Buy or DIY: An Update

A few weeks ago, I was asked about my kitchen cabinet DIY mentioned here,and I thought it was about time to provide an update for everyone on how they are holding up!  

Remember when we painted our kitchen cabinet using Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations Kit that we bought for an absolute steal?  Well almost two years later, they still look like new!  Now granted, we don't have any kids to bang on them with pots and pans or pets that might scratch them up, but we haven't been tiptoeing around them constantly worrying about messing them up either.  On the contrary, we have added a backsplash and replaced the microwave since they were painted and they are no worse for the wear.  

If you have ever considered painting your own cabinets, here are a few tricks that have kept these babies in mint condition:

• We put in the time at the beginning, knowing that it would save us in the long run.  Completing the project took us a lot of dedicated time and we followed the directions to the letter.  We agree with the instruction manual that ideally one person should complete a whole step to avoid variations in color, pattern, or style.  While this doesn't save you any time, this painstaking process now seems worth it ten times over because we have a professional, uniform look that makes us want to keep them in tip-top shape.  They don't feel DIYed.
• I wipe the cabinets down with a wet rag when needed and a little organic multi-surface spray if they're really dirty.  I don't use anything that could damage or break-down the polyurethane or alter the color of the paint.
• I use a wood finish stain marker to touch up any nicks or imperfections that might come up.  It doesn't happen often but if I'm clumsy with a fork or saucepan, the marker takes care of the damage.
• The clear, plastic rubber bumpers that we put in the corners of the doors and drawers seem to be preventing most dings.  {If you're lucky enough to have slow close cabinets then you could skip this step of course}
• If you do notice a larger imperfection that a stain marker might not take care of, think hard about how you plan to fix it.  Once something is polyurethaned it's pretty hard to make touch ups that aren't noticeable.  

Has anyone else used the kit?  Any tips you've learned to keep your cabinets look new? We are so happy that we chose to give it a shot because we still love the results two years later!