Giving the Kitchen a Facelift
One of our criteria for the purchase of our property was that if it didn’t have a structure on site for the Airbnb, the main house would have to be in a ‘livable’ condition. Our dream property didn’t have a structure and the main house is livable although a bit tired in its appearance. So while our contractor is building our guest house, I decided I could take on a few DIY projects in the main house. The first project was the master bathroom. I chose this one because it was a small DIY, and I could use the cabinets and walls as my practice before I started on the kitchen.
One thing I learned from selling out house in Denver was white walls rule! So, for out forever home, I decided the walls throughout the house, including the master bath and kitchen, would be white as would the trim, but not the same white, I was going for a two-tone monochromatic look. My goal was to have the artwork and furnishings bring color to the rooms. I consider myself knowledgeable when it comes to color and color theory given, I’m an artist and I’ve taught color theory in college. Even so, I was still overwhelmed at the variety of whites from which one can choose! After a few weeks of contemplation, I settled on a ‘Natural White’ for the walls and a ‘Chantilly White’ for the trim. The walls are a warmer tone with the trim being more of a pure white. This combo I will use throughout the whole house. With the bathroom project completed it was time to move onto the kitchen, repainting the walls and cabinets.
Because we are focusing most of our funds on getting the business off the ground, the real kitchen remodel will be a few years out. So for now, I’m giving the kitchen a ‘facelift’. The layout is workable but the cabinets and walls both look tired. The paint is chipped in areas and the hardware is not overly attractive. I’ve never actually painted cabinets before, as our previous houses had cabinetry that was stained wood. Another thing I learned from the sale of our last house; is I never want stained wood cabinets again! When the wood gets dinged the stain looks terrible and to fix it you must sand down the stain and then try and match the original color! So, this time around I decided when we remodel, we would get cabinets that could be repainted when the time came. Both the kitchen and bath ‘facelift’ was a perfect opportunity for me to test this idea out. Wow… what a learning experience it has been!
First, to repaint cabinets especially kitchen and bath cabinets, it is best if you use enamel paint and good quality paint at that. This of course comes at a price! One gallon of Sherwin Williams paint cost $90, OMG! In addition to that, you also need to purchase a primer which you apply after you’ve cleaned the cabinetry with industrial clearer and sanded all the surfaces down. As we are living in the house while I complete this project, I opted to use a liquid sander on the cabinets that remain on the walls and use a hand sander on the cabinet doors and drawers of which I can remove and sand outside. This eliminated the dust which would have gotten everywhere had I sanded it on site. Mom tipped me off to the liquid sander product, she has done her fair share of DIY projects over the years and is brilliant when it comes to these kinds of things!
Prior to the sanding and painting, I spent quite a lot of time deciding on the color for the cabinets. The back splash tile was decent, although not necessarily my style. That said, I used the tiles as my guide and chose a color that would work will with the tile which was multicolored. In the end I went with a taupe color that leaned toward a sage green. Given the cost of the paint this was the color I also used on the cabinets in the master bath and will again use on the cabinetry in the guest bath… at that price there was no way I was going to waste a single drop of paint!
With the color decided upon, the cabinets cleaned, sanded, and primed it was time to paint. Again, I underestimated how long it would take. Silly me I thought I’d knock this project out in a couple of days! Instead, it took me about two weeks to complete the whole process!
I also replaced the hardware. Because our appliances are stainless steel, I opted to go with a brush nickel finish and chose nobs and handles that complimented the shape of the backsplash tiles which are long and narrow. Overall, the kitchen looks refreshed and more updated. It is amazing what a little bit of paint can do, combine that with thoughtfully chosen details, aka hardware and you can have an updated kitchen without spending thousands of dollars to do it!
Next DIY project… repaint all the walls and trim in the house!
