.

I also removed and painted the hardware. Instead of using my trusty Rustoleum oil-rubbed bronze like I usually do, I did an under coat of aged copper first. I was trying to make it look like the faucet that the boys installed for me a few weeks ago (which looks a little bit like this one) with its rubbed-off places where the bronze-y part shows through the blackish parts. So, I painted a couple of coats of aged copper, then painted a light coat of oil-rubbed bronze over it. Then I lightly sanded away some spots of the ORB paint to reveal the aged copper. In some spots, it rubbed clear down to the original hardware surface because the aged copper did not adhere as well as my precious ORB usually does. Instead of thinking of that as an error, I'm looking at it as "adding character." Because I'm way too tired to start over on any other part of this project.

The other thing I changed was I took off the fake drawer front thingy (there has to be a better name for those) and bought the

tip-out trays and hinges. Dan installed them for me while I put everything back into the drawers and cabinets. Now he has extra storage for his contacts and solution and I don't have to look at that stuff sitting out on the counter.

So, without further delay, here are some photos of the finished product.