One Room Challenge Fall 2021 How to strip kitchen cabinet doors

It’s week 4 of the One Room Challenge and that means we are halfway to reveal day!

In cased you missed it, here’s previous updates:

This week’s progress is…not cute. And if I'm honest, there are a few things that are throwing me as I see them developing outside of the context of the greater room design. Waiting on furniture to arrive means seeing bits and pieces develop on their own, which can feel a little unsettling. If you have been following along in my instagram stories, you heard me wrestle with the chandelier. Seeing it in front of the mural alone, makes the room feel too fussy - too 80s nail salon. For sure, a light fixture this grand needs a ceiling medallion, so I’ve ordered that. But is it too shiny gold? Too plasticy? Or is it just right? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself. So many of you said it was perfect, but I just can’t help feeling something…is off. The lacquered brass makes this feel cheap to me. The shape, I love so I’ve thought about just spraying the entire thing white. But for the sake of vintage preservation, I don’t know if I can bring myself to cover the lucite. One of my followers brought up a great point to me - one I ironically, always share with my clients: wait until the rest of the room is finished, and see if you like it then. Unfortunately, I don’t quite have the luxury of time if I’m going to complete the room. But she’s right, so I am going to let it marinate with a couple of quick ideas up my sleeve to tweak later (if need be). Once the modern table and chairs are added, this should hopefully snap into place for me. I really liked it on the mood-board. Really, we probably should have waited to install it and this doubt would have been for nothing LOL.

So before I get to the ugly, I thought I would share some dark red/maroon rooms that are giving me sooo much moody inspiration!

Love the relaxed vibe the grasscloth gives to this teen hangout/study.

This dark red and cobalt is so captivating. Burgandy really lends itself as a neutral to so many bold colors.

see more color pairings here

I am mesmerized by the wall application in this room.

High gloss = drama!

Who knew a microwave could look cute? And such an unexpected color pairing in this mini-kitchen. The painted ceiling makes this room feel extra cozy.

Rust/Terra Cotta kitchen with cabinet skirt source

Here, the dark red is used as an accent. It adds a richness to this blush, tonal kitchen.

Sarah Brown Interiors pink kitchen with dark red pantry source

Now for some ugly…

We removed the cabinet above the sink. There’s nothing like old paneling almost ripping your arm off to wake you up on a Saturday morning.

The sink originally had one light source located on the wall in the middle. We split the wires from this junction box and ran one on each side of the upper cabinets for the new sconces.

I then spent the better part of 24 hours a day stripping my cabinet doors. I initially used a paint stripper, which worked…okaaaay. It was a lot of scraping and more labor intensive than it needed to be, even when I left the product on the full length of time. Plus, I don’t like using smelly chemicals like this.

This was the result of my best effort at scraping, reapplying solvant, and then scraping again. I purchased a heavy duty scraper, but actually ended up preferring my kitchen dish scraper. Who knew?!

I then turned to the orbital sander with the highest grit and it tore through layers of varnish in a flash. Lesson learned for next time!

This week, I’m anxiously awaiting furnishings, countertops, the sink…you name it! Until then, I will be painting coat after coat of my beloved red onto the cabinets and doors…