Painting Kitchen Cabinets

It is amazing what a little paint can do for a kitchen. If your thinking about selling your home or just want to freshen up your kitchen, painting outdated cabinets can do wonders! If you can paint a wall, you can paint a cabinet...there are just a few more details that are important and must be followed. Sherry explains just what these details are and the steps to follow when painting your cabinets on her website "Young House Love".

And they are:

Step 1: Figure out what you want. Bring home paint swatches and select the perfect palette, and if you’re planning to replace your hardware, purchase some before you move on to the next step. Because most old hardware is a different size than newer hardware (the holes are further apart or closer together), it’s important to know if your new door and drawer bling is spaced differently than your current hardware before you begin. Then it’s nice to wash everything down with a little soap and water to cut the grease and the spills that have built up on the doors and drawers over the years. Nothin’ like a little sponge bath to get you in the mood to makeover your kitchen…

Step 2: Take it off, baby. Now it’s time to remove all of your hardware and your hinges (regardless of whether you’ll be reusing it or replacing it- and it helps to store everything in a big ziplock bag so you’re never short a screw). Of course by removing the hinges you’ll be removing all the doors, so finding a place that you can lay out a big fabric or plastic drop cloth (which are about $2 from Home Depot or Lowe’s) is a good idea. Once you have your drop cloth in place, lay out all your cabinet doors and drawers so you can paint them all together in one convenient spot (and have full access to the frames of the cabinets in the kitchen).

Step 3: Fill ‘er up. Then if you’re replacing your hardware with something that won’t fit the existing holes in your doors and drawers, you’ll want to pick up some wood filler (it’s around $6 a tube, which is all ya need) and fill those existing hardware holes in all of the doors and drawers. There are many different colors of wood fill, but since you’re painting your cabinets, matching the tone isn’t really a big deal (although it can’t hurt to grab the one that most closely resembles the color of your current cabinets).

Step 4: Get sandy. The sanding process isn’t always necessary (for example, our cabinets weren’t glossy so we skipped it and went straight to priming) but for some people with super shiny cabinets (aka: lots of polyurethane) it can’t hurt to run an electric sander over everything- or take a bit more time to hand sand things- with fine grit paper to rough everything up for maximum paint stickage. Not sure if yours need to be sanded? If they feel matte like a cutting board (a little absorbent) then they shouldn’t need it, but if they feel shiny like a laminated piece of paper or a glossy credit card then sanding is your best bet. Note: lead paint is a serious health risk when sanding, so if you have an older home with already-painted cabinets that look decades old it’s worth testing for lead with a $6 lead test kit from Home Depot. Safety first!

Step 5: It’s prime time. Due to all the grease and even just the wood stain that often coats kitchen cabinets, it’s über important to get down and dirty with oil-based primer (even if the water-based equivalent claims that it works just as well on cabinet surfaces, we’ve seen stains seep right through that stuff, so oil-based is the better-safe-than-sorry alternative). One coat of primer applied with a decent quality roller should do the trick (then just use a brush to get into those tigher spaces and the grooves in the doors). We prefer wool or polyester rollers (Purdy’s a great brand) over foam ones as we’ve found that they rile up the paint and cause bubbles. Oh and it doesn’t matter if you can still see the wood tone underneath after one coat, the primer’s main job is to make your cabinets sticky and the paint will do the rest. You’ll probably want to snag an extra brush just for priming since they’re usually pretty messed up afterwords (it’s best to toss it or save it for other priming projects and use a pristine new one for painting). And ditto with the roller. We usually don’t even try washing the oil-based paint out of it- and prefer to replace it with a fresh new one before painting for a seamless result (reused rollers and brushes can often compromise the smooth finish that you’re going for when it comes to your cabinets).

Step 6: Get your paint on. You’re in the home stretch, so just two coats of latex paint (in a semi gloss finish for easy wipe-ability) are next on the agenda. You’ll definitely want to wait a few hours after applying primer, but I actually primed and painted my cabinets (two coats!) all in the same day. When it comes to applying the paint, a high quality wool or polyester roller makes for the sleekest application. A mini foam roller can also help since it’s smaller and easy to control. You’ll also probably need to use a brush sparingly, just to get into those little cracks and crevices that your roller can’t reach. Do yourself a favor by buying an angle-tipped brush as opposed to a flat-tipped one- they make staying in the lines a lot easier.

Note: We didn’t prime or paint the inside of the doors, but our approach would be to prime/paint them first and then wait five days and turn them over and prime/paint the outside (that way if anything got a bit imperfect after being flipped face down, it would be on the inside- an therefore less noticeable).

Step 7: Wait for it. After two coats of latex paint you now have to practice patience. Most experts advise waiting at least three days to rehang or begin using your doors and drawers (especially since the rehanging process involves lots of holding and pressing and drilling which can muck up anything that’s not 100% dry). We actually advise waiting five days if ya can (it beats doing the whole thing all over again and guarantees a totally seamless finish even in high humidity).

Step 8: Hang in there. Then all you have to do is rehang your doors (either using your existing hinges or new ones), slip in your drawers, and add your hardware. If the hardware is new, take time to measure twice before you drill to avoid any annoying mistakes that will make you want to putty and repaint, which never looks as good as the flawless finish that you get the first time around. John actually took his sweet time drilling all of our holes for the new hardware (to the tune of about two hours) but it was well worth the assurance that everything was perfectly centered and right where it should be. In this case slow and steady wins the race.

http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/11/how-to-paint-your-kitchen-cabinets/

Posted via email from pamdaniels's posterous

Basement Apartments

Visit the link below to find out more information about the laws and requirements regarding basement apartments in the City of Brampton.

http://www.brampton.ca/en/residents/By-Law-Enforcement/Pages/Basement-Apartme...

Posted via email from pamdaniels's posterous

Outdoor Decorating

Don’t forget that you can use the exterior of your home to hang things like mirrors, lighting and fun pieces of decorations too. Simple and unique ideas bring that little bit extra to your outside atmosphere, and will have friends asking for your decorators number when they come over! Have fun and be creative!

Posted via email from pamdaniels's posterous

LET'S CLEAN: windows

The best way to clean windows, or any large stretch of glass, is with a squeegee. It does a quicker and more efficient job.
What you will need:
A good quality squeegee
window wand
If you'll be cleaning high windows, you also will need an extension pole.

The basic process is simple - apply the cleaning solution with the window wand and pull the dirt and water off with the squeegee.

In detail
1. Mix a capful of ammonia or five drops of liquid dish detergent in two gallons of water.
Too much detergent causes streaking.

2. Dip your window scrubbing wand or a sponge 3/4 of an inch into the solution.
picking up just enough water to wet the window without flooding it.
-Wet the entire window then go back over it once to loosen any stubborn soil.
-Run the scrubber against the frame on all sides of the window to pick up any dirt you've pushed against the frame.

3. Moisten the squeegee blade before you start and wipe it with a damp cloth between strokes.
A dry blade will skip and jump on the window instead of gliding efficiently.

4. Tilt the squeegee at an angle so that only about an inch of the rubber blade presses lightly against the top of the window glass.
-Pull the squeegee across the window horizontally.
This will leave a 1-inch dry strip across the top of the window. By squeegeeing across the top first, you eliminate drips running down.

5. -Place the squeegee close to the frame in the dry area near the top and pull down to about three inches from the bottom of the glass.
-Continue this way across the window, overlapping into the clean, dry area with each stroke, and wiping the blade with a damp cloth after each stroke.

6. Finish with a horizontal stroke across the bottom and wipe any water off the sill with a damp cloth.

On some windows, it's easier to cut the water off the frame side as well as the top, and then squeegee the entire pane using horizontal strokes. Large windows should be wet and squeegeed half at a time, the top half first.
Finally, if you're cleaning both the inside and outside of the window, squeegee horizontally on one side and vertically on the other, so you can tell whether any streaks are inside or out.

Posted via email from pamdaniels's posterous

LET'S CLEAN: fireplace

Cleaning the face of a fireplace is a project that demands patience. Fireplace stone and brick may be hard, but they're also spongy. This means it has plenty of tiny holes for soil to build up in.

1. Make sure the floor around the fireplace is well covered.

2. Mix a solution of high-alkaline cleaner and one ounce of chlorine bleach per gallon of warm water.

3. Wet the surface of the fireplace well with the solution
Do not use so much that it runs. Dirty water running down the face may cause hard-to-remove streaks

4. Scrub the solution in with a brush.

You should see the suds getting dark and dirty as the buildup comes off.

5. Rinse well.
If the surface is shadowy, a light cleaning with a phosphoric acid cleaner may be enough to brighten it the rest of the way.

Don't use any acids stronger than phosphoric, as it will damage the brick or stone.

Posted via email from pamdaniels's posterous

LETS CLEAN: kitchen cabinets

Most kitchen cabinets are well finished and even wood cabinets have enough polish on them so that you can use a regular cleaning solution. The oil that builds up on cabinets, particularly around the handles is a combination of kitchen grease, food smears, oils and hand oils. All-purpose cleaners will take care of this job.

If your cabinets are laminate, metal, painted metal or glass, you can wash them all over with a heavy-duty cleaner.

Let the solution sit a minute or two, then take a sponge and scrub wherever needed.

Remove the grimy suds from the sponge by squeezing it into the sink, never back into your cleaning solution.

Rinse with a damp “ dry to remove any last traces of scum and leave the cupboards clean and glowing.

Never use acids or powdered cleansers on cabinets. A thorough washing once a year should be enough. Keep a spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner handy the rest of the time and spot-clean after kitchen use.

On wooden cabinets, take a more mild approach:

To get off persistent dirt, wash around all handles and any other grease zones first with hand dishwashing detergent.

Wash the entire cabinet, including the handle areas, with an oil soap solution.

Wipe lightly with the solution and dry right away with a cloth.

If your cabinets are dull from wear or age, spray furniture polish very lightly once a year or so to fill in the pores and bring back that original shine.

Posted via email from pamdaniels's posterous