Lets face it, kitchens sell homes! A nice kitchen can make a home appear newer, even if every other feature in the home is outdated, buyers will overlook other older designs if a home has attractive cabinets. Most homeowners would love to update their dated cabinetry, but the price tag often stops them from going further. Not everyone has upwards of 30 K to spend on a new kitchen, and if you don’t have to, why should you when there are other options out there? Often times people will dismiss or throw out vintage cabinets when the cabinets themselves actually have some really good bones to work with. Sometimes the wood stain just looks old, or the hardware is a sure sign of the age, but the frame can have some classic qualities about them that could look completely different with new hinges, hardware and paint. If this is the case with your kitchen, read on………
If your vintage cabinets already have a raised panel design, consider painting it, or removing the existing finish with a heat gun and staining it. On the other hand, if your cabinets have no raised pattern, consider having new doors put on the existing frames. Keep your eye on Re-store, which is a second hand thrift store for building supplies. They often have nice looking cabinet faces for next to nothing. In addition Ikea, also has a section called “as-is” where they sell parts, and dozens of cabinet faces which are sold alone.
Painting cabinets is time consuming but a heck of a lot less expensive than replacing your cabinets entirely. As a former painter, I would experiment with paint, and determine which colors worked well together. I figured out what colors worked simply by trial and error, which took me years to master. So, when I discovered Cabinet Transformations, I learned that anyone could get the higher-end paint finishes, color combinations and glazes that most of us painters would sell others at a fraction of the cost.
Look on ebay! Lots of woodworkers are selling cabinet faces for less.
Custom Kitchen Cabinet Doors Red Oak Raised Panel $12.00 318stephens On ebay
Cabinet Transformations reviews are amazing! The process is time consuming, but has a wonderful end result. Painting cabinets can be a big job, but the pay off is huge. Cabinets need to be slightly sanded, primed, painted and glazed. Cabinets which are professionally painted are usually sprayed with an oil based paint, along with professional glazes that are often sprayed, or hand rubbed. The Rustoleum kits claim that there is NO STRIPPING, NO SANDING, and NO PRIMING! The kit process unfolds like this….. First you “de-gloss” your cabinets which allows the product to grip the cabinet surfaces more easily. Then you paint two coats of the primer/base color. After it has dried, you glaze the cabinets by brushing on the product and wiping it off. Finally, a sealer is applied. The kit is available in 24 dark colors and 11 light colors. Kits are affordable: The cabinet kits are $79.99 (small) and $149 (large) and the counter top kit is $249. The kit also includes an Instructional DVD and Pamphlet. The Positives About Cabinet Transformations
- This kit provides colors for a paint finish you wouldn’t know how to do otherwise. The result looks expensive, but this is not a one-weekend project.
- If you can paint, you can work with the Cabinet Transformation system
- The finished result looks professional. Company will think you had them redone professionally or replaced.
- The price is affordable, giving you an update this month, not in a couple years.
The Negatives About Cabinet Transformations
- The finish does take time. Obviously, if you have 20 cabinet faces and bases to paint, it will take you time to complete. This is a project that you don’t want to rush through.
- Some reviews have commented that the colors are not accurate on the box, and there are no sample chips available
- Test out the colors on a scrap of wood, or cabinet face sold through Re-store before putting it on the cabinets. Do this for any color you choose.
A Couple Tips From Those Who Have Tried Cabinet Transformations -Take Your Time -“I was so excited to get started that I forgot to number the doors. It probably would have been easier to put them back together if I had done so. Take your time masking and covering your appliances. Fill any holes that will no longer be used if you are changing out your hardware. Fill damaged areas with wood putty and sand flush. Make the largest work space you possibly can. Drive screws through 2×4’s and put them on sawhorses, work benches, or tables” – Use Spray Poycrylic– “It was actually the top coat that I was having trouble with not drying clear (not the glaze). I ended up redoing the two doors that had a few milky spots after drying. However, the next vanity that I did using the kit, I skipped the top coat liquid in the kit and used a spray polyurethane. This added to the cost of the project, but it was so much easier and looks great. I ordered it online: Satin Varathane no odor polyurethane (fast drying/heavy use formula/interior/water based/crystal clear)”
Steps In Cabinet Transformations
- De-glossing – Purchase more scrub pads. Many people say they use 15 more beyond what was included in the kit. De-glossing is the most difficult step, but if you are not thorough, the base coat will not adhere. If you think you’ve scrubbed enough, scrub it one more time. After it’s clean and deglossed, be sure to wipe it down with a damp cloth, and then wipe it with a dry cloth, and allow it to dry completely before starting the bond coat.
- Bond Coat – This step is just painting. Use longer strokes with the best brushes you can buy. A 2″ Angled Paint Brush produces the best results. Light cabinets to dark cabinets will require at least 2 coats of paint, where as going from dark to light, you may need 3 coats or 4 coats. The bond coat paint sold in the kit dries pretty fast.
- Glazing- Do not start this step until your bond coat is completely dry. Consider letting your paint cure over night before starting this coat, otherwise if the first coat isn’t dry, you find yourself removing the first coat of paint has you wipe away the glaze. Like the first coat, as you wipe away your glaze, allow it to cure over night.
-She Saves Money Blog- New Cabinets For Under $150? Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations -The Domestic Diva’s Cabinet Makeover Using Cabinet Transformations 
Rust-Oleum Transformations 1-Qt. Natural Stone Tile Finish
Light Color Kits
Honest Reviews:
- By ener629- “I bought this kit to update my outdated engineered oak cabinets. After reading several reviews and watching the video I felt like I knew what I was getting into. While it does require a lot of work, it’s not back breaking work and the results are 100% worth the effort. The kit completely transformed my kitchen but be prepared to spend some time and patience on this project (I practice on old bathroom cabinets to make sure I liked the color and knew what I was doing first). Having a large kitchen, I only needed one kit but I broke the project up into 3 sections to avoid painting until midnight. I did this with little help from my husband and even spray painted my hardware to match. Since completing the project, I have had several people ask what I used and have even completed another set of cabinets for my family. As a previous poster stated, there is not enough glaze but Rustoleum shipped another can out free of charge and with no hassle. For what it’s worth, I’ve heard they will be adding a second can to future boxes. I finished my project with the counter top transformations and am in love!”
- Don’t use the protective coat!, By Mellissa (Montrose, Colombia)- “Many people have said it works people but many, like me, have BUBBLES. It is a lot of work and looked beautiful until I went to coat the front of the cabinets and saw the BUBBLES and am heartbroken! The loads of work was worth it until I ruined it with the top coat. Several reviewers, here and at homedepot.com have said they’ve been advised to use a MINWAX polycrylic protective finish so I will wait until tomorrow (SO ready to be done and putting my kitchen back together!) to head to HD to grab some”.
- By A. Guilmain Skip The Protective Coat– “My husband and I purchased this kit for our cabinets. Our house is only 5 years old, but we didn’t get to choose any of the finishes. It came with very nice Merillat oak cabinets, but they are the same cabinet style that was put into EVERY house in the 80s-early 90s. I’ve hated them, but it’s not worth it for us to put a new kitchen in. So we purchased the dark kit and took our cabinets to black. The first degreaser step was fine. Lots of elbow grease, but it worked. Bond coats went on beautifully–except apparently on one of our drawers, there must have been something on our drop cloth that got painted on. It came off after two bond coats and we had to touch up. However, the finish was amazing on our cabinets, it looked great. It comes out very matte. We skipped the glaze step since we did the cabinets in black and figured it wouldn’t be worth the work. My husband and I both didn’t really want to put on the top coat because we loved the finish so well, but you can tell it will scratch easily. So he put on the protective coating on one drawer front, one cabinet door, and one set of cabinet faces. This? LOOKS AWFUL. The top coat bubbled really badly, and there was nothing on any of the surfaces to cause this. We used a clean brush and everything. So now we must sand them down and redo them. We’ll likely purchase a matte or satin polyurethane to go on top instead. I just hope we can salvage our cabinets and not ruin them”
- “My suggestion is to work in small sections at a time and use as little glaze as possible. You can always add more glaze if you want it darker. When Glazing, you need to work quickly as the longer you keep it on, the harder it is to wipe off. ” Cabinet Transformation By Domestic Diva
- Everything in one Box, By jhwongso I bought it for $73 after tax at Lowes (price match plus 10% discount since Homedepot was selling it cheaper). On the side note, Walmart is selling it for about $72. Take the price to Lowes and Homedepot and you’ll get a much better deal as they match and beat it by 10%. The process of transformation is simple but tedious. You really need to de-gloss the cabinets and panels thoroughly so the paint will stick better to the cabinets. I spend about 10-15 minutes de-glossing every cabinet door. I tried to conserve paint as I have 20 cabinets that needs to be painted including the island. This box provides you with 2 quarts on paint but I managed to get everything painted just with those 2 quarts. – To be on the safe side, I took the paint to Homedepot to try to get a match for BEHR paint. Amazingly, one of the associate at the paint department got me a perfect match. So here’s the bottom line (my opinion to be exact): You can actually buy the de-glosser, scrub pads, stains, cheese cloth, paint and gloss (water-based polyurethane) separately from the hardware store. You may even catch them on sale and get those supplies for a lesser price than this box. Paint gets cheaper as you buy in a bigger volume. There is really nothing special in this box that you can’t buy off the shelf. On the plus side, it is all put together in a nice box with an instructional DVD. However, you can get the instructions online too for free. For me, the most valuable item in the box is the cheese cloth as it has tons of it in it. Cheese cloth can be very expensive. I did not glaze my cabinets, so I gave all the cheese cloth to my wife . That made her happy. – The down side of this box is that in order to get more of the same color paint, you need to buy the entire kit. So my suggestion for everyone is if you really want to buy this kit and have chosen the color you want, get the associate at your local hardware store to match the color with another brand of paint. At least now you will feel safer if you run out of paint from this kit. An experienced person who does tons of paint matching will be able to match it perfectly. At least, it happened for me. Also, the paint in this kit is flat (no gloss). – Update: Just talked to an associate in Homedepot who used the Rust Oleum kit too and said that the texture and smell of the paint is very different from other paints. He’s been in the painting business for more than 10+ years. However, I did use BEHR flat interior paint on the kick plates and gloss it and it turn out the same as Rust Oleum. So, I’ll let the user be the judge.
- By Mike Anderson –“I bought the Rustoleum cabinet product in hopes of restoring my older looking cabinets. The product only cost $79 dollars, so I was not sure how it would look. Thus, I tried it on an old cabinet in my garage before proceeding with my kitchen. Although it’s a time sink, the product is Amazing! It’s a four step process: Clean, de-gloss, paint, gloss (optional). There is no sanding needed but you should buy some decent paint brushes if you do not have them already. Also, make sure you power drill is fully charged before you begin and setup plenty of work room. The project goes much faster if you have lots of space. Normally, I do not write product reviews but this stuff was so amazing I was having neighbors stopping by all over and many even gave me high 5’s, there were so amazed. Many of my neighbors were not sure if the cabinets were brand new or not. I don’t work for the company nor make a profit for those guys but it’s a WOW product. I never got a better “bang for my buck” than this product, hands down a winner!”
Bayleaf
Castle
Cottage
Federal Gray
Meadow
Seaside
Cabinet Transformations In Seaside –Bricks And Baubles Blog
“The next morning, we were able to apply the second coat and let it dry for 3 hours.Although the home owner helped me paint the cabinets, he was uncomfortable with the glazing step. His wife did not want the heavy, even glaze displayed on the box. She wanted a more high end look with most of the glaze in the corners and in the panel detail.Following the instructions on the DVD, I applied the glaze (which was really thin and watery) with a brush and wiped gently with the cloth provided. And TA DA….. it wiped the paint right off! WHAT!?! So…I decided to throw the instructions out the window and use my distressed faux finishing technique I have talked about before (and clean up most of the glaze with a moist paper towel). You get 1 very, very gentle wipe with the provided cheese cloth before the paint comes off and if it doesn’t look like you desire – too bad, I guess. I ended up only glazing the panel detail.”
Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Found on thedesignfile.net
Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation Review, How To, Tricks and Alternatives
Purchase higher quality paints and use them instead of the kit contents.Check out: Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations: Cost Comparison
Spray The Paint, Rather Than Brushing It“Although this product levels nicely I still recommend that you spray the paint through an HVLP sprayer or something similar. That is one thing that Rustoleum fails to mention is the importance of applicators. Telling customers that they can achieve a high quality finish similar to professionally finished high end cabinets is miss leading. Even the highest quality brush and roller can not give you the finish that looks like glass. That is achieved by spraying any product. “
“The fastest way to scuff any project is to load a 1/4 sheet sander with 3M scuff pads. you probably have seen these in the cleaning aisle at Wal Mart. I do not use the green pads but prefer to use the red pads. “
Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations to update builder grade oak cabinets Found on awesomehomepins.com
Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations Review – Before and After Abt Home Improvement
Color Frost
Color Linen
Color Ultra White
Kitchen cabinet makeover using Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations in Pure White Glazed
Found on thedomesticdiva.wordpress.com
Cabinet Transformations In Linen –craftedniche.com
Biscotti
RiverBirch
WinterFog
Rust-Oleum’s Cabinet Transformations Review Decor And The Dog
Found on campbell2008.wordpress.com
“I wanted to make a change to my kitchen cabinets. What I really wanted to do was paint them white. However, my husband didn’t like that idea. He likes a wood finish – and wants to be able to see the wood grain. We compromised by using this Rust-OLeum cabinet kit on them”
Kitchen Cabinet Transformation – Found on thelittlebrownhouse.us
More Cabinet Transformation Posts
“We used Rust-Oleum’s Cabinet Transformation kit in Linen.”
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