Thanks Marita... very pretty! Did you do this yourself or have someone do the painting for you?

DIY

from this

to this

Hi,

We are doing a small kitchen reno. Our house is not that old but the previous owners were very hard on it. We didn't feel it made sense to replace the cabinets when they were in good shape but they are so dark and dreary that we did want to paint them. We hired a person to do them for us. We got different quotes. One quote was for a person to come and paint them with oil paint in our basement for $1800. We were very worried about this though as we have 3 little kids who are very tough on our house and I am in the kitchen ALL the time. We were nervous it would chip.... We then got quotes for them to be painted with conversion varnish (?). The quotes ranged from $5000 to $6500. We used the cheapest person as they actually had the best format. They came in on a monday, took off all the doors, taped the whole kitchen up and sanded all the bases. On Tuesday they sprayed the kitchen with 2 coats of Benjamin Moore White Dove. Wednesday they came back and put the last clear, hard coat on that prevents the chipping, sanded the doors at their shop and put the first 2 coats of paint on. On Thursday they came back to take off all the tape and painted the doors rest of the doors at their shop. Friday they put everything back together. We are beyond thrilled with it. As you can see from the pictures we are still in the middle of the reno--backsplash, paint, counter stools:o). It is not totally done yet, hence no postings. On Tuesday I forgot to mention that they put up plastic at all entries to the kitchen and sealed it up. Once they started painting, they vented the fumes out our 2 kitchen windows. It really was quite an amazing process and SOOOO worth the money to have it down so quickly with the 3 little ones. We had it done about 3 weeks ago and already my 2 year old has rammed his trucks and scooter into the doors and no chipping or scratch marks. This house is not our forever house so we didn't want to spend too much making our dream kitchen. I have to say that so far, I am LOVING it!! Good luck with your decision and let me know if you have any questions. The pictures are from my phone so sorry if the quality is not the best. Hope it looks okay. This is my first time posting pics:o)! Best, Caroline

Before

in process...

Finished :o)

Not sure if you can tell from this pic, but here is a closeup of the cabs. They are so smooth--no brush strokes. If you can't see it well I can take a pic with my nice camera for you.

Wow! Beekeeperswife... that is beautiful! I see you did some reconfiguring and added some cabinets also. Beautiful job! How much do you think you saved by not replacing all your cabinets?

Here's before and during. I had mine painted (should have done it myself because my painter really did an awful job). But the white made a huge difference in the kitchen. Before was cherry stained maple, tile counters. We took part of the wall down between the kitchen and DR. New farm sink and soapstone counters. Still need new floor, just ripped out the wallpaper today and will repaint the walls. But, I'm getting there.

After

I so needed to see this today! I'm taking forever to get my cabinets painted, partially due to other projects and partially due to fear and procrastination. It's great to see fabulous finished painted cabinets. Yes, the hassle will be worth it!

Before:

After! Cabinet color is BM Chantilly Lace

Honey oak before:

After (Linen White):

Wow! Great job everyone! Keep 'em coming! I am loving the white with the dark counters!

We never even had an estimate for replacing cabinets. We added the lower cabinet to the left of the stove. We took an existing drawer to a local cabinet maker (it's the place that makes a lot of the unfinished furniture for those unfinished furniture stores). We had the cabinet made in a wood that we could paint, since we were going that route. We also added an upper purchased from the same place. We did move around some of our cabinets. We removed the island cabinets and replaced them with Kraftmaid cabinets in cherry. Only reason we replaced them was I wanted drawers and the ones that were there were just 2 cabinets with doors on both sides. So impractical.

We also added 2 pantry cabinets with roll out shelves on each side of the fridge. These also were from Kraftmaid. We went with the highest end construction and also in cherry. We also bought the crown moulding over the fridge area from them, the false door end panels for that area as well as for the island. Could have gone cheaper, but we wanted it to look good so we went for the add-ons.

Oh, and I also had the local cabinet shop make me false door/panels for the end of the upper and lower run. It kind of gave it a more complete look. My dh did the crown moulding on the white cabinets, as well as the light rail. I love what you can do with moulding!

Our process of painting was painful. As everyone who gets a great result will tell you, it's all in the prep. You get out what you put in. I used pore-o-pac wood filler, with sanding between coats, then BM Impervo. All oil based. The finish is so great, it really feels like a factory finish. If it matters to you, there is no grain showing.

Here are some more pictures:

You can see we removed the pantry with the bifold doors and desk, and replaced with this:

We also DIY'd the paint. A contractor neighbor changed our hinges from exposed to hidden.

Bee, I agree, it is labor intensive but worth it. Our kitchen is small, and it still took forever to patch, sand, prime, and paint both sides of the doors.

My father handpainted the ones in our current house in our garage over a couple of weeks. They have held up remarkably well over 5 years and two small children. I have no before picture, but I will just say that they were about the darkest, ugliest, builder grade cabs ANYONE could ever have!

Wow, I love this!! So much inspiration. I really want to pain my cabs but it feels hopeless. I've done it twice before in previous homes but my new house just has so many cabs (stacked)....it just feels impossible.

We just updated our kitchen this past winter. The housing market simply doesn't justify a total remodel in our locale so we painted the existing cabinets and replaced the appliances and counters.

The cabinets were builders "premium" with solid frames and doors so are substantial enough. But the end panels were printed hardboard and hadn't taken a patina like the wood making them look mismatched.

We painted ours using Cabinet Coat brand. Had previously used it in a bathroom with good results.

Here are some before and after photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen - After and Before

I wanted to add that the sides of our existing cabinets are that plastic stick on fake wood stuff. So how to get the paint to stick to plastic? It's a miracle of science....I got a can of primer that is used for painting plastic. I know Krylon makes the stuff, but I found the Valspar brand at Lowes. I just used the clear primer on the sides (taped everything off around it, and sprayed it.). Worked great. Took the pain without any trouble at all.

I painted my cabinets. But...it was paint over thermofoil.
I would not recommend this. It came out wonderfully but
it was hard work to sand and prime, sand and paint over
and over. My cabinets are in excellent shape they had just
been damaged by the sunlight and needed to be made pretty.
I do not regret my paint job, I just wish I had the money

These below are not my kitchen.

I disliked our kitchen from the day we bought the house. The cabinets were ugly, but even worse, junky and falling apart. But after 4 years and lots of other projects, we didn't get around to it yet. And then we decided we were going to move. So we had the cabinets painted white to freshen them up to at least look "better" to any possible buyers.

But we did it at the "cheap" end of the spectrum. I hired it out, to a local guy. He came in, cleaned EVERYTHING, removed the doors, primed and painted the boxes and doors, then replaced everything and added all new hardware, since only half even had hardware. We used high quality paint, but you can still see the wood grain, which I don't mind at all. it IS wood, after all :) And the best part, he was done in 3 days.

The transformation was sooo dramatic! No new counters or sink, no new floor, no hidden hinges, just painted cabinets. But oh-so worthwhile! It's been a year, and the finish is still fine, not once place has needed touch-ups.

And, we decided NOT to move, so now I have this much fresher kitchen to live in until my big kitchen reno days arrive :) I only wish we had done this the day we moved in here!

So my advice--do it! Soon! You will be so happy :)

My cabinets are "fake" wood, too: plywood or mdf covered with paper printed woodgrain. That might be the same thing boxerpups called thermofoil and I'd bet it's what beekeeperswife had as side panels. I've painted my bathroom cabinets and have started on my kitchen cabinets, using Zinsser BIN primer. I'll post pics on kitchen when I'm further along.

We are currently painting the cabinets ourselves. If you can, I'd hire out to do it!!! Though I did not get a quote either so the cost may have been high. We are using BM oil based paint and it takes alot of work and time. And I'm not thrilled with the finish I'm getting. I am curious though, do you need a final clear coat as mentioned?

A final clearcoat is not essential, clearspring. It can help put one extra layer between the outside world and the paint, and can help it look smoother and glossier, if that is the "not thrilled" part you are talking about.

But if it seems like too much work, oil paint should be enough.

But it won't help paint form a better bond to the cabinet, if that is the problem.

Sometimes, with oil paint, which takes awhile to dry, and to cure, the problem can be "working" the paint too much when it's wet, or going back when it's tacky. This can make the paint look rough, rather than nice and smoothly. It's best to flow it on thinly and LEAVE IT! as tempting as it is to go back, don't. You can always go back and cover any unpainted spots when it's truly dry.

You people are so smart! I think it's great to reuse what you have and just improve upon it.

I loooooove all these before and after pictures. I think I will show them to my husband in my last-ditch attempt to get him to agree to let me paint our builder grade oak cabinets.

See my recent post on the thread about Rustoleum cabinet paint - I had HATED the cabinets and had been dying to paint them white, but my husband seems to think it's a travesty to cover ANY natural wood grain, as though these cabinets are special and handmade or something. (And the sides aren't even real wood!) My "solution" has been to work with what I have. With the right wall color, good hardware, and kitchen accessories, the builder grade oak really can look pretty nice. But man! The white cabinets have such a clean look about them... I love them with dark countertops. I have a new kitchen, but I think my favorite pictures above may be the ones of kitchens which are clearly a bit dated. Those pictures really drive home the point that painting the cabinets white, even without changing out the countertops or appliances, totally changes the look of a kitchen.

Thanks everyone for their pictures... I love them!

I started with not too beautiful dark grainy cabinets.

It took 4 months on and off of me working on them (I needed a break before I had enough energy to tackle the doors). Every step by itself wasn't that hard, it was just a ton of steps and slower going than I thought it would be. But it was totally worth it!

After in SW alabaster

Ha! Noellabelle, I think those were the same cabs I started with!

Which reminded me, that we actually removed the door face on the upper cabs and inserted beadboard before we painted.

Noellabelle: What color is your grout? I want to do something other than white grout. Hopefully you see this. :)

frmrsdghtr: I used vintage white ready to use grout from Lowes.

Senator: We're in a condo circa mid 80's....they must have been cheap for builders back then! I love your rugs, btw.

I am sure they were cheap. If they weren't, someone got ripped off!

The rugs are Pottery Barn Dhurrie that I bought at the outlet 5 years ago. They have held up remarkably well over the years!

I would love to know what everyone used for their white paint (brand, gloss and color) since I am just about ready to paint my kitchen cabinets. Thanks for the advice boxerpups on the laminate sides of my cabinets! Love the white happy cabinets in the pics posted. Thank you everyone!

I find it interesting that most of these painted pictures are of the same, builder grade, flat panel cabinets. They're worth painting.

I built some of my cabinets, bought some when I had $$, used some given to me by remodeling friends, and used things I found at thrift stores, reuse centers, CL, and on the side of the road.

If you get a primer named STIX (made by the Cabinet Coat people, now owned by BM) you can rough up melamine/thermafoil cabinets, prime them with the adhesive primer STIX, then use the great Cabinet Coat on them? You can paint the plastic, the fake wood sides, and metal. That STIX is fabulous.

The Cabinet Coat is also amazing. It flows on and hardens to an emamel-finish that is just gorgrous. They'll only tint light colors, though.

I am painting my cabinets Duron's Stone Lion from the Millenium Collection. It's a discontinued color, but I went up the corporate ladder and got the color codes and they'll make it for me. YEAH!

I don't even like the wood look much, I've discovered. I think that's why for 5 years, when I had the $$ to actually purchase, I never did. Nothing gave me the AhHA moment. But this paint? I love it so much I get lost in it.

Paint EVERYTHING!
Love it!

Christine

I may have mentioned it above, but I'm using Ace Cabinet & Trim paint, which is the Ace version of Cabinet Coat. It's an oil latex hybrid, which means you get the durability of the oil, but with lower VOC, minimal yellowing, and water clean-up like latex. The Ace version can be tinted in all colors, but the darker ones take longer to dry, and you may have to ask your local Ace to order it (not all stores carry it).

I mixed a custom white similar to BM Simply White, and so far I'm really loving it. Goes on beautifully! I used Zinsser BIN primer, another goes-on-everything adhesive primer, but I'm also doing a coat of Ace enamel undercoat primer on the front to minimize any flaws in my prep and give the paint the smoothest base possible.

And don't forget, good brushes are just as important as quality paint. I used a Wooster shortcut for most of the priming, and a Purdy chinex for the top coat, with sanding between coats. Someday I'll get done enough to post pics...my husband is betting on September.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jenny using Ace Cabinet & Trim Paint on Oak

noellabelle,
what kind of material/name are your counter tops?

bump

I started with a true horror show of a color scheme-

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And am quite happy with my results-

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And no cabinets in the following, but did I mention that the color scheme was a horror show?

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Great transformation. I am a red fan but your improvements
are stunning.
boxer

Hi Noellabelle,

I have the same cabinets and I was wondering how you removed the raised center panel and what did the rest of the cabinet look like underneath?