Another Small Home Improvement - Kitchen Cabinetry

Thirteen years ago I refaced and refinished my kitchen cabinets.  At the time it was the most economical way to go, especially as I was also in the middle of adopting my youngest and trying to push all extra cash in that direction.  Other than a fresh coat of paint on the walls the kitchen hasn't been touched since then and needless to say it needed some love.

My decision to reface my cabinets rather than replace them wasn't just to save money but to also save a kitchen full of perfectly good cabinetry from ending up in the landfill.  While I didn't love the look of the 1979 dark stained wood cabinets, they were in excellent condition.  I decided to update them instead and I've never been sorry for that decision.

It took me three weeks and I spent less than $100 on wood lathe strips, paint, supplies and two contractor's packs of brushed nickel knobs.  I sanded off all the old varnish (that was a huge job!  Messy too!) and then added the lathe strips to all of the doors and drawer fronts.  Then painted everything in Dried Basil paint, drilled holes and added the knobs.  I loved it!  Not only was I proud of myself for pulling it off, but it updated the look of my kitchen tremendously.

Fast forward thirteen years and the much loved shade of green paint was fading and worn out.  Some of it was missing in places and I'd run out of touch up paint long ago.  It was time for a makeover.  This time I chose Magnetic Gray in the Behr Marquee paint from Home Depot.  This is some pretty awesome stuff to paint with too.

Sanding station

Cleaned and drying

We did one half of the room on Saturday and the other half on Sunday and this time I had two fantastic helpers!  My oldest is awesome at taping off things and I really appreciated it too.  We lightly sanded the doors and drawer fronts and cleaned them off with TSP and hot water.

We borrowed our neighbor's project table

Painting station in our dining room

I don't know how that can be comfortable

We gave the cabinetry two coats of paint allowing it to dry well between coats.  We started with the doors first since they have two sides to paint, then the drawer fronts and finally the base cabinets.  I can tell this is a much better quality of paint then I used the first time around.

Cool Whip containers to corral the screws and hardware

All the knobs went into a bowl and were soaked in TSP solution to make sure they were all clean and shiny.  I boiled the hinges in TSP solution to get off the 13 year accumulation of grime in all the nooks and crannies.  Then gave them all a once over with a scrub brush and air dried them.  Once they were dry I lubed them all up with a little bit of WD40.  Then it was time to put everything back together.

  

Before
After upgrading the cabinet it needed some paint

After
I like the gray

And wow!  Not a huge transformation, but a big difference nonetheless.  Freshened up and looking new and modern once again.  My girls are really proud of themselves too as this is their first time really taking part in a big paint project like this and they were very hands on this time.  I love seeing them take pride in a job well done.  And knowing that they'll be able to fix up and care for their future homes is quite fantastic.  No doubt in my mind they'll be very capable adults.

Before - a little bit worn

After - ahhhhhhhh!

Oh my gosh you guys I am so happy with the results!  And soooooo happy to finally get to do this.

Oh dear, did someone step in some paint?

"Mom, I can help."

Before
The cabinet under the sink

After

So how did the cost of this home improvement shake out?  

Well, I already had sandpaper, one sponge brush and the TSP (from the last time I did the cabinets).  I purchased a quart of paint, four sponge brushes, a foam roller (didn't need) and a small paint tray.  I used a $25 Visa gift card I had earned taking part in a wellness program last year at work leaving me with $7.36 balance.  So for less than $8 I updated my kitchen cabinets.  Not too shabby, if you ask me!