10.27.2018

Kitchen Cabinets - Chalk Paint Makeover

Since the day we moved into our home 3 1/2 years ago, I hated the kitchen cabinets. They are from 1986, never been touched. Our priorities were never the kitchen though, because the cost of a kitchen renovation is way up there. We started with painting the walls, replacing the boiler because we had no hot water, installing central air, redoing a bathroom and finishing our basement.

*Before: taken the day we looked at the house in person for the first time

While scrolling through pinterest, I've seen countless posts about painting cabinets but I never had the energy to even think about it. It wasn't until a friend of mine posted her paint project on instagram, that made me say to myself, "I can do this."

I, of course, waited until I had emergency gallbladder surgery... and while sitting home recovering I ordered everything I needed to paint all my kitchen cabinets. After lots of research I settled on chalk paint. It requires NO PRIMING, NO SANDING, and no mess really! 5 days post surgery, I cleaned all of my cabinets (removing grease, stuck on food, baby drool lol), then removed all of the cabinet doors and hinges. The weather was nice and cool so I set the doors up on my deck and began painting. The chalk paint went right over the old dark brown wood, which absolutely amazed me since I was using a much lighter gray color.


I did a second coat on most of the doors and then tackled the inside. Annie sloan chalk paint has low VOC so you really don't smell anything while painting. It was the first thing my husband said when arriving home from work and being surprised by my project, "wait, how come it doesn't smell like paint in here at all?"

7 hours of painting the first day until I called it a night. I knew tomorrow I would be able to finish everything by myself, and I did. I finished the second coats everywhere, and then began using the Annie sloan wax sealer. I stood there in my kitchen looking around, just amazed at how simple the project of transforming the cabinets was. We went out on day 3 to pick up all the new hardware (since we never had any in this house), and it continued improving the look of our new kitchen drastically! So for $200 bucks, we have a whole new look and you bet your behind that I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner!


Of course a project like this has a domino effect... we want a new counter, a new sink, a new stove. But for now, until we make some decisions about possibly extending the back of our house for a bigger kitchen, we will wait a bit to see what plans lie ahead!




2 comments:

  1. Looks great an im doing similar with my oak cabinets atm!

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  2. wow!! i have been afraid to do mine!! thanks for this post!

    ReplyDelete