Refacing Cabinets

One of the pure joys of living in this house is the sheer volume of storage space. Zoltan and I for the first time ever have a place for everything. The master bedroom has built in dwarers, closets and cabinets as well as more storage in the headboard and side tables of the built in bed. The bed almost doubles as a command center because all of the lights can be controlled from the headboard. I have always been a weenie when it comes to the dark so imagine my glee that I can leave every light blazing on the way to bed from one end to the other and quickly turn everything off with a touch of the button. The relay system the lights are on are totally groovy and feel absolutely futuristic. (60 years later!) Back to the storage... All of the cabinets in the master are beautifully framed plywood boxes that were faced with burlap as the decorative facing. Faced with the mind boggling decision of what to replace the worn out burlap that had suffered plenty at the claws of the former owners cats I started searching the wall paper books at Miller paint. Wallpaper seems to be everywhere right now in all the design magazines and the prints are totally hot. I have drooled over the Marimekko lines and Orla Keily's new wall paper line but they seemed to pop-rock for the house. With most decisions so far I keep deferring back to what was all ready there as inspiration. The brown burlap seemed dull and a little dark so I wanted to see if there was a grass cloth that might give a little something to the room without overpowering it with a print or design. Miller paint on Grand ave has a guy who works the desk who has been there forever and knows everything about wall paper. His personal design sense leans towards the craftsman era homes but with a little enthusiasm and conviction I need something mid-century he pulled out some awesome suggestions. (I can only imagine the characters he must get in that design center and the hideous orders he must have to fulfill.)He gave me a book that had cork, silk, grass cloth and burlap. The cork was tempting, lots of metallics, designs and colors. Same with the grass cloth. The tactile yummieness of the silk and grass cloth as well as the colors and sheen are gorgeous. I wound up picking a burlap after much daydreaming because it was the original choice of the previous builder, the price point was good and I thought the organic look of the cotton really shows off the woodwork. I did go with a natural colored cotton that is off white vs. the brown burlap that I replaced. The glue that I purchased, Suregrip border adhesive, was water based and had low VOC's. It was easy to use, just thick enough that it didn't run off the paper but not too thick I couldn't spread it with a small paint brush easily. With most projects that deal with existing framing it is rare to have square corners and sides. For the most part these cabinet doors were right on. The tools I used for the project where a : straight edge, quick square, bone folder, lots of razor blades, scraper, pencil and my fingernails to squeeze the edges of the burlap under the framing. It took me about a full day, my goal was to finish before 5:30 to have dinner with my grandma but I wound up leaving 3 cabinets for the following day to complete. Like all good projects I picked a Sunday because you cant beat the radio programming on NPR. It makes any task fly by as you listen to This American Life. The project brightened the entire room and I love how classy and understated the finished project turned out.