“It is only natural to feel anxiety when circumstances are larger than a man’s ability to manage them. I learned this during the war, just as I learned that the only cure for such feelings is action. A man might not always be able to do all he must, but he can do something.” – The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

About a month ago, I was feeling really stressed and overwhelmed with life.

What do normal people do when they are stressed?  Maybe relax, watch some TV, get good sleep, maybe get a massage, read a good book?

I really don’t know because that’s not what I did!  Want to know what I decided to do at a time when I really couldn’t take anything else in my life?

I started a big, long home remodeling/redecorating project!  Makes perfect sense, right?!!!

So, for the last 5 weeks, I have been transforming my kitchen.  I decided awhile back that I wanted to paint my kitchen cabinets, and for some reason, I decided it was time to get that little (I mean HUGE) project done!  Here’s a picture of the way my kitchen cabinets looked before this project.  There’s nothing wrong with them at all, they just seemed really boring to me!!  This girl needed some color!

My mom had told me about chalky paint, so I did some research and thought that would be the stuff I wanted.  You’re supposed to be able to go ahead and paint with no prep work.  Sounded good to me!  I like to go for the easiest, least time-consuming option!  But when I went to Home Depot to get some, I found that the stuff comes in 8 oz. cans!!!!  8 oz.!!!  That’s like nothing!  A few swipes with that stuff, and I’d be out and back at Home Depot!  I asked the guy at the counter if they had any bigger cans.  He said the 8 oz. cans were all they had.

Well, that ruined my plan completely!  So I stood there just looking at the guy wracking my brain about what I was going to do next.  The guy obviously saw that I was in a panic and my mind was racing, and he jumped at the chance to help me out before I went ballistic in the aisle or started crying!  So, he told me about Rustoleum’s Cabinet Transformation kit.  I checked it out and then had to leave to think about it for a few days.  I really needed to make sure that was exactly what I wanted since my previous plan of chalky paint had gone by the wayside.  I’m not one for spontaneous purchases, so I had to take time to think about it and do more research.  I finally decided to go ahead with the kit and returned to buy it.  I decided to go with the Meadow color since I was wanting my cabinets to end up a green color.

This kit comes with all of the stuff you need to work on your cabinets.  A deglosser, scrubbing pads, paint, a glaze, glazing cloths, stirring sticks, etc.  So I went to work taking cabinet doors off. cleaning them and starting the deglossing process.

The paint that I used was a light blue color.  I wanted my cabinets to be green (the glazing process turns it green), but I absolutely loved the blue color!  I was tempted to go ahead and keep it all blue because the color was so great!  But I decided to finish thing out and make it what I had originally intended it to be.

After you paint 2 coats on everything and both sides of the cabinet doors, you then apply the glaze.  This felt like art to me and was pretty fun!  It gives the doors/surfaces a rustic look that is awesome!

So, after 5 weeks of working pretty much every night after my kids went to bed and quite a bit on the weekends too, I am FINISHED!!!  I can’t tell you how good it feels to have it done!  I won’t know what to do with myself with all my free time in the evenings now!  I’ve decided since it’s the first week of summer, I may need to watch some movies while working on some crochet projects.  Then maybe after a week, I’ll be ready for some other project around the house!

Here is the finished product!  Chris wasn’t sure about this project when I told him what I wanted to do, but he loves it too!  Yay!!

And just for fun, here’s the before and after together!

This project is one that I wanted to complete this year as a member of the 30 Days of Hustle group.