That Darn Cat!
Off and on over the last couple of months, we have been working on the laundry room/ mudroom area adjacent to the kitchen. Eventually the room will have a work counter, a small desk, book shelves, a laundry sink, and the front load washer and dryer. It is functional right now, but definitely not finished looking. In order to make the kitchen and mudroom flow together, we recently installed and painted new unfinished maple cabinets that are a close match to the kitchen cabinets.
During the painting stage, I was trying to be careful and made sure to put the dog outside while I worked on the cabinets. He is notorious for getting his tail into everything or knocking things over with his enthusiasm. Because of the paint odors, I kept the back door ajar, but the screen still kept the dog out. Apparently, I should have worried more about the cat than the dog. When I wasn’t looking, she snuck through her little cat door in the screen and squeezed right through the barely open back door. Unfortunately, the paint was nearby and the cat made a bee line straight through a paint tray full of primer. It was awful! As soon as she realized she stepped in paint, she vigorously shook her foot to flick the paint off. It splattered all over the wall. She leaped out the paint and tracked dibbles and little white foot prints all across the new marmoleum floor. I am not sure who was more upset about it, her or me? Probably the poor kitty because she was a sorry, dripping, wet mess after I hosed her back side off to get all the wet primer off. After that fiasco, I kept the cabinet doors up against the locked back door. Eventually, I did manage to get the cabinets finished with primer and paint, and once they were done, we rehung the doors and installed the hardware on the drawer fronts and doors.
2 thoughts on “That Darn Cat!”
Are unfinished cabinets that much cheaper to make it worth the time of primer and paint? (I don’t like to paint)
Hi Erin,
Painted cabinets are a personal preference, and can look a bit old fashion, but I like the look of painted cabinets more than stained cabinets. My folks have stained cabinets, as well as most of my friends. I know they are much more modern and contemporary. In lots of homes stained cabinets look fabulous, but for our housing track and the era of the house, painted cabinets were standard. The next track to the North of us, metal cabinets were the norm, but those models were built a decade later in the mid to late 1950’s.
Some brands of unfinished cabinets are probably cheaper, especially the unfinished cabinets always in stock at Home Depot or Lowes, but these sure weren’t less expensive. They are solid maple doors and fronts with plywood wood interiors, and no particle board or MDF in the construction. If the next owner wanted to change them, they are good quality so they could be striped and stained.
From what I have seen in other folks homes, the kind of cabinets that are ready made in a white finish are often coated or veneered MDF and when it gets damaged, they look bad and are practically impossible to repair and still look good. With painted cabinets, I can do touch ups when necessary. So, painted is worth the time and effort for us.