Ben's Country Woodshop decided to try something different...and kitchen cabinet redo for his mother. Brave soul.
What got the ball rolling was a great deal at the flea market on three old cabinet doors with glass fronts. The only thing wrong with them was a few scratches and they were a dark brown stain, which didn't match anything. But they were made of oak and solidly constructed, so Ben figured he'd find a good use for them somewhere.
When Ben's mother saw them, she had a good use for them right away...her kitchen! However, her kitchen is pretty much white...with a lot of open shelves instead of upper cabinets. Now we all know that if you look at the current home magazines, everyone seems to want open shelves instead of closed cabinets. They do look great...as long as you don't mind dusting frequently. And anyone who cooks knows that eventually dust will mix with grease in the air (even if you don't fry food often, somehow it is still there...trust me!), and it creates a gooey dusty covering over anything left out in the open for very long without frequent use and washing.
Ben's Mom is a great housekeeper, even though she works outside of the home full time and doesn't have much time to devote to housecleaning. Dust is one of her biggest bug-a-boos, especially in the kitchen. So open shelves, even though they displayed her favorite tea pots, mugs, and other interesting items, became a frustration to keep clean and tidy all of the time.
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Open shelves BEFORE the Redo
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So, Ben's Mom claimed the new cabinet doors and cajoled Ben into creating a new closed cabinet for her open shelves. However, Ben was not about to tackle this job on his own. If Mom wants them, Mom can help! Which, of course, she did with glee!
After much discussion, it was determined that a shabby chic style of cabinet door would probably be the best way to go for these particular doors. First MOM sanded a good bit of the original finish off of the wood, and then painted the doors white. After painting, she sanded the edges all the way around to give the doors an older, well used look that matched the look of her older, well used kitchen.
Meanwhile, out in the workshop, Ben was busily creating a face frame for the cabinet doors.
This took some time and careful measurements to be sure they would fit...and cover the open space of the shelves.
It was tricky, because the old shelves were very uneven, and therefore some interior work had to be done before the faceframe could be attached.
Oh, and by the way, MOM had to paint the face frame too, as well as repaint the inside of the shelves/wall because we had to move one of the shelves and revealed unpainted surfaces where the shelf had been. Had to repaint the shelves as well. Since we didn't have anymore of the original paint for the wall, we decided to go ahead and paint the interior white since it would be covered anyway and would be darker with the doors on it.
Next, Ben and MOM held up the frame with the doors (unattached) to see how it was going to look and to be sure everything would fit. This took some strength and energy for both...especially Mom...
Take a good look and be sure it's the way you want it MOM, before we tack everything up permanently.
We finally got the doors on, and MOM couldn't wait to get her stuff back on the shelves! We decided we liked the look of the doors better without the mullions (window grid), as they didn't quite line up with the shelves and blocked too much of the view. Now we have to figure out how to put the glass back in the doors without the mullions, because they helped take up the gap between the glass and the door frame. So until Ben figures it out we have left them glassless...but hopefully not for long, or that dust will start accumulating again and MOM will not be happy!
Thus ends another Ben's Country Woodshop event!
It was a lot of fun working together to get the job done!
And MOM is VERY Happy!!!
POSTSCRIPT: Did I mention that there were THREE doors? Oh yes! I almost forgot! There's the empty wall space in Mom's kitchen that has been just BEGGING for a cabinet ever since we moved to this house...or should I say that MOM has been BEGGING for a cabinet in that space ever since we moved to this house...
Yes, I believe you will see that Ben's Country Woodshop's NEXT project will be a "Cabinet DO", not just a "redo", so there will be some place to put that jar of peanut butter out of sight...
So the story really isn't ended after all! Stay tuned for further developments, because you see that blank white cabinet door on the right of the wall space...yep, that one's on the list to be "redone" some time in the near future as well.
