From the Floors Up

Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets

By Leave a Comment

Remodeling your kitchen can be an expensive home improvement project but worth the investment! With flooring, appliances, countertops, backsplashes, and cabinets all contributing to expenses, it can add up rather quickly. However, there are some tricks you may consider using to help save you time and money. For instance, if you are not remodeling and just updating your kitchen, perhaps repainting your cabinets may be the best move. While the option to just replace your cabinet drawers and doors is still another choice, repainting them can be the best bang for your buck. In fact, this option will eliminate the wood grain and just give them a painted finish. To help you tackle this home improvement project yourself, here is everything you should plan on doing:

Preparation

Prep work is the most essential part of any project. Start by removing all belonging inside your cabinets. Next, remove your drawers and doors from your cabinets. You should give everything a good wipe down to remove any grease or debris. Take off all hardware to cabinets and store them in a safe place. Once your cabinet doors and drawers are removed, you should give everything a thorough sanding. You will want to use a 220 grit sandpaper and sand with the grain. You can sand one more time with 320 to give it a smoother finish. Next, remove all sawdust from the areas and wipe down thoroughly with a dry, lint-free rag or cloth.

Prime

To ensure the best results for your project, you should prime your cabinets. This step can take several coats. You will need to stain each side of your doors and allow each coat to dry properly. Primer can take 8-12 hours to dry, depending on weather conditions. Prime your doors, drawers, and cabinets evenly. You may want to apply three coats of primer. Your primer should have a clean-looking finish with no orange peel before starting each additional layer.

Paint

Next, use your paint to paint all your cabinets, doors, and drawers. Allow each coat to dry thoroughly as well. You should apply two to three coats of paint to your project. If your coat does not have a sheen, you may want to consider adding a clear coat. This look can add a little more shine to the pain and give a protective finish. Once your cabinets are completely dry, you can put them back together. This step is a great time to touch up any areas that may need to be fixed.

Painting your cabinets is a great way to improve your kitchen on a budget. With new countertops, backsplashes, and flooring, your kitchen will become the focal point of your home! Just remember, this project can take several days and can have your kitchen temporarily out of commission. Make sure to plan accordingly to accomplish this task!

Various Types of Paint Primer for Your Project

By Leave a Comment

There are so many different types of primers on the market today that it is confusing to know which one to use. To help, we have compiled a list of the kinds of paint primers and hope that this will guide you during your selection. Since there are so many types, we could not list all of them at one time. We recommend keeping a copy of this list for questions you may have at a later date, and we hope this helps!

What Is Primer?

A primer will allow for a top coat to dry the way it should naturally dry. If the topcoat dries by liquids soaking on the surface, this process will pull out the solvents in the wrong way, and the paint will dry too fast. Speaking of drywall, solvents that soak into drywall normally damage the drywall. Therefore, drywall primers don not have solvents that interfere with the drywall.

Acrylic Primer

Acrylic primer is high-quality, and the quality of the acrylic primer will reflect the price tag. Keep in mind that most high-quality primers are acrylic primers. Acrylic primers do a great job at sealing, filling in cracks, and bonding like no other.

PVA Primer

Poly Vinyl Acetate or PVA is a good primer, made to use on brand new drywall and mud finish. PVA is perfect, especially if you have an expensive topcoat paint, and you want it to cover without buying more topcoat paint. PVA primer will take a small amount of topcoat paint/tint color very well. The amount of PVA used to prime the drywall is less if a tint is added to the primer. PVA does a great job of sealing drywall and dries smoothly. Keep in mind that you might not want to use PVA as a primer in rooms that are very popular with your family, simply because it cannot compare to high-quality acrylic primers. Think about priming rooms that are less used in the home like a guest room.

Bonding Primer

Bonding primers are a good quality primer. They work great at adhering to glossy surfaces, drywall, cured plastic, masonry, wood, galvanized metal, and aluminum. Bonding primer blocks stains from knots, water damage, crayons, and grease. It is also a great primer for enamel undercoatings. If you have a problem area where the paint is already peeling, do not use a bonding primer. If you are using a good quality bonding primer when applied, it will grab onto and grip the surface tightly. If your surface is already peeling, a bonding primer will cause the peeling paint to peel even more.

We hope our research has helped to answer some of your questions, and please drop us a line with any additional questions you may have!

Steps for Painting Your Garage Floor

By Leave a Comment

Garages can get a lot of traffic and become quite dirty over time. Concrete can muck up unwanted grease and oil and be challenging to clean. With a porous floor, concrete floor stains can easily ruin your garage appearance. A simple solution to make your garage look beautiful and be easier to clean is painting your garage floor. However, there are a few steps that you are going to want to take before beginning this task. Follow this step by step guide to ensure the best finished product. Let’s get started!

Remove Oil, Grease, and Stains

Oil and grease stains can be tough to remove. You can put down cat litter to help absorb some of the oil or grease. Allow it to sit for a day to continue to pull from the concrete. Sweep up the cat litter and apply dish detergent and scrub vigorously. You can also purchase oil and grease remover at your local hardware or car supply shop to assist with removing the stains.

Fill in Cracks

For the cracks in your concrete, consider using a thin-set material or epoxy paste. Smooth out your material and fill any voids. Allow these to dry and scrape away any unleveled areas. You may need to do some light sanding if the crack was very large and the epoxy comes out unsmooth.

Seal

Test your garage floor to see if it has been sealed. Start by pouring water on the concrete to see if it will absorb. If the floor has been sealed, the water will remain on top of the concrete. You will need to etch your garage if sealant present. Spread a commercial etcher and allow to dry overnight. This step will give your paint a better surface. Next, apply an epoxy sealant to your floor to prevent staining the next morning and allow it to dry.

Paint

Not all paints will work for different types of garage floors. Find an epoxy-based paint that is recommended for painting garages. Mix well and apply a thin layer using a roller. Repeat this method after each layer is fully dried. This process can take several days.

Painting your garage floor can take several days to complete; however, it is very rewarding. A clean, freshly painted garage floor can help prevent unwanted stains and spruce up the aesthetics of your space. For more tips and tricks on home improvement, make sure to subscribe.

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

Recent Comments

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive new post notifications via email.