The Kitchen Makeover (Part II)

We've been working on our kitchen makeover.  Last post, I discussed the taking down of the banquet.  As a reminder, this is what we started with when we decided to make the kitchen over:

Too dark!  So the first thing we did was take the banquet out but we had those gaping holes in the ceiling.  The hubby went to Home Depot and bought all the materials to fix the holes but upon further consideration we realized this is just one of those times that DIY isn't necessary and we'd probably spend more money in the long run trying to fix it.  So we hired our painter to do it.  It took them SEVEN hours (would have probably been 20 hours had we done it ourselves) and the price was incredibly reasonable.

The texture isn't done on it, but you can already see how open it looked.  While they were fixing that, we started with the DIY portion.  We got a quote to paint the kitchen and while we know it is a lot of work, we also knew WE could do it for MUCH cheaper.  We ended up saving about $850 by doing it ourselves ... totally worth it!

Hubby spent time caulking a ton of items in the cabinets.  The BIG tip is to make it look good BEFORE painting, especially when going lighter.  Light paint just highlights inconsistencies so do the job well.  Caulk any areas that need it, sand and fill in holes if they're there.

Then take down the cabinets and either go to the garage (or in our case, paint in your living room b/c the garage is cold in the winter).  We sanded some, although I think how much you sand depends on the finish of the cabinets.  Ours weren't shiny and didn't have a finish so that was quite  helpful.

Get a FLAT roller and your primer and begin!  We put two coats of primer on each side.  To paint the sides, we just put little pieces of wood underneath so they'd be up from the floor some.

We decided not to go with a SUPER white paint, but a white that had a little bit of warmth to it.  We chose Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore and only needed one gallon for it (that shocked me!).  We bought the Advance Benjamin Moore brand in semi-gloss finish.  We thought about getting it in a matte finish but I read somewhere that it's easier to wipe them down (remember ... two small kiddos in this house!) at semi-gloss so that was a big factor in our decision once I read that! :) 

TODAY this is what it looks like from the same view!

We still have more to do!  We want to buy some shelves, paint the fridge (yes you read that right!), make a pantry, paint the dining room table, etc.  BUT this is just BEYOND what I expected!  I LOVE walking by the kitchen all the time now.  It's bright, airy, and so fun.

Yes it was quite a bit of work to paint the cabinets, but well worth it. It took us about 2 weeks, but that's because we only worked about 6 evenings.  It's hard to do these projects when the hubby is gone so much, but we made it work and couldn't be happier!

A little kick of fun is the inside of the cabinets.  They're painted Birds Egg by Benjamin Moore.  I just bought a sample from them and it covered it, so the little kick only cost $5.

We bought a bigger rug (kitchen rugs are usually too small.  Something a little larger is much warmer and nice on your tootsies) and the towels from our favorite place, Target.  We had some Target gift certificates from Christmas and didn't spend any money getting these so it was a nice touch.  I still want to change a few other accessories, but with time.

ALL with time, but in DIY it's important to take the time and notice the huge steps.  And, I'm lovin' it.