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I've been looking at online sites for the PERFECT paint color. I have two I'm looking for.
First, I need that color that is being used frequently as a "warm, yet neutral, golden honey beige." Know what I mean? It looks terrific with white trim and it's in all the HGTV makeover shows. I tried to find it when I did my dining room 2 years ago and never used it. I just didn't get the right shade I wanted. This should go well with sage and medium greens.
The next color I'm in search of is the perfect "antique white" to paint my kitchen cabinets. I don't want it too white, but don't want it yellowy looking either. A crisp and pretty ivory I guess.
If you've had great success with a certain shade, please let me know the specs on it! Thanks so very much!
I've attached a photo I pulled from the Cambria site I believe, that shows a beautiful antique white cabinet.
Much more info on my project is on my thread in Kitchens. ;-D
Pick and room and go thru the colors. When you've found the ones that look interesting, go to the store and get some of the big paint sample cards. Chestertown Buff is a pretty color, I'm not sure if it's what you're going for. It's in Historical Colors. I used Lancaster Whitewash iin our daughters room and for the trim in the upstairs bathroom. On my monitor, the chip at BM looks gray, but on the walls and the trim, it's not.
You can also have them mix the paint at your Ace store, if they don't already have the BM paint in there. Mine doesn't. But they mix them and they always match the sample card I have perfect. I've been very pleased with the Ace paint.
The type and amount of lighting can make a huge, huge difference between lovely and horrendous once paint is actually on the wall. What looks terrific on TV may look ghastly in your room. Also, differences in room lighting and size will make paint appear differently in different rooms in your house.
When choosing paint remember that the slightest bit of underlying color will tend to be more intense when you use it on a large space like a wall versus the paint chip in the store. Try picking a shade slightly more muted than what you want. Have the paint store mix up a quart that looks closest to the color you want and buy a quart of white base and some faux extender.
Paint a good-sized sample (3' x 3' or bigger) on the wall with the color you had mixed. If it seems a little off put about a half a cup of the mixed paint in a small container and use artists acrylics mixed with a some faux paint extender to correct the color. Brown or black will drab the color and make the paint a little darker. A color opposite your base color on the color wheel will tend to neutralize the color without making the paint darker. Add more of the underlying base color to intensify it. (Google for "paint color wheel" to see a color wheel.) Add some white base paint if you need to lighten.
It's also a good idea to wait and look at the color in light throughout the day and late evening with artificial light. When you have a color that looks nice on the wall once it dries use that color to paint a white piece of paper or cardboard. Take your sample to a paint store that has computerized color matching and you are good to go.
It costs a little extra and takes a little time to do the wall tests but given the amount of time involved in doing a quality paint job I think it is well worth it to be confident that the color works before diving into the whole job.
awesome advice, Thanks SO much to both of you for taking the time to reply and give suggestions!
I was wondering about mixing my own. The paint I referred to above was called Cracker Bitz and looked a little too "orangey brown" (yuk) instead of warm golden color. The yellow (Belgian Waffle) I have enjoyed, but it's a pretty buttery yellow. Not beige at all. I'm now wondering what the two would look like mixed since I have plenty of each. Using your suggestions I'll try it. I have tried large squares on the wall and played a lot with the swatches in the store, etc., but never thought to take a created color to the store for color matching! I just thought creating my own unique color might be a good way to use up leftover paint! lol
Terry, I will absolutely check those specific colors out. Thank you! My husband left for the weekend with the kids and left me here to do the bathroom! He even seems a little excited about the end result! I am finishing the primer now. Man, with only 4 cabinet doors on this bathroom project, that kitchen (with at least TWENTY doors) sounds pretty daunting. I think I'd need a WEEK to myself! lol!
Robin, if you mix the two to see if you like the color, just mix a 1/2 cup of each into another container. That way, if you measure, you can add a little more of one to get the color you want. Make sure you put it on a recipe card or something like and blow dry it to see if it's the shade you want. Dry vs wet is always different. I redid my MIL's kitchen. From stripping the paint off the cabinets, to all the painting in the whole room. I'd say I would of been done in about a months time if I hadn't fallen off that ladder and broke my ankle...lol.
Terry, Chestertown Buff looks a LOT like the Cracker Bits I described above. It is just two "swatches" higher than Bacon Hill Damask, which I was looking at. :)
Lancaster Whitewash looks a lot like the color I am using in the bathroom today for my cabinets, called Putty Pink (Valspar). It would look terrific with the sage green paint I'm looking at called Dill Weed! Pretty!
Benjamin Moore's Manchester Tan is nice.
Also, Sherwin Williams paint in Macadamian (probably spelled wrong) is a very solf golden tan. If you want a little darker, Basket Beigh is on the same sample card below Macadamia and is a beautiful color(in eggshell) if you have good light.
Moderate White is also on the same card and might be good for the Cabinets and I believe there is another color between the Moderate White and Macadamian that might be even better for them.
From my experience in Tennessee, Benjamin Moore can match Sherwin WIlliams colors if you just have the name for them.
Benjamin Moore also has VERY SMALL sample jars to try for $4.00
Sherwin WIlliams has a pint size you and try for $5.00
Man, with only 4 cabinet doors on this bathroom project, that kitchen (with at least TWENTY doors) sounds pretty daunting. I think I'd need a WEEK to myself! lol!
You might save yourself some considerable time and aggravation if you try some furniture refinisher to see if that will give your cabinets a satisfactory facelift. If that doesn't work, glazing rather than painting might be an option worth considering. Glazed cabinets are both expensive and currently quite trendy. Painted kitchen cabinets turn a lot of people stone cold if you ever plan to sell your house.
You can get ideas for glaze colors from checking out oak cabinet door samples at places that sell expensive cabinets.
I agree. Cabinets that are in great shape are always better than worn ones. Ours are so worn the doors won't close on some of them and they are so dark from age and don't clean very well. But before we sell they will be ripped out and the kitchen and dining room redone. I prefer it gets done today but not gonna happen! LOL
Ok, I really appreciate the input, but please, could you refer to my previous post in KITCHENS asking for help designing a nicer kitchen? It shows detailed pics. If you look closely, they are in pretty bad shape in places. The overall picture from 10 feet back isn't too bad. I will also post pics of the paint job I just completed on my bathroom, so you can say which is more appealing to you. I DO want the house to be nice while we're here, it may be longer than we think, but I DON'T want to spend all that time and energy (and $) if there is an easier way or if it makes them WORSE!
Ok here are the cabinets before. The house was built in 1986, so it's not like they're ancient, but they are very glossy, with a heavy grain and never had hardware, so they show a lot of wear in the spots where you grab the cabinet. They have significant water spots too. This pic really highlights the damage, I don't usually think it looks THIS bad, but that's it!
Is that duct tape? If so, why? You did remove the cabinet before you painted it, correct? It should be easy to remove? A couple screws and it comes off?
Ok, I feel a little better. Hubby says no, it would definitely not have been just a few screws. I don't see ANY screws and it SEEMS seriously glued to the wall or something.
I did look at your cabinets in the kitchen thread. It's impossible to tell from pictures but they don't look like they are definitely past furniture refinisher hope. I've had some extremely nasty-looking antiques, including oak veneer, come out stunningly beautiful just by using a refinisher and tung oil on them. Using a refinisher is one heck of a lot less work than either painting or glazining.
However, if you hate the color of the oak stain on your cabinets refinisher won't do the trick for you. Also, refinishing is a no-go if the oak veneer is chipped.
Glazing the cabinets will hide nearly as many sins as paint, will likely have better resale value if you do a careful, professional job and won't be any more work than painting.
You also might want to price refacing the cabinets and putting on new doors and drawer fronts. If you can manage the work yourself you can get sensational-looking kitchen cabinets on not a whole lot more than a beer budget.
Life is too short to live with something you don't care for but it is always wonderful when you can do something that you will both enjoy living with and will also put money in your pocket come resale time. Do whatever it is that you think you will love but it's always good to take some time to consider all options and their financial consequences when tackling something that impacts the value of your home the way kitchen cabinets do.
home depot carries Ralph Lauren interior paint and colors. The colors are the best that I've found. They look even better on the wall.Do not use them for exterior paint though!
I speak from experience. if you have a sutherlands lumber in your area they carry it also.
well actually i did use the main color of my house exterior from their palette, but you have to be careful as they are interior colors and look different (brighter) in the sun. The 'Chesapeake sunset" becomes john deere yellow! had to repaint that to a gray-green.
If you're like me you get something in your head and can't match it, but the ralph lauren
even inspires. hope this helps.
Prairiefire (and others): I don't know anything about glazing. What can you tell me about it?
Len: Thanks - that is a nice site! I have started "collecting" paint chips. I need to get a binder together. Iol I liked that site. Victoriana looks nice, doesn't it?
robin, the computer colors many times are not that accurate. they look much better on the samples from the store. but they sort of give you an idea.
i think glazing is what we use to call 'antiqueing'.
i saw a victorian lace? but i just looked up chesapeake sunset, which is what i painted my kitchen and living room, but it doesn't look anything like what is on the computer! on the computer it looks like a hideous pumpkin brown but in real life it is more of a yellow gold.
I found victoriana in naturals. A yellow gold sounds beautiful. That's what I was going for when I did our dining room. I used Belgian Waffle. It's a nice buttery yellow, but then we added a computer cabinet with a green and black formica. It was ok for a while, but now it's time to update everything and get it coordinated. Kind of hard when 3 rooms (living, dining, kitchen) are all open to one another!
Yesterday as I was enjoying my coffee with lots of cream, I realized what a beautiful color it is. :-) Kind of a "cafe au lait" color would be nice. Or like pumpkin ice cream. Yum!
If you have a chance, I'd love to hear extra opinions on the colors in my kitchen project over in the Kitchens forum! ;-D
I hope that shows up. It's the paint I just did in my entryway and I'm trying to decide if I want to extend it into the living room and then I will pretty much have to do the entire hallway in it as well. :)
I hope the duct tape doesn't pull of your paint! That stuff is sticky. Your cabinet shouldn't be glued up. I doubt seriously if it could hold there just by glue. If there's no screws on the inside of the cabinet showing, or under screw caps, it could possibly be on a rail system, where you just lift up. It's also possible to be hard to remove if there's paint from the wall that was ever slopped on it...?
Glazing is what I suggested above after painting. If you don't buy the glaze itself, but use stain instead, you use 1 part stain to 4 parts either water or mineral spirits, depending on if your stain is water based or oil based. You just use a brush to brush it on and wipe it off with a rag. It's like antiquing? Very easy to do. I don't think though, that with the cabinets in the shape they're in, that glazing by itself would look very good. The glaze would be sticking where the finish is rubbed off and not be an even finish. The glaze isn't going to stick to the varnish or the shiny finish either, it will have to be removed. When the pros do it, they solid stain or paint a piece, then glaze, then poly or put whatever their choice of finish is on.
I think it's very important to remember that antiques are made with far superior wood than cabinets made today or in the last few decades anyway. My 1900 oak pedestal table has a veneer top, but the veneer is solid oak and is thick, not the thin plastic looking veneers they use today.
The glazing I see on higher end cabinets is usually semi-transparent, allowing the wood grain to show through. One can also glaze over solid paint which is like the old-fashioned "antiquing" but it would be a shame not to take advantage of your existing wood grain unless you hate it.
Our local Home Depot and Lowe's both have quite a few examples of glazed cabinet doors. Kitchen decorating stores that do complete kitchens will also have a nice selection of glazed sample doors. Cabinet makers with showrooms would be another place you could look.
The Merillat site lets you choose a cabinet style and glaze and see what it looks like close up and shows a wall of cabinets simultaneously. Here is an oak cabinet that isn't too far different from what you have that has a nice selection of glazes:
[HYPERLINK@www.merillat.com]
Kraftmaid shows a few glazes on oak and you can click on the Oak Room down a little on the left to get an idea of how a whole kitchen would look with your choice of glaze:
[HYPERLINK@www.kraftmaid.com]
You can practice on some oak plywood or see if you can get some oak scraps from a local cabinet shop. Stain it similar to the cabinets you have and finish with clear lacquer (probably what is on your current cabinets) before you start playing with colors and practicing your technique. You want to mimic the appearance and absorbency of the wood on your cabinets as closely as possible on whatever material you use for testing and practice.
That is very helpful, thank you! Those cabinets are all so beautiful, I can't imagine mine looking like that, I'm afraid I would mess them up! I will definitely look into it!
The actual glazing is actually a bit faster and easier to do than painting to get a professional result but glazing may require extensive testing on scrap wood to get the look you want perfected. Glazing will also require the extra work of at least a couple of topcoats to protect it. If you have the patience to perfect your technique and get the color right on scraps there is absolutely no reason your cabinets can't be every bit as pretty as the ones on the web sites.
If you go with glazing it would probably be a good idea to first hit the the places on your cabinets where the finish is damaged with some refinisher to even out the underlying stain and finish. It should be much easier to fix the appearance that way than by trying to fix it with the glaze.
Do remember, however, when choosing a color that dark woods tend to look richer than light woods but they suck up light like a black hole. If you choose something dark plan on compensating by adding some considerable amount of extra light in your kitchen.
Ok, I have another question. I have been reading up on glazing. I went to Lowe's tonight in search of "acrylic glaze" and could not find anything. The lady helping me only directed me to the faux and decorative finishes aisle. I don't think that is exactly what I wanted. (Selection was mostly gold and black type finishes.) I think I am looking for a light chocolate color.
Next question, if you look at my cabinets, they are not the same raised panel style as some of the beautiful glazed cabinets I have seen. They simply have a (plywood) groove. This certainly would attract come of the extra glaze and create some depth, but I wonder if it would look the same.
I would try another store (Sherwin Williams/Home Depot) tomorrow and see if I can find the glaze I want and I guess I would buy a very small can of some brown color. Whatever they might recommend. We have several cans of stain here. Would that work and save me some $? I understand I also need a "chip brush." Do I do any rubbing with towels or is it all done with the brush?
Any glazing tips, send them my way! I was about to do the polycrylic when I realized I could experiment with these cabinets first.
Thanks so much for everyone's help!
PS Terry, fortunately, the duct tape didn't pull up any more than the blue tape. Occasionally I get a bit overexuberant and load the paint on along the creases, which can cuase it to pull just a bit when you remove the tape. ;-D
You don't buy glaze--you make it. Start with mixing plain old latex paint or artists acrylics half and half with a rolling extender like Floetrol or some faux paint extender. It might be a good idea to start out at Home Depot or Lowe's. That way you can take the paint sample cards back to the cabinet section to get something close to the glazed oak cabinet doors they have on display.
Adding more extender will make the glaze more transparent and increase the open time (the time the glaze is wet enough to manipulate and play with). Adding less extender will make the glaze more opaque but will cut your open time. A long open time is much more critical when doing something big like walls rather than something small like a cabinet door.
I make my own chip brushes. I buy these really cheap brushes at an Ace hardware that have short, stiffish bristles. Then I cut out narrow v-shaped chunks out of the ends of the bristles. The results tend to mimic wood-grain. Since you already have the very strong underlying wood grain of oak you probably won't need a lot of help with the brush for wood grain unless you choose a fairly opaque glaze but still want the wood grain look.
It probably would be a not so good idea to use leftover stain for this project. Stain grabs depending on the porosity of the wood. You will likely get uneven results in the parts where the cabinets are worn and the stain won't stick at all to the places where the finish is still good.
That said, using a polyurethane stain, which is a completely different animal than regular stain, would be a possibility. It is a semi-transparent product combining a stain and oil-based polyurethane. It hides a lot of sins but not as much as is possible with glazing. The last time I looked, this product only came in an oil base which is a little trickier to apply than a latex or acrylic-based glaze but the finish is tough so you would not have to top coat.
The areas where your cabinets are routed out will look different than the face because they will be porous and suck up glaze. It may look good that way or you might choose to highlight the difference up by accenting with a second color of glaze, rubbing it transparent and thin over the base glaze color on the cabinet face, and leaving it more intense in the routed part. I've seen cabinet door samples done that way.
You can help stop the routed portions from sucking up excessive glaze by going over them before glazing with a coat of water-based polyurethane. This would likely give you a better chance of just sticking with one color of glazing if that is the look you prefer.
You probably will only have to use a cloth for rubbing if you go with two colors of glazing. However, you can experiment and see if you like a toweled-off look with one color of glaze.
The key to a good result for a project like this which is much, much more art than science is having the patience to do plenty of testing first before you tackle the cabinets themselves. It would be impossible to overemphasize just how critical it is to test on scraps first if you want to end up with a professional looking job. The good news is that, once the testing is done and you are confident of your glaze selection and technique, the job itself goes quite quickly.
Use a straight razor and a straight edge to score along the tape lines where you blobbed the paint on too thick for the tape to peel off cleanly. That will prevent paint from pulling off along the edges of the tape.
Also, I saw a clever trick on HGTV for preventing paint from bleeding under masking tape. Go over the taped edges with faux extender first. Any of the extender that bleeds will be clear and will seal the edge leaving a sharp line when you paint. I haven't tried this yet but I plan to for my next painting project.
I headed to a Sherwin Williams today and asked for an acrylic glaze. I brushed it on, then wiped it off. Even though the bathroom project is "practice" for the kitchen, I considered keeping it, but I think I will go ahead and paint over it and keep the white white.
Here's a pic! OPINIONS??!!
PS You are absolutely right, it's more art than science. The one thing I could not figure out is how am I supposed to HOLD ONTO IT without touching it anywhere and marring the texture??!
PSS I knew it would grab the stain more in the routing, but they aren't very "fancy" cabinets, like some you see with the variation of depths. I thought it looked better than it did before though.
So, for the kitchen, I feel like I would need to do the WALL COLOR FIRST, then the cabinets. Is that what you all would recommend?
Are you painting the kitchen cabinets, or just glazing them? I've tried matching existing stains before and find it next to impossible. Especially when there's a finish on it that I don't know what it is. Is it shellac? Poly? Vanish? Or something entirely different? Stains and their finishes change color over time. It's also gets very expensive buying all the different cans of stain, mixing a little of this and a little of that one and then it's still not the right color, so I need to add in more _______(fill in the blank).
I would rather just see painted cabinets and not the glaze. In your kitchen, if you go with the black and green counter tops, but use a brown glaze, IMHO, it won't look good. I'm picky though and know what I like. I don't care for glazed wood, and the only time I like glazed cabinets is white with (very light) black glazing, or green with the (very light) brown glazing. The brown on the white looks dirty...again, just my opinion.
I know what you mean, it does kind of look dirty. ;) I already mentioned that to my neighbor who came over, but she liked it, so ...
I would paint a cream color, then do a glaze over it. Wonder what a greenish glaze would look like, then green walls?
Ideally, I would really like to get a different counter top. I like the dining room/computer area being one thing and the kitchen something that coordinates, but is different. It may be a slow process, but eventually I would really love a granite or quartz countertop and a new stainless sink. :-D
I think over in the kitchen thread, I'll post some "dream kitchen" pics I've been collecting to give everyone an idea of what I've been thinking about. My thoughts are extending into the dining room, since I think you have to plan with both rooms in mind.
So, just wanna make sure I understand what you're saying: you prefer paint alone and aren't crazy about the glaze? Thanks for your opinion!
WHAT DOES EVERYONE ELSE THINK? If you're reading, PLEASE chime in, I really want to know what everyone thinks. I think I'm ready to get away from the oak look and go with something that will lighten the room.
i think from the looks of your picture it has a clean simple look to the cabinets that sets off the busy countertops.
or maybe go for the 'busy' cabinets and get a simple looking countertop?
but busy cabinets and busy countertops? i think it would be too much! too cluttery looking
and cheap.
You did a very nice job on the glazing but I think if you decide to go that route you might want to consider adjusting the glaze color a bit so it more closely matches your floor. On my computer it looks like the glaze could use some brown and just a smidge of green but looking at colors on the computer usually isn't at all reliable. Matching the tone of the floor and cabinets will visually tie them together which is usually a pleasing look in a small space like a bathroom.
If you decide to glaze your bathroom cabinets and adjust the color of the glaze practice on scrap wood--not the cabinets themselves.
I think you should be the one to decide whether or not you prefer your bathroom cabinets just painted or painted with glaze. You are the one who has to live with the results. Either looks nice.
Quoted:
The one thing I could not figure out is how am I supposed to HOLD ONTO IT without touching it anywhere and marring the texture??!
What is the "it" that you are having problems holding on to?
In your kitchen do the cabinets first if you opt for glaze or using poly stain for the cabinets. It is a heck of a lot easier to get make adjustments in the wall color so it looks good with the cabinets than vice versa.
On HGTV I saw them using a product over a laminate counter top. The end result looked exactly like Silestone-type countertop but that was on TV. It might be worth some research before you go to the considerable expense of replacing your counter tops.
