Monday, January 18, 2010

The Kitchen is Done

Or maybe I should title this post "The kitchen is done and has been for months...I'm just a blog slacker!" Ooops! Life is busy, what can I say?!

At any rate, my kitchen is done and I love it! We started this project in early July and I blogged about it back then. We spent the spring having an addition built onto our family room and while we loved the addition, it made our early 90s oak kitchen look even more dated than it had before. We didn't have extra money to gut the kitchen and start from scratch, so I convinced my very very VERY reluctant husband that we should paint the cabinets white. Then I convinced him that not only should we paint them white, but also add beadboard to dress them up a bit. Then I convinced him that while we were doing this project, we might as well add some trim and make them look a bit more finished.
I did a lot of research before we began this project because I knew my husband was taking a huge leap of faith and I didn't want to let him down...nor did I want to end up with streaky oakish whitish cabinets. I looked at lots and LOTS of blogs and websites, but the place that was most helpful was Infarrantly Creative. Beckie is wonderful and her cabinets are beautiful--and she was absolutely wonderful at answering my many questions!
As I mentioned six months ago (wow, that was a long time ago!) when we started this project, we started with one side of the kitchen first because we knew this wouldn't be a short project! If you want to read about the process of doing the cabinets, go back to that July post. Working mostly on the weekends, it took us three months to finish up the kitchen. It was a long, long process but totally worth it in the end. We love our "new" kitchen! It flows beautifully with our expanded family room, too!

I must also put in a plug for Benjamin Moore semi-gloss paint in Decorator White. I heart this paint. I've never used Benjamin Moore paint before and now I'm 100% a convert. It is gorgeous high quality paint that covers like a dream! LOVE it!! I painted (and yes, I mean me--my husband did the other work, but sanding and painting was my job) the entire kitchen by hand using my Purdy brush (you MUST use a good quality brush) and a can of Benjamin Moore paint. My entire kitchen got three coats of paint and I used up 1/3 of a gallon of paint. Isn't that insane?! I thought it would take 3 gallons and instead I used up 1/3 of a gallon!! My kitchen isn't a palace, but it isn't *that* small!!
Eventually we will change out all of our interior (oak...blech!) doors for white wood and change all of the trim to white as well...but it is a slow process! In the picture below you can see across the hall to our laundry room/powder room (yes, the toilet is adjacent to the dryer...it's lovely...) and see the wood trim and the wood door leading to the garage...that will all be white one of these days!
Ahhh, so pretty! I heart this kitchen makeover! Oh and those are our old laminate countertops. I carefully taped them and was able to sand, prime and paint the oak edges white. They've held up beautifully! The backsplash and the edges of the counters were oak...but not any more!

Wondering what this kitchen makeover cost?

Less than $350!

(It would have been less, but beadboard isn't cheap!)

29 comments:

Shannon said...

Your kitchen looks great! I love the extra touches of beadboard and the pretty drawer pulls! Love it!

Jodee said...

Wow! Way to go! Your kitchen turned out fabulous! What a bargain too. I am showing my hubby this post. I want to do this exact same thing!

Jboo said...

We recently painted our cabinets white and added beadboard around the bottom island thingy. Love it! Yours looks gorgeous! Isn't it amazing what a little paint and a lot of hard work can accomplish! Good job!

Janet

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, I almost never leave comments, but what a makeover! Too nice and wow for 350! It was smart to keep what you had and work with it. I love the end result and its very elegant. Anyhow, how to comment on the price, what a great makeover for the price!

Alex said...

OMG! I love your kitchen!!! My wife and I recently sold and moved out of our home that we renovated. It's hard work, but it is so rewarding in the end!!!

Well Done!

April said...

Your kitchen looks great!!

Life is Good said...

It looks great!

Recaptured Charm said...

Your kitchen look fantastic! I am in the midst of redoing mine at the moment and also have used lots of beadboard in the process. I just LOVE beadboard. I've been chronicling my makeover. WOW does redoing a kitchen take a LOOOONG TIME!
Yours was well worth the time spent!
Lisa

Amber said...

WOW! it looks amazing! You guys did a great job! I am in love with the beadboard on the cabinet doors...looks very classy!

Anonymous said...

looks awesome!
They have beadboard wallpaper at Lowes, dunno' if that would have worked for this application though

Love the trim at the top and the cup pulls- where did you get those?

Jenn said...

I LOVE Beadboard. You kitchen turned out lovely! I had my hubby install a beadboard backsplash in our kitchen and we have the oak-y cabinets like you used to have. We are trying to figure out what to do...thanks for inspiring me!!

Anonymous said...

Love the kitchen! What are your counter tops? They also look great with the kitchen. Will definitely buy Benjamin Moore. Thanks so much for posting.

Marty@A Stroll Thru Life said...

This looks just fabulous. I love your pretty white kitchen. It is simply gorgeous. Hugs, Marty

Treasia Stepp said...

I came over from Better After. Your kitchen is gorgeous now. I love the addition of the beadboards. I would never have thought of this. Now my mind is spinning with possibilities.

Kathryn-nannygoat said...

Beautiful!!! Nice work, I love it!

Sandy said...

I am definitely going to do my cabinets as well. I inherited my folks home and they have the oak cabinets as well. Kind of the same lay out as yours. Thanks for the info. I am searching other blogs as you did before I start as well. Thank you for put the other site in your post as well. I may have to ask you some questions too!!

lindsay said...

saw your project today on better after and it looks awesome! i love how it brightened it up so much. we are getting ready to tackle our "oaked out" kitchen next month, so this was inspiring to see it done (and on a budget!) great job!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE this! I was just having a conversation with my husband two weekends ago about doing this to our oak, out dated kitchen!!! I am definitely going to have him read these posts. The kitchen looks fabulous!

Caro said...

OMG... it's funny, our kitchen cabinets are not pretty much the same!! We did this reno/update a few months ago too! Ours were white laminate before! Eeek!!

frillsfluffandtrucks said...

Thanks for the visits--I tried to respond to questions directly, but some of you don't have your profiles made public.

I bought the pulls, handles, and hinges on eBay of all places!

My countertops are the original laminate counters with oak edges. I taped off the counter and primed and painted the edges. It has held up pretty well--better than I expected!

I'm happy to answer any questions!

~ Sarah

Auntie Em said...

Your kitchen looks great! We are in the middle of ongoing renovations and I have beadboard doors and panels like you used. Even my oven exhaust cover matches! I went with the same drawer pulls in the brushed nickel and love them. Hmmmm....do you suppose great minds think alike! :D

artsyfish said...

I saw your kitchen a few days ago and I heart it to.

Did you consider using the beadboard look wallpaper? Once you had the beadboard up did you have to paint it? Was the interior of your cabinets already white?

I just hung some of the wallpaper over my cabinets to see how it looks!

Joanne

Amanda said...

Thank you for posting! I am so excited to read your tips. I had the same idea to dress up our builder oak cabinets, but your post is the first I've seen where someone has actually done it. I am just AMAZED and encouraged by the $350 price tag! I'm bookmarking this page now to show my husband. Thanks again for posting.

Melissa said...

Beautiful! Thanks so much for the color recommendation...gonna get a sample! :)

Amberli said...

oooo, i'm in love! your kitchen looks great. i'm blog snooping for ideas for my kitchen, also all oakey doakey ugly. i love the beadboard here. did you just have the beadboard cut to the right size and glued/nailed (?) it to the front of each cabinet?

thislandthislifethisfarmerswife said...

Your kitchen looks great! Our cabinets are painted a very dark burgundy. My MIL painted them almost 10 years ago and the paint is just now beginning to show some wear. My biggest complaint is the continuous wiping down of the cabinets that I have to do. They show grease marks. Just from regular wear. I want to go lighter, but I am afraid they will show dirt even more (little hands:) Any thoughts? Do yours show lots of crud? lol

thislandthislifethisfarmerswife said...

Gorgeous! I am thinking of doing a similar kitchen redo...how is the white with little fingers? Does it show alot of crud? lol I have painted burgundy cabinets now. My MIL painted them with oil based paint and they show so much grease...gross! Mostly around the handles. I have to wipe them down almost daily. Any thoughts from someone who's been there?

frillsfluffandtrucks said...

"M" ~ I tried to reply directly to you, but you don't have an email address linked to your profile. :)

My cabinets are very easy to take care of--and I rarely (if ever...whoops!) need to wipe them down. They don't show fingerprints or anything like that. I love them!

~ Sarah

Becca said...

This kitchen is amazing and the look you achieved is so great for the money you spent. We're going to attempt this project in the next few weeks and I was wondering specifically about the beadboard you used. In the pictures, it looks like the center panels of beadboard you installed are flush with the original trim and don't stick out higher than the outside. Did you have multiple options of thickness to choose from when you picked the beadboard, or is it really that thin. Our cabinets look exactly like yours did pre-makeover.
Thanks!!!