From Orange Wood to Sophisticated Chalk Paint

Here's a kitchen that started out with orange-ish wood. The home owners had installed new backsplash for their kitchen and did not like how it looked with the wood cabinets. She wanted her cabinets to blend well with the backsplash and the rest of the house. We painted the kitchen and laundry room with Annie Sloan chalk paint in graphite. The home owner wanted a traditional look, but yet sophisticated. She did not want a distressed, country look at all. So I did a few things differently in order for the cabinets to look sophisticated and snazzy:)

First we cleaned the cabinets very well. You can read about prep work here.We deepened the graphite by first putting on a dark gray oil based primer. Then I put on 2 coats of chalk paint. I went straight to dark wax as my client wanted the cabinets to be dark and deep. I mixed in some mineral spirits in so it would spread easier but also I needed the wax to be able to wipe off smoothly as I was going for a very smooth look. I did not push or rub the wax in with my rags as I normally do. I wiped off carefully, in one direction, for a smoother finish. Once the wax sat for a week I added the gold edging for just a touch of glam. We also gave her new hardware. The kitchen now looks perfect with the backsplash and the rest of the house! The first photo is of the original wood. You can see it was kind of orange. Make sure you prep first! Very important! Read my other blog posts on the how to paint cabinets, here's a link on how to use chalk paint and here is one on how to paint cabinets with chalk paint.