Winter white...kitchen cabinets!

So earlier this year, around summertime, I got the bug to paint our kitchen cabinets. Let's take a look at the 'before', and check out what our kitchen looked like with the outdated, light wood grain cabinetry the previous owners left:

YIKES!

DOUBLE YIKES!

Looking back at these before pictures, not only am I sooooo glad our cabinets don't look like this anymore, but I'm also appalled/embarrassed at the CLUTTER! Ugh, it's giving me hives just thinking about what a mess our kitchen was. Needless to say, nowadays I keep the kitchen a bit more streamlined - at least, I try to :)

But I have a pretty good excuse for why our kitchen was in such sad shape. These photos were taken last Fall, right after we moved in...right after we were married a week later...right after we got back from our honeymoon and were still unpacking/decorating/organizing/enjoying being newlyweds! Phew!  Kitchen tidyness just was not at the top of my list of things I was concerened about, haha.

I researched a lot of blog tutorials for tips and tricks to painting kitchen cabinets. I decided I wanted a light, bright kitchen -  our kitchen is small and hardly gets ANY natural light...I hate that :(  and so white was the color I wanted to go with to achieve that goal. But I hemmed and hawed over what color white to use - have you ever looked at how many different shades of white there are? There's seriously a gazllion! Ok, that's a slight exhaggeration...there's a bajillion! I didn't want a white with a blue, pink, green or purple undertone, I wanted an antique-looking white that wasn't too antiquey...you know, not too yellowy/tannish. So I held my breath and picked Creamy by Sherwin William's (when I told the gentleman helping me what color I needed mixed he said that's actually the color a lot of people choose to paint their cabinets - cool, I'm not alone!) and got it mixed in 3 quarts of oil-based, semi-gloss paint. From my research I learned that oil-based was the way to go for durability and long-term lasting quality. I also learned that I needed a good paint brush for a smooth-stroke finish, so I picked up my first Purdy brush:

I'm now a purdy-for-life painter! L-O-V-E these brushes. They're worth the few extra dollars you'll spend on them. Their quality is top-notch if you ask me. I bought an angled one like in the photo above, and made sure it was good to use with oil-based paint (actually, i think the brush I chose was suitable for all paint types).

Then, i got started on the project. I lightly sanded and cleaned the doors and surrounds, moulding, and anything else that was going to come in contact with paint (I also painted the trim around our window a semigloss bright white).  Here are a few 'during' photos after I had the doors off:

Whoa, I thought the before pictures were bad - these during photos are by far the worst. Don't worry, it gets better...I promise! :) 

I had 20 doors to paint (I left 3 off for some open cabinetry), 6 drawers, and all of the facing, sides, and moulding of the cabinets. The doors above are just the ones that didn't fit on my workspace outside. Oil-based paint is stinkier than latex, so painting outdoors is definitly preferable. BUT it was during the summer when it was absolutely wretched outside humidity-wise, so I looked forward to coming inside for this group of doors and enjoyed the cooler indoor temp - I didn't mind the odor a bit :)

I did a coat of primer, and two coats (some doors needed three coats) of paint and voila! Look how it started to come together!

                                                                                                   



*Sorry for some of my crooked/blurry/crazily lit photos. That's what happens when I use my camera phone :/

I spraypainted all of our door and drawer hardware a stainless finish and added them all back one once the paint was dry and I had everyithng reinstalled. Although, now I've gone with oil-rubbed bronze for the kitchen hardware so I re-sprayed them all that finish. I'll show you those updated photos in another post. And now, without further ado, here are a crap load of 'after' photos with everything painted and put back together:

ahhhhhhh, so nice :) I'm VERY happy with the outcome and SOOOOOO glad I took the plunge to paint - and do it myself. I don't know what it would've cost to hire someone to do this, but I do know that it most definitely would've been out of my budget. The finished product is actually a little brighter white than the sample color card, but it's no big deal. I did a little something else to give it that tad bit aged/distressed look I had in mind (more on that later, too!)

So how bout a few more quick snapshots of the before and afters from the same angles. I always enjoy those ;)

Before

After

Before



After

And Santa was EXTRA good to us this year - he delivered an early Christmas present last week: Stainless steel appliances! haha, YEAH!!! Thanks Santa - Merry Christmas to YOU! :) So I'll have to take a few more updated photos of those pretty little things to share with you too.

So that's our updated kitchen - what a difference some paint and elbow grease makes! So lemme hear what you have to say...anyone else considering doing something similar? Or have you completed a major project like this? I was crazy and did it while my husband was away - with two people though a task like this should be a breeze! :) If anyone out there reading this has any questions, feel free to leave me a comment below and I'll get back to ya!

Have a Merry Christmas, and here's wishing you and yours the very best in 2011!!

p.s. In addition to the hardware, distressing and appliances, there's ONE more thing that's been re-done: our island. So sounding like a broken record, more to come on that too!!! :)

~Amy

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