BEFORE: 
AFTER: 
When we bought this house in the beginning building stages, the layout had been decided, but we were able to choose all the finishes. We wanted to upgrade the kitchen from the basic builders grade oak cabinets in the plans, but worked hard to keep to our budget so an upgrade was not an option.
Over the last year or two, I've been inspired by the transformations people have been sharing on their blogs of their painted cabinets(here and here). I prefer painted furniture over stained so I really wanted to give this a try. I finally convinced Scott that this was a good idea and for Christmas he gave me a kitchen makeover.
In January we replaced the basic stainless steel sink and chrome faucet with a cast iron sink and stainless steel faucet. We also added these pendant lights (the price has gone up since we purchased them, we got all 3 for $100) for a quick and easy, yet noticeable change. I loved these shelves on Tracy's blog, and planned to build my own, but it was winter and I wanted the change now. I found similar shelves at Michaels painted them black and added a little open shelving to a blank space. The black paint against the tan walls really popped and I was even more inspired to get those cabinets painted.
Summer (and spring for that matter) arrived much later this year making difficult to work on this project until late June. This is where I started to waiver a little. Maybe this is a bad idea, maybe they should be white instead of black, maybe we should go with a color like yellow or green... we finally decided to just go for it, and I'm so happy we did!
Scott removed all the doors and cabinet fronts and created a contraption to hang them while drying (good idea, Honey!). He wiped all the surfaces with TSP and deglosser then it was time for the fun stuff! I saw this post on vinyl beadboard wallpaper and knew I wanted to give it a try, so we picked up a roll at Lowes. It was fairly easy to install (I say that because I was not the one installing it, lol), and very easy to paint (I did do that part)! We added the wallpaper to the flat cainet surfaces under the bar and the ends of the cabinets.
Now it was time to prime and paint. We used a tinted primer and eggshell finish paint. I used a foam brush for the cabinets and Scott used a combo brush and foam brush for the doors and drawer fronts. I spray painted the original brass hinges with flat black spray paint and they seem to be holding up fairly well. We ordered the knobs from eBay for a great price, 13 knobs and 10 pulls for $50 including shipping. The pulls alone were $7 each here locally. Very happy with them!
If you're not bored yet, you can see our photos of the entire process here.
So that's our thrifty kitchen makeover...thanks for looking!!!
