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    Emily Fazio

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Clearly The Fix

June 8, 2011

Although not a remarkable change to the untrained eye and touch, I finally made some necessary updates to the kitchen. The updates I’m talking about involve my friend water-based Minwax Polycrylic. Hello there, pretty.

Poly, my new best friend in the kitchen.

At just $10 from Home Depot, this inexpensive update will help my kitchen shelving and DIY’ed island table endure some real wear and tear if I decide to get rowdy with my casserole dishes. There isn’t a lot to see, since I’m writing about a process and product that’s semi-glossy and as transparent as can be, but I’ll tell you that I had a really swell application experience, if that counts for anything.

The open shelves that I installed in place of the cabinets get ragged on daily as dishes and colanders and mixing bowls and glasses move around. When they were painted last winter, I did make the effort to seal in the work with a coat of spray gloss but I hadn’t been confident in it as a long-term sealant. It was the middle of winter and my ventilation was limited (I sprayed in the garage with the door open, which was tolerable, but I questioned what my results would be if I used a product with a longer dry time in sub-freezing temperatures). Now it’s warmer, so I took advantage of that and got wild with Poly on the deck. A simple one day project (that really only took about 45 minutes total without dry time). Sort of sounds like Poly has taken on a female persona. Maybe I’ve had too much coffee today.

A fresh coat of the water-based poly on each shelf yielded pure shininess, and the surface seems substantially more durable both to the touch and in appearance; maybe you can tell based on this shiny, shiny photo:

Glossy kitchen shelf.

The kitchen island had actually never been painted officially (shame shame on me); I had only primed it over the winter to seal it up a little bit until I decided on a paint color for the whole base (still undecided). Primer was a little less forgiving when it came to spaghetti sauce and ice cream and coffee stains, so the time had come to give it what it really needed, which was a nice fresh coat of white paint and a glossy topcoat to seal the deal.

Check out this Before + After. Same camera, same table, higher level of semi-glossy perfection.

Before:

Kitchen Island: Before. Has a more subtle primer sheen; is wearing down.

After:

Kitchen Island: After. Shiny. Ooh, ahh.

Yay? Yay. All glossy surfaces wipe clean with mucho ease, and I don’t have to be so uptight about the dings and the nicks and the bangs that are inevitable when I’m thrashing around the kitch.

P.S. Once upon a time I heard some great things about an alternative and fume-free product called Safepoly but couldn’t find it anywhere I looked; if you know where I can find it, let a girl know.

 

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DIY  / Kitchen

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

8 Comments


Cait @ Hernando House
June 8, 2011 at 10:44 am
Reply

You had me laughing at “if i decide to get rowdy”, haha. Sadly I have no idea where to buy Safepoly. Glad you’ve got everything protected with Poly, though! Now… about that paint color… ;)



    Emily
    June 8, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    Bummer. The product recommendation I saw might have been old; I can’t even find it online. It must no longer exist? :(

    Cait @ Hernando House
    June 8, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    That is a huge bummer! I Think YHL uses something more friendly/fume-free than Poly, maybe we should ask them?

    Emily
    June 8, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    That’s where I got the product name, actually.

Ashley @ DesignBuildLove.co
June 8, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Reply

LOVE the results! There’s a big shine difference (which is totally surprising how much is actually shows up in the picture!)! Thank god for Poly and all it’s protective qualities!!! Now you can get rowdy and thrash around! ;)



    Emily
    June 8, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    Thanks Ashley! It’s a relief to not worry about dings and dents and know that the surface could withstand a blitz attack without getting too nicked.

Kate @ Twenty-Six To Life
June 8, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Reply

That’s crazy what a difference that made! I usually don’t really “see” poly (especially in photos), but you can really tell in those photos.



    Emily
    June 8, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    :) Thanks Kate!

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