Help!!! Cabinet color change leads to hinges looking ugly! What to do?
- Our house was built in 1992 and has custom honey stained oak cabinets. We have a master bathroom, small guest bathroom and a small to medium sized kitchen.
I would like to update the look of these cabinets and have already stained one bathroom a dark espresso. - We loved the new color until we looked at the exposed hinges, which are now standing out like sore thumbs. They are an antique brass finish and in researching new hinges, we can't seem to find these same type of hinges for sale in other finishes.
- The closest we could find for a description is "variable overlay single demountable face mounted hinges".
The hinge issue makes us wonder if we should look into refacing the cabinetry instead and thereby eliminate the hinge issue......a refacing update would come with updated hinges.
Questions:
1. Is it a good idea to spend less money and change the hinges from exposed to hidden and then keep going with my dark stain makeover?
2. Should we continue the hunt for the existing hinge style in a new finish? (Painting the existing hinges is not a long term solution, esp. Since there are a few broken ones). Also, there is no brand name, but they look like Amerock. I called them and they said that variable overlay hinges are no longer made. I'm not sure if that is true for other companies.
3. Should we consider spending more $ and replace all the doors and drawer fronts? We have 42 cab doors and 26 drawers. There are no pulls or knobs on them as they have a little slot for pulling open. I would like to add knobs and pulls but cringe at the thought of adding more antique brass finish hardware, which is really outdated.
Thanks for any advice or pointers you all may have for us. We are really stuck in our thought process on how to proceed!
The picture below shows what the cabinets look like with the new espresso color that is on this bathroom only. We LOVE the dark color!!
Comments (19)
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Comments (8)nosoccermom - I did my bathroom cabinets with General Finishes Gel Stain in Java color and I just finished my kitchen cabinets with Old Masters Gel Stain in Red Mahogany color. I also have most of my trim completed on the first floor with the same Old Masters Gel Stain. That stuff works wonders. Its by far the cheapest home improvement I've done that's had the largest impact on my design. Back to the doors... I gave it a second coat yesterday. It definitely looks much better than the first. Still a little streaky in spots, but it won't be perfect since I'm staining such a large area. I brought the door back inside yesterday after the second coat. All the doors in my house are in a darker hallway... except for that one door I posted a photo of above which leads to the basement. When I placed the stained door in this spot, you could definitely notice some streaks. However, I took that same door and placed it in the hallway and you can barely notice it thanks to the not so good lighting. So I think this will work... I'll stain a couple more doors this weekend, hang them, and see what they look like. I'll post some photos when I get the door hung....See Morecabinet bottoms are ugly - what to do?
Comments (17)Why do you have to apply a skin if you are going to paint? I'd certainly try this first: Just skim the bottom with a filler if the wood is rough, sand lightly, prime, and paint. You can do one cab at a time if you want, so it won't be an overwhelming project. And you only need to do the ''bottoms'' that you see. The improvement will be huge. I an not sure that applying light rails will help much if at all. They work fine when the viewer's eye is above the plane of the cabinet bottoms, but you are looking up at the cab bottoms. Why not make a mock up light rail to check it out? Just fold a piece of cardboard and stick it flat on the inside cabinet bottom and let it hang down 2 inches below the door. See how much that helps....See MoreHelp! Ugly plywood cabinets! Part II, Finally!
Comments (59)Note that wood filler will crack over time as the wood moves if you are intending to use it to fill cracks between wood pieces. You'll need to use caulk to avoid that and caulk can not be shaped and molded like the woodfiller. I had the plywood style cabinets you have, but in much much better shape and was just going to do a replace the doors and hardware and re-configure a bit because I saw in person how the added wood to the doors looked after a few years in my friends home (looked nice when just done and they did spend a lot of detail work on it). However since my boxes were built in large pieces I couldn't reconfigure and ended up completely replacing the boxes too.. This was my old house. In my current house we have plywood built cabinets that all looks nice on the surface, but are cheaply built IMHO. We've fixed slides twice, the doors are a bit warped, drawer boxes need some help soon. I also installed some IKEA cabinets in our dining room which holds all my daughters toys. They get as much use as our kitchen cabinets and have held up so much better as well, plus they have been handled by little people who are not careful. They are low VOC and has the nice bells and whistles of full extension soft close drawer glides and soft close doors. I really want to switch my kitchen cabinets to IKEA, but for me to do that I need to come up with a better layout to satisfy the other issues with my kitchen. Unfortunately for you it doesn't look like cabinet grade plywood was used on your cabinets due to the roughness which is another huge difference between yours and irmaly's starting point. If you insist on keeping the boxes vs. getting the nice bells and whistles you could with IKEA cabinets, then at least save yourself the frustration and get some new doors/drawer fronts and also some new drawer boxes. In my old house I used Scherr's to replace the doors in my 2 bathrooms and for a master vanity I built and used all wood in poplar - a cheaper paintgrade wood if you want to avoid the MDF. However having MDF as the center panel in a door makes the door more stable and less prone to wood changes with humidity. I agree with most though that starting from scratch would be worth it vs. the amount of time you'll spend on what you have and then how long it will last after that. You'd also have a better starting point with new cabinets and re-configuring the space. Sure you can do what you want and end up with it looking a whole lot better- but you said you were short on time and working with what you have is going to take a long time to make it look pristine. That is a lot of filling and sanding needed. Never mind how you plan to fix the edges so it looks good. That line would bother me to see the line between the applied wood and then the ratty edge underneath that will need a lot of work to made look good again. Sure you wouldn't see it when closed and looking straight at them, but when open or from the top or side it will be hard not to notice. Also are your existing doors the right overlap to be able to change to concealed hinges?...See MoreHow do paint colors change in north facing rooms? kitchen color help
Comments (16)Thank you @everdebz and @eam44 for the input. I did hire Kylie for a cabinet color consult and she did a good job (though I hadn't chosen a counter top at that point), I was more looking for a cabinet color that would be a "white" that would look good in a north facing room and this is from her consult - "SW Alabaster. This is a warm, creamy white. It will help to off-set the northern light coming in, without being as yellow as Dover White." She also suggested Westhighland White as a 2nd choice. SW 7566 but I feel I see a bit of pink...maybe I need my eyes checked. I do like Alabaster, but it seems a bit too warm for some of my counter top selections. What is the "nuance" of SW alabaster.... And does it contradict what Lori says about nuance below? From reading the chroma info from land of color expert @funcolors it seems I want "Colors with a nuance that is light and clear. Meaning choose paint colors that are clear but not vivid or bright", but how to pick one. Don't exactly understand how I figure out "nuance". Also, do I start with a paint color that will work in a northern exposure and then select a counter top to go with, or do I pick a counter top and then pick a cabinet color? I see so many counter tops that I like, yet I can't figure out how to pick the proper paint color that will work with the counter top AND the north exposure. And then to bring in a dark color for the island. Kylie suggested SW Cyberspace or SW Grizzle Gray 7068. I really like Grizzle Gray, but I am concerned it is too muddied and gray for the northern light. Will the gray stand out more? Say I chose something with green undertones (SW Urban bronze 7048) is the blue north light going to counteract to make these colors appear brown? or will the green tones be more prevalent. Bottom line I am still having a hard time figuring out what the natural light will do to the various paint colors. And because the house is under construction and my cabinet color choice needs to be made, I am not in a situation where I can wait until everything is in place....See More
TheTiredTwo
7 years agoTheTiredTwo
7 years ago@jhmarie Thank you for the links and advice. This is what I have currently have and there is a slot in the door for it to fit into.. That is a big section in the door to fill and cover up in order to mount the kind of hinge you linked to. It's very frustrating! I have looked all over many sights including restoration web sites. Thank you for the advice!
Donna E
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoTheTiredTwo
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoThank you all for your replies and suggestions, especially the reassurance that mixed finishes is not at all unheard of.
I went to the store and purchased some Rub n Buff to test. I have never heard of this stuff! I also bought antique brass and bright brass hardware at Home Depot to try spray on, too. Once I showed it to my husband, he said that if we were going to take the time to hand apply the rub n buff wax paint that it might be better and less time consuming to just spray all the hinges instead. Then he spoke to a friend at work who used Rustoleum metallic spray for all his hardware and that it turned out great.
I had mentioned spray painting before to him, but his reaction was that it would not work long term due to the movement of the hinges. From what I have also read online, if you do several light coats, followed by a clear sealer topcoat, the finish lasts a lot longer, so we may go this route in the end. We have decided we aren't going to rush this.
We are going to consult with a carpenter to get a quote for new cab doors and drawer fronts just to see what it would cost for a new style. I'm suspecting it is more than we can spend right now. If it is, then I will spray paint or rub n buff the hinges so that they "hide" into the espresso stain finish and then decide what color knobs to buy. Then I will re-finish all the bright brass on interior doors, so I will be left with only two finishes around the house... I hope!
Thanks for the pointers and if anyone finds this post again, I welcome future input. I will post an update, too!
TheTiredTwo
7 years ago@astro777 The stain I used is General Finishes Gel stain. It is all over Pinterest and after a friend used it, I looked into it and tested it out on sample kitchen cabinets a friend gave me to get the technique down. I settled on applying with paintbrush and it is two coats for the nice rich look of espresso. You can still see grain, but no previous honey oak showing through.
Some people use a sock and do lighter coats and others use a sponge. It just depends what you are trying to do! This gel stain also comes in other colors!
CEFreeman_GW DC/MD Burbs 7b/8a
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoTheTiredTwo thanked CEFreeman_GW DC/MD Burbs 7b/8aTheTiredTwo
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
If you mean the color of the wall...that is SW 6078 Realist Beige.Thanks.. You're right.. I will be experimenting this weekend with the hinges!
Or if you meant the granite, that is New Venetian Gold
CEFreeman_GW DC/MD Burbs 7b/8a
7 years ago
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