oh hinges...

At the moment, I am making a [somewhat] honest effort to work on the kitchen to make it satisfactory [as you well know] until I am able to do a complete overhaul. It's a little bit easier to cut corners when one knows that everything will be gutted and replaced. The built-ins; however, are staying [they will just get new drawer and cabinet fronts... and full extension pull-outs]. Here's a refresher of what it was before I moved in >

Anyway, I figure if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it correctly... So, I've decided to take the hinges that have approximately 1,937 coats of paint [ok, maybe 10] off, sandblast, and then powder coat them. One might ask, "Why don't you just get new hinges?" My response is, "I want to preserve the original character as much as possible, and that means keeping the original hinges." In addition to the hinges, I'm stripping what I thought was contact paper [it is actually wall paper- fun, fun] in preparation for paint. I'm starting to think that bead board and 3/4" glass shelves would be a nice, sophisticated upgrade...

oh yes, they had beige alligator/snake skin wall paper up

that is a lot of gunky paint!

i was finally able to locate the screw heads

and cut through the layers of paint to release the hinges - more like pull with all my might and hope that i don't fall and break the glass doors...

i wasn't originally going to take these off, but i might as well

here's where the project stands at the moment - it's a bit of a process

here is the mess that were the hinges

i took them into the model shop at work and sand-blasted them - one of million perks of my job!

but they needed a little more work, so i pulled out the ol' wire brush and mineral spirits. i should have probably worn gloves, especially since there is, more than likely, lead paint somewhere in the concoction of paint. eh, still not a fan of gloves...

i was able to get all of this off! and that's after sandblasting!

much better!

I'll keep you posted on the progress! I hope to get a little farther on this project this weekend, but I have a feeling it will be nice out this weekend [it has been so grey, rainy, and gloomy]. I am a lover of the sun [who isn't], so there is an excellent chance I will be finding every opportunity to be out in it.


xoxo

a