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I have an idea for remodeling my kitchen cabinets and would welcome lots of input. My kitchen is a very small, 1940 tract house kitchen with the original wood cabinets. Looks like what you find in many Granny kitchens. I would like to cover all surfaces of the cabinets with stained glass mosaic. The kitchen is such a small size, that I have never been able to get very exciting about putting in new cabinets and the current ones are very solid and in good shape. Just boring. On one side of the kitchen there is just room for a 24" stove and a refigerator with cabinets up above. The other side is about 8' long with the sink in the middle and a dishwasher below on one side of the sink. There is a window above the sink and wall cabinets on either side of the window, so overall we are talking about maybe 50 square feet of wood to be covered with mosaic. Now the bad part of this is that I'm not an artist and have limited experience in doing mosaic, so could use some beginner hints. These links gives an idea of the type of design I have in mine:
Here are some questions I have already come up with:
1. Do you think this is a crazy idea?
2. The cabinets are stained and varnished. Do I need to sand them or put some type of base coating on before appling the mosaic?
3. I am leaning towards using stained glass because I like the patterns. Do you think I should also use some regular small tiles or just stick with the glass?
4. I thinking of black counter tops and sticking with a mostly browns, amber, cremes, whites for the glass with black to pull things together. Here is a link to the glass I am looking at to begin with.
First and foremost - there are some mosaic artists out there that have done some countertops and etc. for kitchens.
If you go to Yahoo Groups, Mosaic Artist Organization Group/Forum, they have an EXTENSIVE database of info covering alot of questions.
You can also go into their photos and browse alot of different artist work to see who has done their cabinets.
and...Yes - You're going to need to sand those cabinets down. Then prime with Kilz. Stained glass is translucent, if you don't kilz, then, the background wood color will change the look of color of your glass.
For cabinets, textured pieces, gems, etc. would be ok.
For countertop - you'd want the most even glass you could get.
For countertops - most would encourage you to lay either backerboard or durock (sp?). Either of those materials would prevent water seepage. If you leave the wood and mosaic over it, water can expand and contract the wood which would cause the grout to crack and break. Hardibacker and durock are inexpensive and can be found at any big box hardware store.
But - please - do as much research as you can so that you go into the project armed with the best information you can get.
All that being said - GO FOR IT. Have seen some amazingly beautiful work done in kitchens!!!
I agree with everything Kimmy posted, though I would like to
address your question:
1. Do you think this is a crazy idea?
Absolutely not, though I believe one could GO crazy with all those
wonderfully expressive and creative thoughts held in. I'm right there
with you on such a thought.
I've often thought I would love to mosaic
everything in the house. IF I lived alone. I live with three guys (hubs and
two kids) and they are rough on the house. They would swing and bang
the cabinets shut for sure, so if you have cupboard bangers, this might
be a consideration. Slam! There goes half the image. Bang! The design
you spent ten hours on just fell off.
Don't ever stop having such ideas. Keep them coming, write them down,
bring them to life. If you don't like it, you can always change it or do away with
it, but go for it! Do read as much as you can before you begin, not to quell
your enthusiasm, but it would be sad to see such work be for naught if anything
went wrong.
Keep up the great ideas and know I'm right there with you creatively!
Go for it!! Jsut tell anyone who breaks the cabinets thou that they will have to do all the work over themselves without your help. I can ganrantee they will treat it good! lol
Thanks for the replies! I've joined the Yahoo Mosaic groups and in general, most of them seem to think it is too big a project for the stage of learning that I'm at. Plus they brought up some possible problems I had not thought about. I've decided to work on a few smaller projects with different materials this winter to get a better feel for what I'm doing and then re-think what to do with the kitchen. I'll keep you posted.
