A Diva in Your Kitchen!

Last week I attended an Opera Gala. The last song featured four singers singing together; different voices, different parts, blended in a fantastic whole such as only Mozart can compose.

The room that is used most often in a home while our eyes are open is the kitchen, from the first moments in the light of the morning to the last cup of tea at night.

All house members use it all day. It is usually the heart, the center of the party—even though guests have been invited several times to come into the living room! It is also the room that is most often remodeled. And, just as in a Mozart quintet, there are several “divas” singing together in the kitchen—the cabinets, the counter tops, the back splash, the floor, and the walls. Making them all work together is akin to composing a complex piece of music.

Before delving into this topic, I would first like to offer an important recommendation: select your counter tops first! Their colors/texture cannot be as easily modified or adjusted as those of the other parts of the kitchen, especially if you want to use natural materials (granite, quartzite). The counter top will give you the musical key, i.e., the undertones you will want to take into consideration when selecting the rest of the materials and colors.

Back to your cabinets; I will address the most frequently asked questions, indicate what products to use for your project, help you avoid the common hurdles, and identify design mistakes and successes, following the three points below:

1. The Choices — Do I paint/stain the current cabinets or replace them? Do I replace the face of the cabinets or the entire cabinet? How do I choose colors?
2. What wood you like? — Do I paint my wooden cabinets or just stain them?
3. The Products — What is the most durable paint, conversion varnish, or other material for a long-lasting kitchen?

The Choices

If the frame of your cabinets and shelving is still sound and solid, with no sign of weakening, and you like the style of the doors and drawers, consider painting or re-staining. Painting or staining decent old cabinets is likely to prove more rewarding than you can foresee, unless you have damaged wood or sections with marks or stains, in which case it may be more costly to repair and/or thoroughly sand out blemishes before staining. Make sure to find out from a professional if your cabinets are worth saving.

If your cabinets are worth keeping (perhaps the kitchen design is complex and custom-built, or you simply like the look of them, or they are made of solid hardwood), remember that whether you decide to paint or stain, the prep work of stripping the old varnish, sanding it down (including all grooves!) to obtain a smooth surface (and down to the raw wood if you plan to stain) is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Also, in years past, effective paint/varnish strippers were sold to remove old coating (lacquer, varnish, polyurethane) on cabinets. Today, however, the new EPA-friendly paint stripping products are not all that effective, which explains why a second option, refacing, is becoming more popular for budget-sensitive projects. It is now increasingly possible to replace doors and drawer faces with new wood to match and achieve a nearly-new look—if the frame is sound—with the added advantage of being able to create the perfect finish!

If you decide to buy new cabinets, there are many styles to choose from and here are a few of them:

• Shaker style — simple and sober, it blends well with many other styles of furniture, lighting, or appliances.
• Modern or contemporary — with very simple, straight lines, for a minimalist impression. Slab or flat-panel are other names for this sleek, urban style.
• Glass-front cabinets — for a lighter look, perhaps made more dramatic with the use of lighting to showcase special glasses or dishes.
• Traditional or cottage style — for a classic look, perhaps a little dated but moving towards a vintage look, with raised panels or beadboard details.

Many wood veneers, and laminates that resemble wood, are also available, some of which look as elegant as solid wood and will suit a contemporary kitchen. With veneers, whether wood or laminates such as CLEAF (Italian made), you have an option to choose between the horizontal or the vertical grain direction.

Now you may be ready to think of colors… Choosing colors for a kitchen deserves careful consideration. Think of how you want to feel in the morning when you enter the room to prepare your coffee and start the day, or at night after a day of work when you need to cook and relax… Do you want the overall impression of your kitchen to be calming and serene, or dramatic, rich, and energizing? Do you favor the high-contrast, modern look or a soft, muted, and more neutral effect? Remember that you might tire of a bright, high-contrast color scheme faster than you would a softer one, unless the colors are deeply and reliably pleasing to you, as opposed to a passing fancy, idea, or fashion. Of course, you can also combine gentle, calming colors with a zest of invigorating brightness and paint a single element such as the kitchen island, for example, in a strong accent color, keeping the rest of the cabinets more muted. Or else, in a neutral, calming color scheme, introduce notes of strong color with a toaster, bright towels, or a striking fruit bowl (this way, your accent colors can change relatively often).

Last, as for other rooms, but with even more intention, consider, before choosing colors, how much natural light enters the space at what time of day, and how it changes with the seasons. And, of course, your choices in artificial lighting will go hand-in-hand with your color options. I cannot stress enough the importance of lighting in a kitchen! It should include low mood lighting (think of getting a glass of water at 2:00 AM… or during a late party) task lighting and overall lighting. It is an area important enough to be the focus of another article.

What Wood You Like?

To paint or to stain… your wood cabinets? Both methods have pros and cons that can make you change your mind if you are not completely set on either one or the other.

Staining. The preparation of the surfaces will involve sanding in both cases, but if you are considering staining, the sanding will need to be very thorough to remove all varnish all the way down to the raw wood, whereas for painting, you will just need enough sanding for the primer to stick. The staining scenario may also limit your choice of color if your cabinets have stains, because in that case you may have to stain with a darker color, a limitation that does not exist with paint. However, if your wooden cabinets have been waxed or rubbed with furniture oil repeatedly over a long time, painting may be difficult as the new paint may have trouble sticking to the surface, no matter how thorough the sanding. Finally, overall, you are more likely to be successful in staining your cabinets if they are made of hardwood, such as oak, hickory, maple, or mahogany. Alder, for example, which is a softer wood, might not yield such good results.

Painting. If you are considering painting, remember that reverting to staining after painting is practically impossible—whereas you can usually paint after having stained a wooden surface. So, you will want to be sure of your choice. Clients often dream of painting their wooden cabinets to brighten the overall look of their kitchen, opting for a lighter color. If you choose to paint, I highly recommend using the best possible paint quality to ensure durability. In addition, it is essential to use the appropriate high-quality primer if the wood has been stained with an oil-based stain (Shellac primer), all this before even starting to paint. After the paint has been applied, a clear polyurethane coat is often applied to the surfaces for durability. Note that this will change the color ever so slightly (a “clear coat” is never truly “clear” and most often contains a hint of yellow). Whatever your choice, hire a very skilled painter and you will not regret it!

The Products

Different products are available for kitchen cabinets to suit different projects and budgets:

• Conversion Varnish: This product was designed for new cabinets. A conversion varnish has twice the dry film thickness of a traditional lacquer and is more durable. It dries extremely hard. On the downside, it is expensive and cannot be touched up easily, except by someone with the appropriate technical skill. It cannot be applied on cabinets that have been previously stained.
• Paint: I recommend using Benjamin Moore Advance® or INSL-X® Cabinet Coat. Both are very durable and provide ultra-smooth finishes. Advance® becomes very hard when dry and is extremely durable—it even comes in a matte finish that is just as washable. Regular semi-gloss paint will not be as durable or as hard as the above products.

The most practical, because washable, sheen levels for kitchen cabinets are usually semi-gloss or satin. In some cases, for an ultra-modern look, high gloss paint can be used, but it needs to be applied to perfection. And if you want to tone down the sharpness of your chosen color, or if your glass-front cabinets catch too much light, washable matte finishes do exist, as with the Benjamin Moore Advance® brand.