Sweat equity in the kitchen

I'm so close to being done here and so far I'm loving the paint colors. I used White Dove (a Benjamin Moore color that I had Dunn Edwards mix for me in their semi-gloss finish) for the uppers.  When I started the project I figured I would just brush the paint on or use a roller.  So I took down the cabinet fronts and painted the frames with a brush which worked out great and then I moved on to the cabinet fronts which I took outside to paint.  My first attempt was with a roller and that left a bumpy finish that didn't really settle after drying...so then I brushed and got streaky brush marks.  I think this may have had to do with the fact that it was 100 degrees out and the paint was drying too fast?  Anyway, after a weekend of that I basically got depressed and gave up. Gorgeous, right?

Then, the next weekend my neighbor came to the rescue with his paint sprayer which he was nice enough to let me borrow.  Total game changer! The resulting finish came out smooth as butter and it went SO much faster!  I was able to jam out all of the white cabinet fronts doing two coats per side on Saturday ...

 I kind of even look like I know what I'm doing here!

 Cut to the overspray on my feet...

On Sunday it rained and it took me an hour just to wipe down and clean the soot off of all of my nice white cabinets.  There were a couple of stains that resulted which I'll have to detail later.  But I was on a deadline to finish the lowers. I went with Valspar's  Jazz Club in gloss (it really looks more like semi -gloss.  But maybe it's because it's latex?)  Again the paint sprayer was a life saver.  Three coats per side and it only took me about 4 hours including drying time.

I didn't hang them for 2 weeks.  Instead I let them dry while I was out of town and hung them I got back.

 Look how cute the curve on the frame is in the new color?  


I also removed the vent and used some of this stuff to remove about 12 layers of paint.  It works great and doesn't smell at all.  Just brush on and let it sit for a few hours.  Wipe down and the layers of paint just magically disappear!

Also,  for my feet, I discovered this!



Rub onto painted feet and scrub the paint off.  This worked better than soap and water and was a nice moisturizer too! 

The next day I wised up and put the oil on my arms, legs and feet BEFORE painting and the over-spray came right off in the shower hardly any scrubbing needed.