First Jeff, then on to the cabinet project!
Vacation in July! While I didn't go anywhere my nephew, Jeff Shark, flew up from Utah to visit my mother and me! We hadn't seen him in several years as he's been working and going to Snow College in Utah. He's grown into such a wonderful, savvy young man of 20-years old.
A not-so-great photo of Jeff taken with my cellphone at my Mom's condo. Jeff is holding one of a suitcase full of books he brought with him.
We fed him, feted him, and showed him the sights of lake, shore, and old downtown Coeur d'Alene where we sat and sipped libations at sidewalk cafes, went for ice cream cones, and visited a used bookstore.
Jeff's way into reading such things as science, psychology, politics, and philosophy...for recreation and personal edification!
We went out, stayed in, took drives here and there. It was so good to be with him again and see how he's grown and matured.
Now he's back home and it's already August. How the summer is flying by. Now that our mutual vacation is over it's time to get back to my blog and show you my latest project - a redux of my pantry from plain to posh.
I added some Old World style to a very plain pantry with paint, on-lays, knobs, and back-plates.
Plain, brown, with no style and no knobs, my pantry was in need of a face lift! It is one of the first things one sees from the entry hall. Ick!
First, I scrubbed the doors and wood surround of this hallway-situated pantry and lightly sanded to give some "tooth" to the wood for my paint treatments. Then I removed the four doors and used one of the kitchen counters as a work surface.
First door is ready to paint.
After dry-brushing on some white primer, I sponged and swiped on some black craft paint here and there.
With the laminate floor covered and taped against spills, I added the same paint techniques all around the pantry's wooden surround.
After the craft paint dried, I applied a couple coats of Clark+Kensington, color Silk and Satin N-C27 mixed in an Ace Paint base (satin sheen) left over from my bathroom project (see previous post). This soft gray color is my idea of a French gray.
While I waited for each door to dry, I painted the four on-lays I'd ordered from Amazon, at $11.00 each. I dabbed black craft paint into the recesses and depressions of each on-lay and when dry I over-painted with a crisp white paint (borrowed from my Mom). This paint treatment gave the on-lays a more dimensional, aged look.
Once the doors and on-lays were dry I placed each door on the kitchen counter and after measuring carefully, glued each on-lay onto the front of its respective pantry door. I used Gorilla Super Glue Gel for this. I love this glue. It seems to work on everything!
Once the glue had dried completely I remounted the doors to the pantry.
The look of my pantry is much improved. However, it lacks something.
Knobs!
I consulted some books on French Country decorating and realized that in addition to knobs, back-plates would add even more of the traditional look I was going for. So, I ordered some back-plates from Amazon (sourced via Home Depot).
I ordered four knobs from Antropologie (sourced from India) not realizing that the threaded shanks are very different from the knob hardware common in the U.S.! The back-plates I ordered would go behind the knobs and be secured against slipping sideways with small nails top and bottom.
The back-plates came in an antique brass finish so I sanded them, then spray-painted them black, and once dry, over painted with white primer so they'd match the antique look of the Anthropologie knobs.
I measured and drilled the pantry doors for the knobs and back-plates. The problem was that once mounted the shanks on the knobs would stick out quite far at the back of the doors!
You can see how far the shank extends beyond the back of the cabinet door! And, the nuts holding them on were rather loose. In time the nuts would wriggle back along the threads leaving the knobs jiggly.
It was apparent to me that the extra long shanks would be a safety problem, likely snagging and scratching me each time I opened the pantry doors. What to do?
After drilling and mounting the knobs and back-plates and tightening the nuts, I wrapped each shank in plumber's tape to help hold the nut in place to keep it secure and tight.
Then, I hack-sawed off the the excess length of the shanks and wrapped them in more plumber's tape to further secure the nuts from backing off and to wrap the sawed ends, as well.
Knob shanks are shortened and nuts secured by a wrapping of plumber's tape. You can see some of the "aging" I added with the hacksaw handle (unintentionally) to the edge of this pantry door. However, it does add a bit of "chippy" aged look to the inside of the cabinet door so I left it alone.
So, another project has been finished to continue the "Paris Apartment" theme of my comfy condo near the woods!
My cat Junie has something to say about the finished cabinet, but I'm not sure what that might be! My guess is that he wants to lure me into the kitchen to feed him!
Jeff's been gone for only five days and I miss him already!
Gail, Jeff is so handsome and and seems so grounded. Thanks in large part to his Auntie Gail I am sure!
I have love your pantry doors and wish I were still young enough to put your ideas in place in my "Suzanne's Cottage".
Give your mom my love, Aunt Peggy
Posted by: Margaret Butler | 08/03/2017 at 06:59 AM