Living the DIY Life Annie Sloan Style

When I purchased my house a little over two years ago, I decided I wanted to redo my kitchen cabinets because I disliked the gold knobs and wanted something different. Then, my entire downstairs was redone because of the flood of 2014 (remember when...) lots of other things happened instead. 

The Before

So this Fall, I decided that it was the time. It took me a month to make the decision and at the end of October, I went and took a class with my local Annie Sloan Stockist in South Charlotte to learn the techniques. When they asked what project everyone was planning, I told the teacher I was going to paint my kitchen cabinets. She replied, "Normally we recommend starting with a smaller project." Well, I say "go big or go home." So I went BIG at HOME!

So on November 8th I decided to clean everything and take all of the cabinets down and prepped my floors with paper. I did the cleaning with Krud Kutter and it took all kinds of things off the cabinets! This is fantastic stuff, but kind of gross smelling.

Open & Exposed

I painted the knobs with chalk style spray paint two coats and then poly'd them to make them shiny instead of chalky and matte.

The after, of course I did them outside and not inside, but
there aren't any pictures of that!

I purchased my paint, a brush, a roller, and went to town, painting, painting, painting. 

Annie Sloan Paris Gray
Clear Soft Wax

For three weeks with the tunes blaring. All of the cabinets on the walls, the drawer fronts, and door fronts got three coats of paint and the backs of the doors received two coats. 

Cabinets in the Dining Room
Cabinets down the Hall

I learned after this to prop them up on hangers to keep them
from sticking to the paper as they dried!

This made such a difference in the feel of the kitchen!

After painting and painting and painting and painting for what felt like forever ... but it was just a little over two weeks. The paint dries so quickly I could do two coats in one night.

Because some of my doors with underneath my drawers propping them up, I had two rounds of painting fronts and backs to do. Once everything was painted with as many coats as I was going to do, I sanded them. Not intensely because the paint doesn't need it. Just to even things out and smooth it up a bit. Then I reattached the hardware and rehung the doors. All with my little IKEA electric screwdriver!

Not everyone needs super power tools!

I was finally able to stop living on the paper covered floor, so on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I threw it all away and cleaned my hangers which were covered with paint. I still need to rehang everything in my upstairs closet!

How Fantastic Already!

Then over the coarse of this weekend, I started waxing the cabinets. This was the hardest part - the uppers were the hardest since I couldn't scoot across the floor. I used the brush for the first coat and wiped off the excess with cheese cloth. For the second coat, which was SO much easier, I wiped the wax on with the cheese cloth. I was dreading the 2nd coat, but being able to wipe it on made it a lot easier and it went so fast!

I wanted to buff them so I purchased a car buffing attachment (that only AutoZone carries) and a friends Power Drill (maybe a girl does need power tools)! 

More Power!

After buffing, I put on my cabinet bumpers and replaced the knobs on all of the doors and drawers. 

These are so much better than what I
scrapped off when I started!

When adding the bumpers be sure to put them in the upper,
upper corner, so they totally miss the wall!

I cleaned everything up and added some flare to the top with frames (which need new pictures since those are from a friend's nursery), new signs from The Happy Little Zoo (check it out for yourself), and some left over twinkle lights. Now I have a happy little kitchen!