November 7, 2009

{ The Most Amazing New Kitchen, EVER! }

I have lived in this house for 11 years. My cabinets have seen much better days. We updated the counters, back splash and flooring several years ago, but the kitchen cabinets were way overdue for some TLC. They are the stock laminate maple cabinets that came with the house when we built it. Here's some before pictures...

My dad helped me add beadboard and moldings to my island. I wanted it to look more like a substantial piece of furniture. Thanks Dad!!!

And here's the after...
I am a chicken and couldn't bring myself to tackle a job like this on my own so my sister, April, flew all the way from Utah to help me paint them. She has done this several times in her own houses so I was confident everything would be OK. I hoped! Scared me to death because if it didn't I was in big trouble with my honey.

I enlisted my good friend, Mary, to provide comic relief and a little grunt work. She is a good sport. We started by taking all the cabinet doors off and labeling them with blue tape and a number. Then we took the cabinet doors outside onto the grass, sanded them, sprayed the front twice and the back once with the chosen paint. {That's April, below, the best sister in the world for helping me out.} Then, after taping off the cabinets, we hand painted all the base cabinets. We added a second coat before the glazing began.
April painted the island a darker shade than the rest of the cabinets. The color looked like hot chocolate, yummy.To finish off the island April glazed like crazy (mocha color) and we used a toothbrush to fleck said glaze onto the surface. We finished this with an oil based, quick dry polyurethane to hold up to all the people living in this house.

We found some really neat iron hardware to complete the "furniture" look.
The part that took the longest was glazing the rest of the kitchen. I didn't want an all over gaze, so April painstakingly hand painted the glaze into the crevices of the doors and around the cabinet bases with an artist paintbrush. It took about three movies to finish the glazing! {Do you figure your project lengths by the number of movies it take to complete them?}
After two coats of polyurethane on the base cabinets we were ready to put it all back together.
Believe it or not, the entire project only took two days to complete, and the results are amazing. Of course after finishing the cabinets we needed to freshen up the tops of the cabinets for the season. Isn't accessorizing always the most fun?
The only thing left to do is find the perfect hardware for the white cabinets, and the kitchen redo will be complete. {And, I have to still talk my hubby into a new refrigerator and microwave}.

10 comments:

Susan said...

Looks awesome. I especially love all the accessories you have up top. Please udate us when you have it decorated for xmas.

Chris said...

This is jaw dropping! I LOVE it. The island is spactacular! How nice that you could have some support through the process, as well! Well done!

Stacey said...

Wow what a difference! That turned out just beautiful and to do it with the girls makes it fun too. :)

Laurie Anne said...

Congrats, it looks AMAZING. I'm so wanting to paint my cabinets. Thanks for the inspriation.
:0)

Traci said...

Yeah! It looks awesome! Can't wait to see it in person. I have such amazing and talented sisters. :)

Laurel said...

April is amazing and can do anything! I remember when she installed her own garbage disposal. I want to be just like all my little sisters when I grow up. :D

Angie said...

WOW!!! It looks awesome! My cabinets are white, but I have thought about lightly glazing them to age them some. Love how your cabinets don't go all the way to the ceiling so you can acccessorize them up top. You and your sister should be so proud of yourselves!

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

IT looks amazing - and a white kitchen is a classic.

Rachel Ricchio said...

oooo i LOVE the white! it looks so clean and fresh. again...you're so talented with home design. so jealous.

Bobbi said...

Beautiful Sheri and April! I can't believe it only took 2 days... it looks like such a big project!