My house was built in 1999 with an oak loving kitchen. Oak cabinets, oak floors and even the wall color was gold when we moved in. It looked like someone puked gold all over. After ten years, eight since I last painted the walls, we decided it was time to pull the plug on the oak.

Over the last couple of years we’ve gotten quotes on remodeling the entire kitchen space, quotes on replacing the cabinet doors only and quotes on painting the cabinets. We decided the existing layout was just fine and in order to save money we went with painting the cabinets, replacing the countertops and backsplash and updating a couple of the appliances that still hadn’t been replaced the last ten years.

I think we made the right decision!

The Before

The Construction Phase

The order we made changes was not ideal but with supply issues and people being busy, we did the countertops first and the backsplash a bit after that. The new sink and cooktop (we switched from electric to induction) had to be timed to go in the same time as the countertops. Lining up all the workers was stressful!

We hired a professional to paint the cabinets. Lots of people have been asking me my steps for getting it done and I’ll give you what was done but it was not by me 🙂

All the doors and draw fronts were removed. We were switching to soft close cabinet hinges so that would have had to be done anyway. The openings were sealed and taped off.

Countertops, appliances, window and floors were all covered up. The wood was primed and painted (with a spray painter) the next day or two. Two coats of paint were used. Everything stayed sealed up for about 4-5 days.

At this point I knew I did not at all want open shelving lol

The draw fronts and cabinet doors were all primed and painted at the studio of the lovely lady I hired to do the work. The following week she returned and put them back on, new hinges and all.

At that point I took over to get the walls painted. I let the cabinet paint cure and sit for a couple of weeks, plus it was hot and humid outside and I didn’t want to be painting in that weather. Once I began sanding and cleaning the walls I realized I had my work cut out for me. My kitchen is big!

We went on vacation before I started painting the walls and returned to some water damage on a side wall. Good thing I hadn’t done more!

The After

What a difference! My Instagram reel on the kitchen has gone viral, check it out here.

The kitchen cabinet paint color I picked is Sherwin Williams Dutch Tile Blue and the gray wall color is Behr Dolphin Fin. The white trim and wainscoting are Behr Simple White.

What do you think? I absolutely love it. I haven‘t replaced the custom curtain that was handing in the window above the sink, or the two handing in the eat in kitchen area. They look fine for now but will get done at some point. I also will be wallpapering a side wall in the hallway to the dining room. Be on the lookout for that blog post this month!