Goodbye Ugly 80's Oak Cabinets, Hello Modern Industrial!

Dysko7710
by Dysko7710
3 Materials
$30
3 Days
Medium
We are in the process of redoing our entire basement. It is a finished basement, but was totally stuck in the 80's. Ugly wall paper, ugly wood cabinets, ugly wood trimming on the bottom half of the walls. We have already taken down the wallpaper and painted all of the walls and the wood paneling. So, these cabinets really stuck out like a sore thumb!

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You can see 'behind the black curtain' that is on the back wall for our theater area, that the walls used to be covered in ugly wallpaper. Pay no attention to what is behind the curtain. We didn't bother painting behind it. But you can see the gray wall with the reddish brown painted paneling did not look great up against these cabinets.
I used this Sherwin Williams Color to Go in Black for the frame of the cabinetry up front. It goes on pretty thick. I didn't sand or prime and it went on fine with two coats. To be safe (if you are less lazy and cheap than I am) you can buy sand paper and primer and sand and prime first to be safe.
I used Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover Metallic Paint in Silver for the counter tops, doors and drawer faces. This stuff is awesome, but it does have an odor, and you don't want it to get on anything you don't intend to get it on. It covers great. Again, I did not sand or prime, but this stuff does cover really well. I did two coats of this as well.
You can see above, the metallic paint goes on well and thick. I took the drawers out and the cabinet doors off and painted those in the garage. I balanced them all on old empty food boxes to keep them off the floor while I painted.
Here is a shot with the trim painted black and the tops metallic.
To give all of my metallic painted areas an aged/roughed up look, I used a mixture of Color To Go Black paint with Glazing Medium. There is no magic ratio here, I think I used probably two parts paint to one part glazing medium. I mixed this in a bowl and rubbed it on the silver with a cloth (after the paint had dried).
This is what it looks like when you first start applying it. Apply it on as thickly as you want, it dries slowly so you can work with it. I applied it like this and let it start to dry a little bit, maybe ten minutes. Then I used a cloth to take off the excess and rub it in until I got the look I wanted.
This is how it looked after I removed excess and rubbed it in. It gives it a subtle worn look.
I did the glazing technique to all of the drawers and doors, as well. I did not seal any of this, since we will just be using it to store games and movies. The surfaces won't get a lot of contact. I do often use a wipe on water based poly to protect most of my projects, depending on the exposure they get to wear and tear. I painted all of the hardware black with my black paint. This is the finished product with the curtain down and all. I was really happy with how this turned out. My cost for this project was $0 because I had all of the paint and supplies on hand already from other projects, but if I had to project based on what I probably paid for the three main products, I would say about $30 not including paint brushes. Not too bad either way! Hope you enjoyed my project!
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  • Geeswonderland Geeswonderland on Sep 01, 2017

    Are you going to paint the wainscoting black too??

  • Lyn Lyn on Sep 03, 2017

    Hi I love what you've done and would really like to change my kitchen work tops. Fear of messing them up holds me back. Is the silver paint easy to use and what could I seal it with. I live alone but obviously I use my kitchen and work tops. I don't want to poison my self or my family if I'm using the worktops for prepar foods lol

  • Trish Trish on Oct 06, 2017

    So I have burgundy counters in my very old kitchen, will this work on my counters?

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  • Joanie Joanie on Sep 02, 2017

    I'm sorry,....I forgot my comment, I got so excited...........your entire t.v. Station, I would call it, or entertainment center..........IS the Bomb!! Lots of room for everything. Enjoy this area........you are gonna love it!!

  • Baba Baba on Sep 17, 2017

    What a transformation!! I love it!! Great job!

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