Continuing with Drawers and Doors...

We completed most of the drawer construction and painting today. It was a great day to be outside (at least in western Oregon). Here are all the pull-out shelves and drawers for the island and the hutch, just prior to staining. It took about an hour and a half to sand and assemble these - I wish things went as fast as they seem to on TV programs!


The wood appliques took paint pretty well. They are die-pressed plywood, so the edges needed quite a bit of sanding to get them smooth. I did ten of them with a sanding sponge in about 1/2 an hour - not a huge amount of work. The ones shown here have primer, 3 coats of paint, a coat of glaze and three coats of clear acrylic sealer.

They are ready to be mounted to the doors tomorrow. Here is how they should look.

Island & Hutch - Antique Paint Technique

My DW completed the 1000-step painting technique on the island and hutch. OK, 1000 might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a lot of work - and it turned out great. Here is a picture of the assembled hutch:


The final process ended up being:

• Sand
• Prime
• Caulk and fill (easier to see holes and seams when its primed)
• Sand
• Paint - 3 coats
• Glaze
• Seal with polycrylic

I'm glad she has the stamina for this. I would tint the primer and be done! Here is a close-up of the crown.

Here is the center section that is going to be a plate rack. We still need to paint the spindle.

Here is the end of island.

[Link to photo set]

Kitchen & Hutch - Paint & Details

I installed the granite edging yesterday and will grout it later on this evening. I bought another package of SpectraLock epoxy grout at Lowes last night. This picture shows the granite and the great paint job my DW did on the cabinets (more on paint at the bottom of this post).

I am really happy with the way the french country legs turned out with the beadboard. Notice that the legs don't go to the floor, but to the top of the base trim. We thought that this would look good and be easier to sweep around.

Here is the end of the hutch:

Here is the bottle rack on the island. I had an extra 5 inches available on the backside of the appliance-lift cabinet, and this seemed like a good idea.

Painting

Painting advice: buy good primer, paint, caulk, brushes and additives - and you will get a good job.

My DW bought Sherwin-Williams ProClassic waterborne latex acrylic paint, in semi-gloss. It seems to be really good paint. It flows nice, covers well and does not show brush marks. It is designed for interior cabinets, furnitre, etc.

She did three coats of this on top of the primer coat. Next she will do the the glaze finish.

For the third coat of paint, she added Floetrol paint additive. This makes the paint flow better and extends the drying time. This allows for the very smooth, brush-stroke free finish. By the way, this product is made by Flood, who also makes CFW for exterior wood - everything I have bought from this manufacturer has been very good quality and met my expectations.



Caulking

Once assembled, every joint and interface was caulked with GE latex / silicone caulk. Here is how I get a good caulking job (there have been many times in the past when this was not the case).

• Lightly sand the surface
• Wet the surface with a damp cloth
• Apply a small bead of caulk (cut the tip small) - pushing the tube, not pulling
• Smooth with my finger - get rid of the excess
• Run a wet cloth lightly over it
• Lightly sand again once dry
  
  

Kitchen Island Progress - Sanding and Painting

I have discovered that there are three things that produce a good paint job on wood: priming, sanding, and never mess with drying paint (keep the wet edge). The biggest pain is sanding, but it also produces the best results - and my new toy for it is the Ryobi Corner Cat sander I bought at Home Depot for $30. Here is a picture:


Its a simple little one-speed sander that takes hook & loop pads. I allows me to get into most of the edges and tight places.

I found that I was spending more time and energy worrying about how much sanding I needed to do, rather than just doing it - so now I just do it. Normally, if I am painting, I sand 3 times: raw wood, after primer and after first coat. This seems to give the best results.
- Bare wood needs to be smoothed
- The grain raised by the primer needs to be taken down (water based primer)
- A small amount of grain seems to raise again with the first coat that should be taken down

My plug for Ryobi tools: they work well for home-owner use, don't cost a lot, and seem to be very reliable.

Beadboard Cost: $112

It took seven packages of beadboard to for the island and the hutch (still to be completed) at $16 each. We did not do a whole lot of searching for this - just went to HD and bought it. Each package is about 12 1/2 square feet.


He went with rustic pine - here is a picture:

Panelling would have been about 1/3 less cost and a bit less work, but would not have the feel we were looking for.

They also sold an MDF version that would have been pre-primed and easier to paint, but we have a NO MDF policy for the kitchen cabinets. MDF would be fine for the cabinets boxes, but not for the exteriors. If the it gets damaged, it does not look aged, it looks rotten. Pine beadboard can take a dent and look all the better for it. MDF will look fuzzy and cheap.

My DW, the painting guru, is taking it from here. Primer, 2 to 3 coats of base paint, a coat of antique glaze (darker color), and 1 to 2 coats of polycrylic on the heavy wear surfaces.

A tip for sanding:

• You should always sand after the primer coat if you use water-based primer. It raises the soft part of the grain. You need to get this smoothed down for good resutls
• A lot of people I talk to don't like the idea of sanding. My only advice is to learn to love it (not the sanding, but the results).
• You can quickly do the surface with an orbital sander, palm sander or even a sanding block. Use 120 grit paper. Don't over-do it.
• For beadboard, use a fine grit drywall sanding sponges with the sharp angle side. It easily gets into the beads. If you want the sponge to last, wrap a sheet of sandpaper around it, and use it that way.