Mini Kitchen Makeover

O.M.G. Becky, Look At Her Kitchen…

Pretty spectacular, right!? Words like Amazeballs and fantabulous come to mind. No? Although a gut job was justifiably in order,  we would have to find a way to live with this kitchen for a little while and opted for a “mini makeover,” DIY style.

Those cabinets needed some serious TLC and you can really never go wrong with paint to freshen up a space. So, that seemed like a logical place to start. I must have sampled every shade of gray on the Benjamin Moore Color wheel. Taking into consideration the current color scheme and future upgrades, our perfect shade of gray was smoke embers 1466.

The color scheme throughout the adjoining spaces in the home are primarily “greige” and accented with pops of royal blue hues. Smoke embers complimented this look perfectly and was sure to lighten up the space.

The paint that our local BM Decorating Center recommended was an oil based self leveling paint with a matching tinted primer. I really recommend using a high quality paint that will withstand the test of time in a high traffic area.

You can do this project on your own, and an extra set of hands is super-helpful. My husband has never lifted a paint brush in his life and was not as enthused by my brilliant idea that happened to fall on Monday night football (which I lovingly refer to as Pinterest Night). So, Hubby was placed in charge of removing all of the doors and drawers from the kitchen and my partner-in-crime-mommy came to town to help with the painting. If you can come up with a numbering system or way to keep track of which cabinets go where, I highly recommend doing this. We did not…

Mom took the doors and drawers and I took the actual cabinets since it would involve lots of climbing on the counters. We sanded, primed and painted for what felt like an eternity. The drying time on the oil based paint and primer is a tad longer. I worked an open house while we were waiting one afternoon and was very envious of the new construction kitchen. So, I made a meme to promote the move-in ready space:

If I can make another recommendation, it would be to not skimp on the interior of your cabinets. Just don’t! The look will be much more polished and professional. 

In addition to painting the cabinets, we added all new hardware. Interior hinges would always be my preference when updating a kitchen or bath and we just couldn’t find them to fit. The replacement exterior hinges were special ordered and kept us with the open cabinet concept for almost two months. The benefit is that this is a really easy way to learn where everything is in a new kitchen!

To complete the look, we brought in all new stainless steel appliances and then finished it off with the little details that make our house a home.

Light and bright kitchen mission accomplished:

I can’t sit back and relax for too long because that stone fireplace is screaming, “PAINT ME!”

XO