Kitchen Before and After

I wanted to start off my blog posts with one of the bigger transformations in our home! When we moved in we knew there were going to be many projects that needed to be done around the house to update and make it more of "our home" while on a budget. One of the most important and bigger projects was the kitchen. We had older wood cabinets and old hardware that had scratches all over them (shown in the image to the right).

SO if I had it my way we would have gotten all new cabinets and expanded the kitchen to make it bigger but when you have just moved in and with everything being sooo expensive, we figured out a way to change the look and feel of our kitchen while also making it look much more updated for a lot less. In time we plan to expand and redo this area but for now what we have done has made a TOTAL change and has become one of my favorite rooms in our home!

My mom always helps me with these projects so her and I went to Koopman Lumber which is a hardware store we have in our area. My mom had already painted her cabinets so she knew exactly what I needed and the steps to take. Once we got to Koopmans, we looked at many different color options, and decided to go with a gallon of the color White Opulence by Benjamin Moore in Advance Paint. We also purchased a pint of Stix which is a primer.

Just a little knowledge on the Advance Paint and Stix -

Advanced Paint - is perfect for cabinets, doors, windows, trim, furniture, etc. because this paint is a durable enamel paint. Works well with high traffic pieces and areas that are constantly being touched and used.

Stix Primer - works great on cabinets because it is waterborne. It will bond to the previous coating on your cabinets and provides an excellent base for the top coat! You can get this in the same color as the Advance Paint so everything flows perfectly.

Once we purchased the paint we headed home and we started!

Step 1 - Cover the surrounding area - whether you use plastic, cloths, towels - whatever it may be to cover your counter tops and the floor because it's about to get messy!

Step 2 - If you are taking all of the cabinets off you would do that first. If you are leaving them (that's what we did) - you will start by sanding everything down. We used sanders blocks that you can find in the paint section for of any hardware store and they are only $2-$5 depending on the style and the size. They work perfectly and aren't as awkward to hold as sand paper.

Step 3 - After sanding, wipe everything down with a towel so the sanded down mess doesn't end up in your paint once you start!

Step 4 - Start with your primer. We used Stix Waterborne Primer as explained above and we put one coat of that on to start. We used small microfiber rollers for the bigger sections which makes the whole process go so much faster! HIGHLY RECOMMEND! and then we used a Wooster paint brush for the smaller sections. You only really need one coat of the Stix unless your cabinets are very dark - then two may be necessary.

Step 5 - Leave the primer to dry for 24 hours.

Step 6 - Once that time is up, you may begin with your Advance Paint! Because I did white - I did two coats which was what the employee recommended at Koopmans. I did my first coat and then waiting 16 hours before painting the second coat. It says that it takes 4-6 hours for Advance Paint to dry and 16 hours to cure.

Step 7 - While we waited for the paint to cure we went out to Home Depot and purchased all new hardware for the cabinets. Here is the link to the knobs I purchased.

Step 8 - Add all knobs and hardware to the cabinets and your cabinets are complete!

I still can look at the kitchen and say how happy I am with how it came out. The other thing we did was change the lighting fixture above the sink. There was a globe covering the light which I should have taken down before starting to paint and I knocked it off and it broke BUT it wasn't the look I wanted anyways so it ended up working in my favor :).

I purchased this cage shade and attached it to the piece that was there with some screws. I then painted the screws black so it would match

and put in a vintage lightbulb. We also put in a new lighting fixture on the ceiling which we did put all around our house as well and these are from target! The process of painting the cabinets was definitely something that takes patience and time but the end result is SO worth it!

If you have any questions - you can find me at home_bycourt and send me a message! Would love to help you on your cabinet makeover journey!