Kitchen progress

After my first experiments with making my kitchen look better, I had momentum. I wanted to keep going! But there was one impediment. I had decided I wanted new handles. I ordered a few, but then had to wait a while for them to arrive. I didn't really want to go and strip and paint more cabinet doors, as I figured the result is better if you fill the holes you're not using, and then paint over the filler, rather than paint them, then abandon one hole, and then fill that and try to make it look good afterwards. 

It took a while for me to get the message that my new handles had arrived. I was excited! But there was no sign of them. Not by the door. Not in the garden. Not at the neighbour's. They must have been mis-delivered. There was no proof of delivery, so I could not check if there was a picture of a door that most definitely was not my door. Bummer!

I decided to not try this again. It took too long. And being handmade they were quite expensive. And that is worth it, if you know it will be a success. But I decided to just Google some other options, and I came across some quite kitschy alternatives. These might suit what I was doing, and they were very affordable. I decided to buy 5 to try them out. And they arrived the next day. I was back on!

I first provisionally put the handles on the two doors I had painted first. I figured they combined well! I decided to stick with them. They are quite kitschy but it works! So I could put them on the other door I had already done, and now I could do two more doors, as I had handles for them. So I did. And I ordered more.

New handles

The second batch arrived quite early too. So I started working on the sixth door. After I strip them, the first thing I do is drill the new handle holes and fill the old ones. Only then did I realise that the new handles I had bought were the same type as the old ones, but a bigger model! Oh dear.

After some thought, I decided to use the small handles for the smaller doors and the drawers, and the big ones for big doors. That meant leaving two where they were and moving three. It wasn’t much work really. And then I could continue with the stripping and painting business. 

5 doors done! 

With every cabinet door painted, my kitchen looks better. I'm glad! And the weather makes it a relatively quick job! These coats of paint dry fast in such a hot dry summer...