Home Depot Special

New Life: Faux Antiqued Look

No, No, No, You don’t need to pay $20,000 for new cabinets! Not even $2000. Do you have real wood cabinets? Or even cool metal one? If not, you can probably pick up someone’s throwaways on Craigs.

Tools:

• Palm Sander
• Paint Brushes
• Small Rollers (foam is good)
• Paint Sprayer: cool, but not necessary
• Drill
• Sawhorse

Materials:

• Lots of Sandpaper 120-180 grit
• Bin Shellac Based Primer or Other Zinsser Primer
• Gloss Paint (easier to clean than Semi or Eggshell)
• Wood putty

If you plan on doing a lot of work on your house, there are a few tools you should have. A cordless drill is totally necessary. A palm sander is a must have if you plan on stripping or repainting any previously painted object. The sawhorse will save your back. No need to work on the floor.

Ok, back to the cabinets….

Take off the doors and remove all hardware.

Sand the paint or poly. You don’t need to take it down to bare wood, but you want to rough up the surface enough so that the primer will stick.

If there is damage to the wood, you can fill holes with wood putty.

Clean with damp rag or mineral spirits if it’s down to the wood. You don’t want to use water on wood. Mineral or turpentine will evaporate.

Prime with Bin Shellac Based Primer. This takes better than ordinary water based primers. If it’s for a kitchen, there will be heat and moisture. Make sure you start out right. Zinsser is a good brand. We’ve used the oil based as well, with no problems.

The choice is yours. Apply with brush or small roller. The foam rollers give it a smooth surface. If you want to rent or buy a paint sprayer, that would give you the smoothest surface….like buttah. But it’s a pain in the tokhes to clean it. Only worth it if you’re doing a ton of painting.

Once the primer has dried, you can go over it again, lightly, with a fine sand paper. Then wipe down.

Apply paint, at least 2 coats. I don’t like glossy, but if you don’t want it to look like crap in a month, glossy is probably the way to go.

If you want to take it a step further…..

We’ve only ever done faux techniques on cabinets. Just painting them seems too easy! If you want to do a technique, follow steps up to primer. The paint depends on what technique you want, but you should always seal it with polyurethane afterwards. Oil will hold up best, but keep in mind that if you’re using white, oil does tend to yellow, so you may have to go with water based.

Also: Low VOC paints and stains exist, but for this article, we’re sticking with what we know.