Saturday, March 01, 2008

Kitchen Door/trim refinishing project











After living in our home 8 1/2 years, I've started fixing previous fixes. Sad state of affairs, but our tastes change, and we unfortunately recognize previous errors.








My latest project is to de-green part of the kitchen. When we first moved in, we repainted all the kitchen, and the cupboards. Taking after a magazine article, we used this beautiful apple green color on the cupboard doors, and other colors on the bottom of each walls. We also repainted the woodwork. Well, it was too much green, and the "other" color is too bright. Once we had a couple over, and they were looking at what we done, and they immediately assumed we had not done anything to the kitchen, and were cringing. I didn't correct them at the time.








So, I'm de-greening the wood trim around the 3 kitchen doorways, and I'll repaint the walls. I've got bigger plans for the kitchen, including subway tile, new countertops, etc., but those will have to wait.








So, I started with the door that goes into the dining room, and took off the trim, and ran it through the planer, the joiner and a sanding center to remove all the paint. Quick and effective. The door jamb and door were slower, and had to be stripped with chemicals. I did the door outside. I was half surprised to find the same beautiful gumwood veneer on the door that is found on the dining room side. Gorgeous wood, irreplaceable.








I used amber shellac to finish it off, which makes the grain "pop" out. Now I'm doing the 2nd doorway, which thankfully goes to a hall, and the door was removed, and reused long ago.