Kitchen Progress

I'm kind of torn about whether to show progress pictures or wait until its all done, but here they are.

One of the first projects I dove into upon moving in is painting the kitchen cabinets.

The cabinets were actually wood, but they were a medium brown that really didn't look great with the faux-butcher block counter tops.

 

I immediately knew I would be painting the cabinets white and adding some brushed nickel knobs and drawer pulls. So I was super anxious to start that project once I moved in.

I don't have a lot of "process" pictures, but here's what I did:

- washed the cabinets down really well with lysol or something similar

- did a light sanding 

- used Kilz oil based primer-- for most places I just did one coat, but where stains bled thru I did a second

- Then I brushed on a coat of Valspar paint called "Dove White". I didn't have a strong opinion about which white color I used, and I liked how this looked on the swatch so I just went for it. No planning.

-After the first coat I did another light sanding. Maybe a little heavier in places where there were imperfections or drips.

- Brushed on a second coat of Dove White.

- Let the doors dry for a couple days

- drilled holes and added knobs

At the same time, I was taking care of the hinges. I decided it wasn't in my budget to buy all new hinges, but the ones I had needed some work. They were like a dirty bronze color. I took them all down and gave them a scrub, then I spray painted them with Krylon's Satin Nickel spray paint. It took about thin two coats on each side to get them looking great! (Anyone else a Young House Love fan? Every time I started spraying I heard " If you’re a-sprayin’ your arm better be a-swayin" but its good advice!)

I started with the top cabinets ...because I wanted to.

BAM!

You can see the swatches behind the sink. I had the darnest time picking a color. At first I thought I would use Wild Aster, as I did in the living/dining areas, but after painting just a small portion (as seen on the wall behind the coffee maker) that color just wasn't doing it for me in this space. Next I thought maybe yellow, and picked up two samples from Lowes- I can't remember there names but one was a light yellow and the other a light greenish-yellow. Too pale.

Next I got a little more crazy and picked up the two samples at the other end of the paint chip from the first two yellow colors, which you can see in this picture.

Neither color was what I wanted. Both are too...yucky. So then I pulled out the samples I had used in my bedroom, and low and behold, I liked one! And even better, it happened to be the one I used in my bedroom! (The grey on the bottom right) So I went with that. The color looks totally different In the kitchen, I think.

In the midst of all this painting, I also installed some under-cabinet lights. So here is my final "progress" picture of the kitchen, walls painted, most cabinet doors installed, and some drawer hardware showing plus the under cabinet lights....

Other lights off

Other lights on- ignore the mess!!

Before:

After:

Can you believe that is the same kitchen? I am super, super excited about how good it is looking! And it will look even better when I get pictures with the remaining doors installed and get the mop out of sight!

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