By now, you may have seen our kitchen cabinet transformation. It all began over Memorial Day weekend and finally finished up a few days ago when we put the last knob on the door. Woohoo! See our pride and joy below:
Below you’ll find my review of the Rust-Oleum product. I was not compensated for this review, I shelled out my own hard-earned money for the kit. While I would recommend it, I don’t think it’s quite the miracle product we were expecting. Maybe my expectations from all the blog hype were overly inflated and maybe my execution wasn’t spot on. I will say, however, that I had already painted the cabinets in our three bathrooms in the traditional sand-prime-paint method, so I’m not a complete stranger to this type of project.
What I Liked
- I liked the water-based base coat. It was thinner than the latex paint I had used on my other cabinets, and it let the wood grain (even fake wood grain) show through. To me, this made it look more expensive. It also meant that we needed touch ups, so it was more like three coats instead of two (which means more drying time). Water-based was also less fumey than other paint we had used.
Before and after -- you still see the wood grain.
- The espresso color, which we chose, was very true to what we were expecting. It’s also nice to have so many color choices to choose from.
- There was plenty of information and the customer service was responsive.
- For the most part, the kit was handy instead of having to buy everything yourself.
- Overall, we are pleased with the results, and that’s really what it’s all about.
What I Didn’t Like
- The top coat was a pain! Gloppy, foamy and hard to get a good coat the first time, it seemed too thin after our first coat so we decided it needed two. Then we ran out and needed to buy more. The second product seemed less gloppy, but still very touchy when it came to getting even coverage. Perhaps uneven coverage might not be as bad on lighter cabinets?
Top coating. I eventually gave up on the gloves and mask. I'm still alive, though, and enjoying my cabinets.
See that white stuff on the edge? That's the foamy top coat that dried. That stuff foams more than a rabid dog. I scraped it off with a razor blade.
- Since our cabinets didn’t have knobs, there were certain places where years of grime had built up and the deglosser didn’t really get rid of it enough. This led to the base coat not sticking and the original oak slightly peeking through. Also, the paint bubbled at some point, after putting on the top coat. Not sure why this happened.
Check out that grime! It was all caked on and difficult to get off completely. All the more reason to put knobs on your cabinets.
Here's a place where the paint wasn't sticking. This was after two coats of base coat.
- Inconsistent information was frustrating. We liked the DVD for the most part. The website, box and papers inside seemed like a mountain of text for what is a simple process. Yet, with all that information, only one place on the box and nowhere else did it say to get the paint tinted at the store before you buy it. This makes sense, but is also strange to me. I originally thought that maybe you mixed the color yourself.
Home Depot Man saved the day when we brought back our little cans of base coat to get some color.
This may just be the former editor in me, but the DVD and the box recommend a different number of brushes that are required. Then there was also the matter of trying to find the glazing techniques online that were mentioned in the video. After searching online and emailing customer service, it turns out that the videos didn’t exist yet. And it’s not like I was in the first wave of people to use the kit.
- Despite claims on the box and in the video, the glaze didn’t really show up on dark paint, like at all. The hours of dry time to wait and find that they looked no different than when we first applied was a pain. Plus, it just made the kit less valuable to us in the end — could have skipped the cloths and two cans of glaze. (Also, the cloths included were really linty.)
- The video recommends putting your cabinets onto nails through spare 2-by-4s while you apply the base coat and top coat. I wouldn’t recommend this as we just ended up with visible indents in our doors.
Painting the cabinets on nails. I think next time I would paint them while still attached by the hinges.
If I Were to Do it Again…
- I would keep my dishes in the cabinets and wouldn’t remove the doors. We were carefully painting, and I think as long as were careful, we wouldn’t mess up anything inside the cabinets. This takes too much precious time.
- Expect it to take longer than a weekend, unless you don’t sleep.
- I wouldn’t buy as many paint brushes. I assumed the kit would ruin my brushes. While I didn’t want to use my expensive Purdy brushes, I think I would have been OK.
- Do the project with your spouse or a friend. It just makes it more fun!
- I would lightly sand the especially greasy places. Like mentioned above, we didn’t have knobs and the deglosser just wasn’t powerful enough. (And yes, I did scrub like the dickens.)
- Buy a work light. We ended up snagging one during the late painting sessions. Got it at Wal-Mart for a good price.
- Don’t do touch-ups with the top coat. You will notice it. You have to recoat all of it.
- Skip the glaze if you’re going dark. Also, calculate how much you can get the rest of the kit for and see if it might be cheaper to just buy deglosser, water-based paint and top coat.
- Get a moving packet from the post office. They’re free and usually include a 10 percent off a purchase at Lowe’s or Home Depot. And each one accepts competitor coupons, so you can use it at either place.
After readying that, I might just go old school. But it looks so so good, I’m glad you love it even after all the effort!
Just so I’m clear, would you use the kit next time?
Hi Rebecca! I’m a little torn. As much as I liked the kit, I think if you don’t plan to use the glaze, you can probably save some money by buying the materials seperately. I guess I thought that the deglosser (used instead of sanding) was a new idea since I had never heard of it. Instead, I found that it’s not new and you can buy it. If your cabinets aren’t as gross as mine were, I would go to town with a deglosser instead of sanding. And I would want to do two light coats of top coat instead of just one, and the kit only allows for one.
I would be tempted to try the Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations, but we don’t have laminate counters. That, I believe, is more of a revolutionary product than this one. I don’t want to fully endorse it though, since I have yet to try it.
This looks fabulous! At least all your hard work paid off
I especially love your wine fridge… haha
They look great Em!
I’ve seen this at Lowe’s and really wanted to try it. Our kitchen is the next room we hopefully will tackle and our cabinets are in desperate need of a new coat of paint. I love how yours turned out! But now I’m wondering if the kit would be worth it for us.
The cabinets look great! I’m new to DIY (spray-painted some picture frames for the first time last week!) so I appreciate your in-depth and candid assessment of this product. You made a really good observation about how important knobs/pulls are for keeping cabinets clean. Glad we have them on our cabinets. Congrats on finishing this big project!
I am in the final stretch of my own project, and was online looking for the Rustoleum e-mail, and found your blog. Your after pictures are inspiring me to keep the faith, but I am having the same issue with that darned top coat! I am doing the same color, and have those big white blobs on several doors. I am sanding them off now, but wondering if I need to sand the entire thing and repaint the whole thing with the bond coat?? Or can I sand just those areas and paint over the entire door, including the areas already top-coated?
Hope you don’t mind the questions, but thinking your insight might be more helpful!
Thank you, and the cabinets look awesome!
Hi Jenn! Thanks for the compliments! We’re pretty excited with the change. How big are the blobs? Mine were mostly on the edges or in the corners (where ours indented on the front). I was just able to lightly scrape/shave off the dried white stuff. Perhpas that might work for you? I didn’t really have to dab on any more top coat after that, but I would imagine that sanding and potentially losing your base coat wouldn’t really be worth it. I can’t imagine essentially starting all over again. It’s a looooong process, as you know! The problem with doing touch ups on these doors (mostly for the top coat part) is that you can start to tell where you did the touch ups when the light hits it just right. That’s part of the reason we did the two coats of top coat.
I bought the large kit in “Porcelain”. I painted the inside of one of my cabinet doors and it just wasn’t right with the rest of the kitchen (tile, wall color, etc.). I called Rustoleum and BEGGED them to sell me (SELL me, mind you, not give me for free) another can of the base and they WOULD NOT do it. They said I would have to buy an entire whole kit which costs $150.00. Further, the representative would not let me speak to anyone else or transfer me to anyone else in the company!!?? Sorry, but that is really poor customer service. The kit is very expensive in the first place, but their inflexibility to help you out is absurd. Even if I could afford another $150.00 kit (which I can’t) I would never buy anything from them again. “Satisfaction Guaranteed” my foot…..
I did the back of a door we don’t use much. I did not use the glaze since I went with espresso and can’t really tell if it looks like a painted cabinet door or a dark oak. We have red oak cabinets with a lot of grain and as I don’t like a lot of grain I don’t want it too look like a shabby paint job either. I think I will try one more inside door today in a better well lit area to see if that makes a difference. Any thoughts?
Hi Jody. If your cabinets are really grainy, as can be the case with oak cabinets, paint won’t cover that up. With our oak cabinets, the grain still showed through. It definitely looks painted, not like dark oak. We like the look. Young House Love (www.younghouselove.com) recently painted their oak cabinets white/gray the traditional way and the grain still showed through. Some sites recommend using a grain filler, but some also say it’s very time consuming. Hope that helps.
Hi Paula. Sorry to hear that you had trouble with customer service. My thought would be to go to the store and ask someone at the paint counter to recommend a similar product to the base.
Saw in another blog that there is nothing special about the tint coat, any paint will do. So just go o your paint store and have them mix he olor you love.
Emily,
Is there anyway you could share more close up pics of the cabinets to where we might see the actual finish a little better? We are wanting to paint our orange oak cabinets a really dark color (maybe black) hoping though that the grain will show through, lending hand to a finish that doesn’t look quite so painted.
Thanks for sharing all of your tips. We have been so hesitant to start our project for fear of a bad outcome.
Thanks!
Chad
I’ve been reading reviews and the ones i’ve read have been more like advertisements for the product! I really appreciat your honesty and “what i’d do next time!” section.
We just need to do our cabinet doors – we already stripped and stained our cabinets to a light oak so we’ll just get a close match for the doors. Our 70′s style BROWN doors have the pulls in the middle of the door…we want to fill those holes and put knobs in the corners instead once we are finished.
Do you think this product will cover those holes or will it show the fill?
Thanks,
Josie
Hi Josie, I’m glad you found the review helpful! This product is really just paint, so I wouldn’t recommend it for filling holes, especially filling holes over stain. I would recommend a wood putty or filler to cover the holes, although that process usually happens prior to staining. I’m not sure how you would fill it over the stain and have it look seamless. Hope that helps!
Hello Emily
I love reading all the comments and posts.
I moved into a home that has laminate kitchen cabinets (12 years old). Do you think this product would look good on laminate? They are white and I want to go dark (like your kitchen).
Do I need to paint the inside of the cabinets?
With all the time you spent on this, would refacing the cabinet in MDF have been better? (this is if you calculated all your hours). Why I ask is because my kitchen is 10x8x10 U shaped – 26 cabinets – upper and lower and 12 drawers. Don’t know how many weekends it will take and I have 2 toddlers (age 5 and 2), so I would send them away to grandma’s but don’t know if I can make the time commitment.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for writing such a detailed review. I also read one at domesticdiva.com that was really helpful too. I’m a lot older than you, and when I used to paint our house or cabinets etc, I always washed everything first with TSP dissolved in water. I would then rinse and wait for the wall or whatever to dry before I painted it. Any good paint department should carry it.
What I would really like to add though is, instead of always going to the big box stores where wages are low and benefits aren’t paid, SHOP LOCAL! Support your neighbors. Don’t go to the Home Depots, Ikeas, Walmarts etc, that put our citizens out of work by importing everything from China and India.
Go to your local lumberyard and family owned businesses.
Spot on review, pretty much. I did 2 bathroom vanities (in Espresso) a couple weeks ago as a test for the kitchen cabinet transformation I just finished. In the kitchen, I went from oak laminate/mdf to black, and while I haven’t hung the cabinet doors back up yet (still drying), the cabinet frames look pretty nice. Like you, I had visible white globs along the edges from the top coat. Some I brushed more base coat over (then a thinner layer of top coat to make it shiny), some I sanded off and redid with the base and top coats. I also did 2 layers of top coats, but I couldn’t help it, I spot touched some sections, and you can totally see the sheen difference when the light hits it at certain angles. Nothing too bad though, I hope. Of course, when you DIY, you can see all the tiny flaws. One thing I notices is that the bond coat did not stick to the sections of cabinet under the counter where the caulk is. Presumably no one is really looking down there, but it still irks me.
Hi Mandi, sorry I missed this and didn’t reply until now. I’m not sure if it would work on laminate. Might want to ask Rustoleum people. Centsational Girl also has really good info about painting various surfaces, I suggest checking out one of her posts. I wouldn’t bother painting the inside of the cabinets, at least not with the Rustoleum product. While I don’t love the look of the insides of our cabinets, I didn’t do it at the time. Maybe in the future I would paint the inside.
As for refacing cabinets, for us it wasn’t really an option. We were looking for a cheaper way (less than $200) to update our cabinets. If we didn’t use this product, we would have used paint. (This product is essentially a paint, gloss and top coat kit, so it’s not necessarily anything new in that sense.) In your situation with so many cabinets and kids, depending on your budget, it may be better to reface or look into degreasing the cabinets and doing paint (probably a primer+paint to save a step) without a top coat. Young House Love also has a good tutorial with painting their cabinets.
Hope that helps!