Rustoleum Transformation kits

[golden1]

I have an ugly kitchen.  I mean, like REALLY ugly.  It is functional, just hideous.  I am talking dark brown laminate cabinets, bright blue laminate counter tops etc....  It has been bothering me for years but I can't justify spending all that money to redo the kitchen just for aesthetics.   
I happened on to some of these inexpensive DIY cabinet painting kits.  Does anyone have any experience with the Rustoleum transformations cabinet and countertop products or any other inexpensive kitchen redo type things?  Are they durable?  How much of a pain in the ass is it? 

[Bob W]

Never done it myself but you can buy cabinet faces pretty cheaply.  Basically a frame and doors that go over existing cabinets.   

If you decide to paint,  try a nice expoxy designed for the job.   It is a spray job,  not a brush job.   Then you could put some new knobs on. 

The tops are pricey.  Get 2 or 3 quotes.   Tops can go from $1,500 to 25,000 for the same kitchen depending on material.  Kitchens are money pits in general unfortunately. 

[JPinDC]

You could try a concrete skimming project on top of counters. I remember seeing it here: http://www.younghouselove.com/2014/03/trying-our-hand-at-ardex-concrete-counters/

[falcondisruptor]

In our last place we painted our cabinets.  They were varnished wood though not laminate.  TSP, a light sand, primer, then a few coats of semi-gloss.  It took over a week to really harden up and there were some chips but it looked so much better and helped sell the house.  I had heard to use melamine paint, but the guy at the store talked me out of it.

Oh and I'd like to add that it was a big pain in the ass.  We painted the insides of the cabinets too which wasn't easy because the shelves were fixed.  Also, the doors got moved around and started sticking to each other then we had to redo them.  Real pain, but again, it looked good and helped us sell.

[orbix]

I haven't seen a 'transformations'-style redo that wasn't appalling after the fact... If you're one of the lucky ones, and the style of the cabinets themselves isn't too dated/awful, just painting the cabinets could work, but the other option of replacing the doors and drawer-fronts isn't a bad one. It's still not cheap, but might be a better bang-for-the-buck effort over the long haul.

[MMM4life]

I actually just did my bathroom vanities and I think they came out good. I would take pictures of it but it doesnt look right in pics. I suggest doing a bathroom to see how it comes out and then you can decide to tackle a much larger project (aka kitchen).

But you are right, it is kind of a pain only because of all the drying time. Here's why: (from what I remember)

1) Wash all cabinets with soap and water, wait to dry (several hours)
2) Lay down the bonding coat (I think 8 hours)
3) Lay down the paint coat (12 hours, maybe 8)
4) Lay down the second coat (12 hours, maybe 8)
5) Lay down the glaze; optional (12 hours)
6) Lay down protective coat (12 hours)

Don't forget to do both sides of doors. In reality, it will take you about a week to do.

Also, when they tell you to get a 2x4 with screws to prop up the doors, DO IT!!!!. I have some pooling in the cracks on the front of doors I now need to fix. They do have a dvd to watch and they break it down really easy. I suggest also watching it several times so you don't forget a step.

[Gimesalot]

We just used the rustoleum kit on some worn out cabinets we bought for a rental.  I have to say that they came out pretty well.  It does take a while since there are several coats, but I thought it was worth it.  I really liked that I only had to paint.  No sanding, no spraying, etc.  The only thing wrong is that I got a little heavy handed with the final coat, and there are some sopts where it did not dry clear.  We added some new hardware, about $1 each piece, and the cabinets came out great.

For countertop, we did tile.  We looked into getting granite and other stones, but the minumum was $1100.  This was too far out of our budget.  We went to the local habitat for humanity and got some nice big tiles.  I used 3/4" plywood directly on the cabinets, then hardibacker on top of that, and then the tile.  It could have come out better with more practice, but I think it is okay for a rental.  In then end, we spent $1500 for a new kitchen including stackable washer and dryer, dishwasher, fridge, used cabinets, and tile countertops.

[Jane]

New laminate counters may not be all that expensive, so if you are considering the countertop transformation kit, I'd compare the cost of just replacing. If you have an Ikea nearby, I'd check them first and see if you like their counters. I've seen them in the As Is section before for very cheap.

The kits for the cabinets seem pretty expensive for what they are, and is it enough to cover all of your cabinets? I would suspect you could probably buy the different parts of it separately from various brands if you planned it out. Maybe at least worth looking into the price. There are tons of tutorials online for painting kitchen cabinets, and tons of different methods.

Personally I'd probably do a good primer, a couple coats of good alkyd acrylic paint using a sprayer, and a top coat of Polycrylic. Before beginning clean your cabinets very well with something like TSP, and give them a light sand. Also sand between the coat of primer and coats of paint.

Do a test run of whatever you decide to do before you get to work on your actual cabinets.

[Ashyukun]

We used one of the Rustoleum kits to refinish the cabinets in our former house, taking them from a dull lighter wood color to a darker brown with an antique look- think it was called 'Espresso' by Rustoleum. The process took the better part of a week since we weren't living there at the time and couldn't do everything as quickly as might have been nice. The prep process takes almost as long as actually putting the new finish on the cabinets. It turned out very good- the refinished cabinets looked a whole lot better than they did originally.

Could you do almost as good of a job with some sandpaper and paint? Perhaps- but we were very satisfied with the kit.

We didn't use any of the countertop refinishing kits though- those always worried me even though the countertops could have used some work too.

[Emilyngh]

I have an ugly kitchen.  I mean, like REALLY ugly.  It is functional, just hideous.  I am talking dark brown laminate cabinets, bright blue laminate counter tops etc....  It has been bothering me for years but I can't justify spending all that money to redo the kitchen just for aesthetics.   
I happened on to some of these inexpensive DIY cabinet painting kits.  Does anyone have any experience with the Rustoleum transformations cabinet and countertop products or any other inexpensive kitchen redo type things?  Are they durable?  How much of a pain in the ass is it?

Didn't use Rustoleum, but we did paint and then epoxy our counters using this technique: http://designingdawn.com/around-the-house-diy-kitchen-countertops/

We didn't paint them to look like granite, but just plain white trying to get a white quartz look.   

The process was a PITA, but did not take long.     We first removed our mini backsplashes, b/c I hate them, but these would probably be a super PITA to cover.   We did have one area that did not cure properly (but all the rest did, be super careful measuring it, don't scrape the edges of the container as you pour, and maybe read a bit online about the product b/c some report this to be an issue).  Luckily, it was out of the way and we came up with our own solution, but the good news is that it should be able to be removed and redone if needed, we just didn't feel like redoing this counter.

It cost $200 and looks amazing, and I'd do it again any day.   Buuuuut, our big negative is that the epoxy coat seems to get relatively easily stained by artificial coloring.   It hasn't stained with natural things like coffee, tomatoes, watermelon juice, etc, but one drop of red kool aid and there's a pink spot no matter how quickly you wipe up.   The even more odd thing is that these stains do seem to fade/disappear with time (light breaking them down?).   So, after several months, our counter looks really good, IMO, but if you look closely, you can find faint stains.   Some would be bothered about this more than others, and I wonder if the stains would even be visible if we had used grey or darker paint instead of white.

So, like I said, for the cost I'm super happy with them, but not sure that everyone would be, nor am I sure that they won't wind up getting too stained and replaced in the next few years anyway (even then, less than $200 to try them and love them for a few years, or we might sell the house before then anyway, would have been worth it to me).

[Rage]

We did the Rustoleum cabinet transformation.  It looks amazing now, absolutely amazing.   We did espresso color, I don't think it was any sort of antique-style though.  It was a TON of work.  We hired 3 people to help us for the weekend and we still didn't get it done in one weekend - Took every week night of the following week too.  We were lucky that our cabinets have a pretty strong "grain" so even though we painted them they look like they're just stained extremely dark.

The process goes like this (to the best of my recollection):

take all the doors and drawer faces off
tape off walls, etc.
apply a very mild solvent with lots of scrubbing
coat 1
coat 2
finishing glaze.

If I did it again I would change the solvent step because it involves lots of vigorous scrubbing - took all 5 of us an entire day.  I would use a more industrial solvent than what comes in the box, something you can just wipe or spray on, instead of scrubbing for hours.

Another thing I might do differently is I would probably do the cabinet bodies first - and then just leave it that way for a while and take my time with the doors - one can survive for months without cabinet doors.  That way I could have spread the project out a bit more so it wasn't so all-consuming.

[MMM4life]

So I lied about the times:

deglosser - 1 hour wait time
2 coats of bond coat (paint color) - 2-3  hour wait times, remember doors have 2 sides so 4 coats total
stain - 8 hour wait time (1 coat for each side of door)
top protective coat - 12 hour wait time (1 coat for each side of door)

It takes an average of 10 minutes per cabinet door for painting. Seeing how I have 20 doors (200 minutes per coat x 8 total coats = 1600 minutes). I should be finished within the next week or two and will attach photos so you can see a before and after. I think it's worth it seeing how the kit cost $75 and will probably do 2 kitchens and 2 61" vanities compared to several thousand dollars in new cabinets. After all, isn't that what the Mustachian life is all about?