Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

One of the main projects I wanted to do this year is to make my home more like the dream home that I "someday" want to have.  The first thing I wanted to change was the kitchen.  I decided to paint the cabinets.  I thought about a lot of different options like buying kits or just painting, all of them seemed like a lot of work.  I really wanted to make my kitchen accessible during this process because life still happens even if you want to do a massive project.


My husband and I went to the store and choose the colors that we wanted.  We went with Parchment Paper from Behr paint and primer in one, provincial stain, and a heavy use polyurethane.

I pulled off all the doors and all the hardware on the cabinets.  I used a hand sander to sand both the front and the back of the doors and all the frames that were still up.  I did not want to remove everything from the cabinets so I covered everything with plastic during the process so I could access anything that I needed.

Then I poured out the paint and rolled it on.  It took three coats of the paint to reach the color we were looking for, which was "too white" for my husband which is where the stain comes in.

 I took an old t-shirt and rubbed the stain on the cabinets and then used another t-shirt to wipe off the stain.   Then I put the polyurethane on, and that took three coats.

When I put the first coat of the polyurethane on I almost started crying.  On the spots that I did not sand very much the stain was coming up and I was left with a big mess.  Then I decided that I liked the look of the not sanded areas and I spread the polyurethane on anyways and just went with it.

So this was a time consuming project that took longer because we had to eat dinner and do homework and crazy things like wait for each coat of each different paint to dry.  It took me about a week to finish everything but could be done in a few days if you just kept working on it.  It was a doable and a fairly cheap update to our kitchen.  Overall I love the transformation but if I had to do it again I would spend more time sanding...




6 comments:

  1. What a fabulous transformation! Your kitchen looks much bigger and brighter. I know it's a lot of work, but it really paid off.

    Visiting from HoH

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    1. Thanks, I think it also helps that it is not as cluttered in the after picture too.

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  2. looks great! i have a dark kitchen which we aren't redoing, but i like to look at other people who do!

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    1. We actually really like dark stained wood, but I saw a lot of kitchens with the light and decided to go with it. It really brightens our small space.

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  3. I was impressed on this make over of your kitchen cabinets. I hope that I can also do this on my old kitchen cabinets. Thanks for inspiring me on your blog.

    Kitchen Cabinet Design

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    1. Thanks, it definitely takes a lot of work but it is so worth it. Good luck on your project!

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