Amazing What a Little Paint Can Do

The first major step in my parent's kitchen makeover is done: kitchen cabinets have been painted!

It was a long and tedious process, in addition to being a learning experience for all of us. Much like my first building project that I did with my friend Shane back in December, I just can't seem to do small projects before tackling big ones. This was my first time refinishing anything and, while it isn't perfect, it sure made one hellova a difference.

Wanna see?

If you remember from two posts ago, my parent's kitchen looked just like this when Jon and I moved in at the end of last year.



For some reason I decided to take the above picture at night instead of during the day. Oh well. Can't retake it now, since—as of this morning—the kitchen is looking more like this:



Zing!

I knew that a simple coat (or 3!) of beautiful white paint would make a serious difference, but it's almost unbelievable how different the kitchen looks. It's like a completely new kitchen!

And as you've probably noticed, there's a part of the cabinets that still looks a lot like its old self.

That would be the undersides of the cabinet surround. We chose to leave those bare because it won't be too long before the floors are replaced. When that happens, all of the baseboard fronts will need to be removed, then put back on, then refinished and touched up with paint. We figured we'd save ourselves the trouble and leave them be for the time being.

In case you're curious, here's a list of the design investments we made between the "before" and "after" pictures—aside from, of course, the latter being taken in the daytime after the kitchen's been cleaned!

• Kitchen island (IKEA - Stenstorp) — $379
• 3 coats of Benjamin Moore paint in "Steam" + primer and painting supplies (OSH) — $325
• 2 new Frigidaire Gallery appliances, refrigerator and dishwasher (Lowe's) — $1,795
• a 5'x7' rug (Home Goods) — $99

     Total: $2,598


And that's it. Can you believe the difference just a few little changes make?

The cool thing is that we still have an entire, unopened can of "Steam" paint, plus 1/4 left in the first can, which is pretty amazing. There are definitely a few other projects I can see us doing in the future.

I'm so proud of my parents for agreeing to take the DIY route for painting these cabinets, because they sure weren't stoked about it at first.

About 2 years ago, they got a kitchen remodeling estimate through Sears. The makeover would have included just cabinet refacing and new countertops, and the total would have come to around $20,000—no including appliances! By doing a major part of the work ourselves (refinishing and painting the cabinets), we've saved my parents thousands and thousands of dollars. Now they can put some hard-earned money towards quality countertops and flooring that they so desperately need.

Sadly, it isn't likely that I'll be around when those next major updates happen, but (naturally) I'm fully encouraging my parents to keep investing in home updates that will bring them joy day-to-day and down the road.

We already sense a difference in how we feel because of how bright and open the kitchen is.



It's somewhat miraculous.

When we first bought the kitchen island back in January, we chose to give the space a "U" quality by making it more like a peninsula than an island. It worked fine, but it always felt a little awkward and unnatural to me, since it just didn't line up with anything; we were left with a lot of empty space between the island and the wall.

Since the fridge was so big, there was no way to utilize the chairs at the island if it was placed in the middle of the kitchen space.

Now, with the new counter-depth fridge, it isn't a problem at all.



So that's it! What do you think? Do you think we achieved our desired "modern country" kitchen with the "steam" white cabinet fronts? What kind of countertops would you choose to put in a white kitchen with (eventually) dark wood flooring? How about backsplash? Wall color?

My mind is racing with ideas. Why isn't this my kitchen?!

All-in-all, we're totally thrilled. The results are exactly what we hoped for and more, and the little tweaks we plan to make in the future will only make it a more welcoming space. The kitchen really is where my family spends the most time (cocktail hour, huzzuh!) and it absolutely functions as the heart of the home.

I don't know what you guys think, but...

Fry approves.


Psst... If you're curious as to the steps we took to paint the kitchen, refer to this post from Young House Love, which contains detailed instructions. We followed those pretty closely, minus the extensive wood filling they had to do.