Well friends, its been a hot minute since I’ve been able to get a blog post out! Post-holidays was a crazy time (for more reasons than I can count), but I am BACK! It’s no TV February for me over here, so I’m hoping that’s going to give me a lot more time to do things like BLOG!
If you follow me over on Instagram, I recently asked what y’all wanted to see for my next blog post, and painted cabinets was BY far the top answer. Now, as far as my kitchen cabinets go, I don’t feel I am nearly experienced enough to give you a tutorial on that – they ended up having a slight texture once painted and are FAR from perfect (we rolled instead of spayed due to a unforeseen issue with the sprayer we bought). That said, I previously did a blog post on my Do’s and Dont’s of painted cabinets, and if you want to check that out, you can do so HERE.
This post though, will talk about my experience with Giani, Inc. Nuvo Cabinet Paint. Giani was gracious enough to send my this paint to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review of their product. We used this paint on out master bath vanity during the Fall 2018 One Room Challenge, and let me tell you, it was SO easy (WAY easier than our kitchen cabinets – I honestly wish I would have used this stuff in our kitchen, because not only is it super simple, but it looks gorgeous and has held up great)!
The best thing about Giani’s cabinet paint (besides that they send you everything you need, including the paint brush), is that it’s little to no prep. Let me say it again for the folks in the back – LITTLE TO NO PREP! Basically, for any painted surface, you lightly sand, and then clean like crazy. No trying to sand off every last bit of paint on your cabinets, etc. (Giani has instructions for other types of surfaces, so be sure to follow their instructions if working with stained or untreated wood, etc). For us, the lack of sanding was a LIFESAVER. Our cabinets had been painted multiple times by previous owners – but i just had to lightly sand and that was it!
Next, you use Windex or Cinch to clean the heck out of your cabinets. This is the part you DON’T want to skimp on. Think your cabinets are clean? Nope. Clean once more just for good measure. If they aren’t clean, and you paint them, you’ll see cracking in the paint. I had a few spots where this happened due to not cleaning well enough – its hardly noticeable (Especially after the touch ups I did – see below) so not a big deal to us, but learn from my mistakes! The spots you should focus on are the places where your hands tend to go – drawer and door tops, etc. Anywhere there might be grease from your hands, hair products, makeup, and what not, you want to spend extra time on. The cleaner, the better. Seriously.
Now you’re probably saying: “Wait. This chick said little to no prep and now she is telling me to spend hours cleaning my cabinets! What the heck?!”
Okay, I get it. But if you have ever used OTHER paint to paint your cabinets, you are literally sanding down every last nook and cranny, cleaning, sanding again, cleaning, sanding again… until you fall in bed and wonder why you ever started this project! So for me, any paint that makes the SANDING portion of the prep minimal, means I consider it little to no prep. Because sanding is the LITERAL WORST thing I do in all my DIYs. Seriously, it’s like ironing. Or mopping. I absolutely hate it. Give me a rag and some Windex, and that is a-ok with me!
ALSO, another AMAZING thing about this paint is that you DO. NOT. NEED. TO. REMOVE. THE. CABINET. DOORS!
SAY WHHHHHHATTTTT?!
No but seriously, leave those suckers on there! I did pull the drawers out just because it was easier to access them, but I left all the doors on!
And once you are prepped (don’t forget to use Frog Tape (better than painters tape) to tape off any surfaces you don’t want getting paint on them, like walls and floors and countertops), you literally just paint it on!
Start with the frames, and then tackle the fronts of the doors, and then the backs. I ended by painting the drawer fronts. By the time I finished one coat, everything was already dry. I waited about 15 minutes in between just to be safe, but I literally could have started again on coat #2 as soon as I was done with the first one.
Repeat 2-3 more times, cycling through with the frames, door fronts, backs, drawer fronts, etc. If you DO end up with a bit of cracking, as I did, just take a small brush and touch up. Giani warns that if you do touch ups, the finishes may dry differently. This was sort of true on mine, but I preferred the very slight difference in finish to the cracks. Touching up the spots that cracked seemed to resolve that issue, so I’ll take no cracks over slight difference in finish. Let dry for at least 8 hours (I always wait longer – usually 1-2 days just to be safe) and voila! Pull off your tape, close your cabinet doors, put your drawers back in, and you’re done!
Does this seem like the easiest tutorial ever in life? That’s because it is! Literally. Giani’s Nuvo paint is spectacular, it levels out amazingly well (no roller or brush marks), and I’m trying to figure out how to get more so I can tackle our guest bathroom! I truly can’t recommend it enough, especially for the lazy DIYer – it is absolutely incredible! Don’t believe me?? Let me show you some after shots…
I think the after photos speak for themselves! I would not hesitate to use Giani’s Nuvo Paint again. In fact, I am certain it’s what I’ll be using in our guest bath reno (whenever that happens – since I’m currently on a very strict budget)!
Remember you can check out my other painted cabinet Do’s and Dont’s HERE – just a few things I learned when using a different oil based cabinet paint on our kitchen cabinets!
I hope this was helpful friends, and I’ve got a lot more DIY posts coming your way soon!
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