There really should be a big fat "IN PROGESS" slapped on the bottom of that photo because the space is far from done. Those white appliances are helping to brighten the space I guess, but... they're so -- white. Also, the floors need to get finished (you can see a little sneak peek here of the direction I'm going). I'm still thinking of that marble backsplash. And next spring I'm going to try making my own concrete counters for the sink side. But the good news is I won't be incredibly embarrassed to host Thanksgiving here next week.
Whereas I would cry if visitors were going to be subjected to this:
So here's the run down on how I finished these! I definitely learned some things along the way...
As a reminder, we started out with these heavily grained oak doors. (and here's what I was going for)
I sanded and filled them with grain filler,
Then added flat trim moulding to the borders.
After sanding and wiping the doors down with a microfiber cloth, I sprayed them all with a dark Rustoleum primer. I sprayed the fronts and backs
Here's where things got a little experimental. I rolled on the first coat of paint (F&B Down Pipe) with a foam mini roller and that gave me a consistently smooth surface. Then I went back to touch up the inside corners of the moulding with my two-inch angled brush and I got a little cocky. I wanted to see how well I could do fully brushing the final coat. It turned out to be a bad idea. They looked very bad-DIY once everything had dried. I thought I had a steady hand, but I will definitely be sticking with foam rollers from here on out.