*Here is an updated post of the kitchen*
Our kitchen
So the first place we decided to sink our teeth into with this house was the kitchen. Eventually we will be adding marble counter tops (I think), wood floors (done recently), new light, new sink, all the good stuff but for now we needed to do something that we felt would make this place look like us. It was so cookie cutter, like every house on our block. So we thought painting the walls, trim, cabinets and adding a back splash would do the trick.
Here is what it looked like, it is small and there is nothing we can do about that so I wanted to make it feel bigger.
This is the eat in area right off of the kitchen. It is actually a really big area
So the next step was to select the colors, I knew I wanted the color gray for the walls. I was drawn to it by so many other pictures I had seen. I thought it was fresh but gender neutral. After all my husband lived here and he would not want to live in a pink or purple palace, just sayin. So it was pretty simple and to be honest we did not even get a sample to make sure we liked it. Also the second we moved in the house I knew I would be painting all of the trim. The trim was a fake wood look ala every house built in the late 90’s. And like most things in the 90’s I did not need to go back to that style. The cabinets were the toughest thing to pick out. My first inclination was to go with white, nice, clean and neutral if our colors change. But my husband pointed out that we had white floors (eventually, one day being changed) and white counter tops. Lots of white, this is not a hospital this is our kitchen. So we decided on green or blue. Non committed to either. We selected three colors and painted them on a cabinet. The inside just in case it did something weird when we did paint them. The color we chose was on the left from Pittsburgh Paints Ultra Interiors, color is Hurricane. The color in the middle was selected for the china cabinet color is Balsam from the same company.
We chose the color on the left for the cabinets and the one in the middle for a china cabinet that we had and was never painted.
Next came the nitty gritty of it. Taking all of the doors and drawer fronts off and sanding them. This is a really easy thing to do just time consuming. And painful, expect to rub off some finger prints… possibly. We had an electric sander which saved us a lot of time but with our doors having inlays on the front we had to go through and hand sand all of that. This is an important but very boring part of the job. If you don’t sand enough the paint will just peel and chip off right away. We sanded until the surface felt rough. Not to the point of damaging our wonderful faux wood but enough to mess it up a little.
After that we spread out the doors and painted one side. To get a even coat each time we did smaller amounts so there would be no dripping. And also be sure to paint them while the doors are flat on the ground, it stops anything from leaving a drip pattern. We also sanded the cabinets in the kitchen and painted. Of course after taping the floor off to protect the lovely linoleum. That is pretty much it, just repeat. We did one coat on all of them, turned anything over and did one coat on that. Did a second coat and then from there you can decide if two coats is enough. We liked being able to see the lines and slight grain in the cabinets but if you want it more clean and line free three coats should get rid of that.
It took us with the help of my wonderful poor younger brother who was visiting for the summer two weekends to paint our kitchen cabinets sanding included.
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| starting them young |
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| the cabinets done, and new hardware on |
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| Ignore the dishes and paint |
The trim of the room was something I was excited to paint. It is really a simple process, we went with a semi gloss white. You sand all trim (yay), tape the floor and have a go at it. We chose to paint the trim first that way we did not worry about getting white on the walls since we were going to paint the walls anyway. After fully dried we did two more coats. Then taped the top of the trim to paint the walls. We don’t tape the trim anymore because we are pros like that but this was our first go around with painting. We used a paint roller for most of the wall, an angled brush to go around the top of the wall that meets the ceiling so we did not have to tape the whole ceiling (laziness set in). And then a smaller brush right around the trim of the doors, windows and floor boards. There were a few touch ups of white needed but for the most part it went great considering this was the first wall and trim any of us had ever painted.
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| You can see the door frame and wall color, and my dog Teddy’s tail. He is always close |
The wall color turned out a tad more purple/gray then I would have liked in some lighting but I don’t hate it enough to change it :). I guess that is what we get for not getting a sample and trying it out first. Which I do in every room now. And we usually end up trying a few colors before we find the right one. I would have preferred a standard gray, which is surprisingly hard to find. There is a lot of gray with purple or blue in it. A standard gray is hard to come by. I did end up finding one but we used it in another room.
Our drawer and cabinet hardware
We wanted to pretty up the kitchen even more so we got some great new drawer handles and door knobs for the kitchen and the china cabinet. My husband had some weird requirements, a smooth back of the knobs, and not too shiny. He was not so sure about the handles for the drawers but I made it known my requirement was to have them. He has since admitted I was right and he was wrong. Which is always, but whatever.
There it is, how to paint some cabinets. I love the look, and total including hardware we spent $61.23. Not bad for a whole new feel. I will be adding part 2 which will detail the back splash once I can get my husband to give me steps. I did none of it, so I am at his mercy for the coveted information. Until then I can just flood you all with pictures of the kitchen. The light above the table bothers me so much. It sticks out so badly to me. I am in search of one that will work but my problem is we push our table to the side of the room more so we have a walkway from the back door. So the light fixture is not centered to the table. It is the bane of my existence in this area. I will find it, I will!
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| We painted this china cabinet a darker shade of the cabinet color |
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| Too lazy to paint the inside |
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| We did paint the bottom of the upper cabinets, but just one coat. Enough to not make the original color be seen |
Eeeek!! Where did my comment go?! Ohhh no!! I wrote a big one too!!! Will have to wait to see if it shows up…boohoo!!! Followed you from Hometalk just now….yup! Thats me!!
I am so happy you stopped on over from Hometalk, thank you so much. I think your comment came up after this one. Not sure if it was your initial one. I hope you have a great day 🙂
Teehee!!! Sorry girl!! I am sooo bad about reading til the end and THEN commenting….here I go again!!! Love the 2 tone, looks like, of the cabinets…hm…must think of doing that in this house!! Will be a winter project here but with 11 cats and 2 dogs..{YIKES} not sure how to keep the hair off of them..hm..wait…might wallpaper the doors then! LOL….naw….back to reading again……oh and btw….i LOVE your flooring!! For real!!! I would have kept it!!! Just saying…love it!
You are so kind. The painting of the cabinets was a big project, very time consuming. But I am so happy I did them. It is still one of my favorite projects in my home I have done so far.
Can you come over to Ireland and help me with my cupboards – your’s look fantastic