There is quite honestly no other room in the house that has gone through so many changes in such a short amount of time. We began with removing old layers of vinyl and then moved on to the uprooting of the original hardwoods, to the laying of brand new sub flooring and then new laminate. And who can forget the exhaustive peeling of wallpaper, the building of new countertops, the introduction of new appliances and the beginning of a major---wait---MAJOR!!!!!!!--- facelift on the original cabinetry? Our little kitchen has come a long way! We just knew it had a bright future. Benjamin's Moore's Decorators' White- bright to be exact.
There were a few minor missteps along the way (what do you mean you can't mix latex and oil paint together?) but in the end, we decided on the hardware (waiting for it to go on sale at Home Depot at 50% off was g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s) and picked out the hinges (who knew there were so many choices?) and so now its beginning to look a lot like we imagined it could! And so, to keep the masses (all 4 of you) happy, we happily present the kitchen, before, during and after-ish. That is just primer on the walls afterall....
BEFORE
GO GO GOOGLE SKETCH UP
DURING
The 3rd floor sweat shop---where all bad, ugly cabinets go to die!
THE SEMI-AFTER
Now.....what color are we gonna paint those walls????
You guys have worked sooooo hard, and it's looking F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. I can't wait to see it in person again; but until then, thanks for posting new pics!
ReplyDeleteKelly this is reminding me of our black/white kitchen! What kind of countertops did you end up with?
ReplyDeleteWe went with a Basalt Slate formica---its gray with some white swirl-y things. Still not sure what to paint the walls...but leaning towards a gray/green color.
ReplyDeletei'm a huge huge fan of white cabinets!!! our kitchen could totally use some redoing too.... wana come over and renovate ours for us?? pretty please???
ReplyDeleteso how did you go about refinishing the cabinets?
ReplyDeleteIt was a process for sure- but totally worth it! I started by removing all the doors and drawers and giving them each a good bath! I used a tea-towel and water with a bit of bleach and just got all the grime off of them. You may not need to do this step, but these cabinets were super gross, they needed it! Then I got to sanding - I used a small handheld, random orbital sander with 120-grit sand paper, and just set it up like an assembly line (if you have a t.v. where you are working, just get lost in some HGTV to pass the time!). I had a huge pile and I just went one by one, moving the finished ones to one side of the room until I had every door and drawer sanded. Then of course I had to sand all the actual cabinets still - I used the same handheld for this. We went with an oil based primer (Sherwin Williams)and again just took it one by one. I cannot stress enough to give each piece plenty of time to dry I allowed each piece a full day to dry especially when using the oil based stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhen everything was primed, it was time to paint! There are a couple of ways to do this, I found that a combination of a good brush and a mini roller worked best. Again we went with an oil based paint from Sherwin Williams matched to Benjamin Moore's Decorators White. It's a very bright white --- the whitest we could fin without any blue undertones. I went piece by piece, gave it plenty of time to dry and then we picked out some new hardware at Home Depot and re-hung the cabinets and drawers.
Painting the inside of the drawers was quick - but you may not find it necessary. Had outs been in better shape, we may have just stopped at the faces of the drawers, but they were gross so I went for it - a quick brush around the edges, then I rolled the paint inside. This was easy b/c I wasn't too worried about how they looked inside.
In the end, we saved a ton of money and it was a great option for us until we're ready for a big kitchen reno. We get a lot of compliments on the kitchen and aside from the new appliances, we did it on the cheap! My advice to anyone looking to try this is go for it. If you make mistakes, you can start over by sanding and re-painting. If you are on a tight budget, this is a real lifesaver! Give yourself time though, this entire project took a few weeks, so start with your actual cabinets so you paint them, let them dry, then re-stock them while you work on the fronts.
Hope this helps!