Once upon a time in an insane land far away, I thought my landlords were going to let me paint my cabinets. In some fantasy I’m still holding onto hope they will. I feel like a broken record at this point, repeating my wishes constantly.
Because I thought they were going to say yes, I spent the time and energy taking all the upper cabinet doors off, labeling them with sticky notes, and cleaning the hardware. I put all the hardware in separate baggies with numbers that correspond with the cabinet they go on.
To clean the door’s hardware I put them in separate containers to clean them. I sprinkled baking soda on them before covering them in distilled white vinegar and let them soak for a few hours.
After soaking I scrubbed the hardware with an SOS pad and rinsed. The baking soda and vinegar really did a good job of loosening up the gunk that was caked on. If you’re in the process of revamping your cabinets and are reusing your hardware I really recommend doing this step. You can really get into every crevice when the hardware is not on the door.
Here are a few side by sides of how much of a difference this can make. Plus, a reminder at how horribly disgusting my cabinets are.
Now I sit and wait until my wish comes true. My cabinets are without doors, and the insides are begging me to paint them. I’ve done a few of the inside shelves as you may have already seen here, and I’m slowly painting them while I wait. I hope I don’t finish all the insides of the cabinets and clean all of the hardware before I get to paint. At least I will have something to keep me busy in the mean time.
When is the last time you thought about cleaning your hardware? Do you get impatient waiting to do your next big project, and how do you deal with the anticipation?
The cabinet painting is still basically at a halt. The landlords still say no. However, I still have hope and the next plan is to get an extra box of flooring that we will be using in the bathroom, and then we’ll have enough to do the kitchen too. But, we’ll tell the landlords we can’t do it unless we paint the cabinets. Yellow cabinets do not look good with beautiful gray barn wood looking floors. Hopefully this last resort tactic works. I might just have to paint them anyway, but I rather not.
Since I can’t paint the outside of the cabinets I’ve started painting the insides since they desperately need it too.
This is a different cabinet than I painted, but I had already peeled too much paint off for you to see how dirty it was to start with. I cleaned the shelves really well and they’re still too dingy to be left alone.
You can see here how the paint is peeling. The peeling is worse in some of the other cabinets.
The worst part about the cabinets is that they trapped the smell of food horribly. Even after I cleaned the cabinets and let them air out without food for a while, I could smell it again shortly after I put everything back.
Here is the cabinet I painted with most of the paint peeled off the bottom, and quite a bit off the walls. I peeled as much off as I could before sanding it down and wiping up the dust.
Above is the cabinet with a coat of primer. When I painted the wall trim I didn’t put a coat of primer on it, and I wish I did because it might have helped it from getting dinged up again. I absolutely hate dealing with the peeling paint, so I hope that this primer will cut down on that.
The cabinet with a coat of paint and all dry.
Here are comparison photos of a painted shelf and a non painted shelf. The bottom shelf in both pictures is painted, and the top one is not.
The cabinet is put back together, now I just need to find a better way to organize the spices. I’ll slowly work on painting a shelf or two at a time and hopefully that will keep my mind off wanting to paint the outsides.
I should make decent progress if I don’t get too irritated with having to peel all the paint off. I might, however, get a little grossed out with doing some of the lower cabinets by the sink that are exposed to the pipes inside the wall. Maybe I’ll come up with another project entirely to make them look more finished.
What’s your worst home improvement nightmare? Do you have any tips for organizing spices?
The night before Chris and I were going to tackle painting the kitchen cabinets he decided that he wanted to ask permission to paint. I got really anxious because there was always the slight chance that she would (ridiculously) say no. Mind you I already had taken off all of the upper cabinet doors along with all the hardware. Did I also mention he had no part in helping with that? Ugh. Boyfriends.
I’m not going to lie, growing up I was a rule follower and I asked permission for everything. I just couldn’t stand the thought of my beautiful white cabinets being torn from my grasp when I am so very capable of painting them myself. She didn’t say no, but she did say she would have to ask her husband. Her husband said NO. AGHHHH. I was furious because I felt like he just didn’t understand, and he hardly does much with the rentals anyway. I wanted to scream and tell her to woman up and realize she doesn’t need her husband’s approval. However that probably wouldn’t solve a thing and I would still have ugly cabinets. So instead I decided to have Chris give these reasons why they should change their minds.
1. Cabinet Damage
Our cabinets have several spots where they are obviously worn down. There are scratches on one cabinet door (no idea how those got there), finish worn down near handles and edges of doors/drawers. Even after I thoroughly cleaned/degreased everything twice the edges of the cabinets are gummy feeling. A few of the cabinets feel gritty and not smooth like some of the less worn down doors. This is not unusual for old cabinets, but the damage really makes the kitchen look run down.
2. Easy to Clean and Repair
Going along with the previous point, painting the cabinets will make it much easier to clean and repair any spots that get worn out. Putting myself in the landlord’s shoes I know I would want to efficiently clean and make any repairs from the time one tenant moves out, and another one moves in.
It’s harder to see dirt and grime on the cabinets the way they are now because the color of the cabinets exactly matches grease that might splatter out of a frying pan. What kinds of dirt, grime, or food do you know of that is white and will cling itself to a kitchen cabinet? none (okay maybe marshmallow fluff? 😉 ). In another setting cabinets that hide grime are a good thing because they create less work and hide the dirt. In a rental setting white cabinets make it really easy for a landlord to see how dirty the cabinets are, and to make a quick estimate of how long it will take to clean between tenants.
3. New Update for Cheap
Or in our case a new update for $0. It really cannot get any better than that. I respect it if the landlord’s are hesitant because they really like the look of wood and they don’t want to cover it up. However, we have plenty of leftover paint and primer that they already paid for to paint the walls. It would be the same amount of work if not more to sand and re-stain AND it would end up costing them more money in the long run.
4. White Paint Opens up the Space
The kitchen in our apartment is really small and feels very claustrophobic because of the dark colors. Using light colors tricks your mind into thinking the space is actually bigger than it is. I especially noticed this when I took the upper cabinets doors off because the insides are actually already white. A decent sized kitchen is on a lot of people’s wishlist when it comes to homes, and at least white cabinets will make it not seem so cramped. Our home is located in a residential area a block or two away from the school. This means the property should really be trying to attract small families. Families generally do a decent amount of cooking so it makes sense to have a kitchen that will fit those needs.
5. Painted Cabinets are Popular
There are images all over Pinterest of painted cabinets, how to paint cabinets, and why you should paint cabinets. These days people are ditching the wood for a crisp paint job. Brains over beauty is generally the way to go. In this case painting the cabinets white is both brains and beauty. Especially in the business of rental properties it is critical to understand what a vast majority of people will be looking for in a home, and not just a select few. I can safely say that a vast majority of people are NOT looking for retro yellowy weird wood grain cabinets.
Obviously I want my living space to be appealing to me, but I also understand that I do not own it and some day someone else will have to work their style into the home as well. Throughout all of my projects I have held this mentality and that’s why it is frustrating to me that they said no to painting the cabinets. To me it seems like a well thought out business move. Hopefully after explaining these points to them they will change their minds.
