This summer, I came to our Oregon house wanting to paint our kitchen cabinets white. I'd been threatening it for awhile, but could never gussy up the courage (or, frankly, the motivation) to do it. Once I got here this time, however, I decided I'd put the project off for another year.

I couldn't stop thinking about it though. Every day, I'd find myself wanting to do it, then I'd talk myself out of it. Finally, I told myself if I just work hard for two days, it would be done and I wouldn't have to think about it again. That's all it took. With Mick's help, I painted those cabinets and we're both loving the results.

As a reminder, here's a couple of pictures of our kitchen when we first bought the place in 2006:

Kitchen_holly_grandma

  

Kitchen_paint

As you can see by the paint on the counter top, I was rarin' to get this place fixed up as soon as I could. We put in laminate flooring, new appliances, replaced the countertops, and replaced the hardware almost as soon as we moved in. This was the result:

Kitchen_appliances

Certainly, a huge improvement, but I had chosen the appliances and the countertop with the plan to paint the cabinets white. But with only a six to eight weeks spent in the house every year, it's hard to get to every single project in a timely manner.

Now, the picture you've been waiting for:

Painted_kitchen

Crisp, clean, and cool, my kitchen now looks like I always thought it should. The cabinets themselves have a nice country look, but the white paint keeps them from looking dated. Plus, they're in great condition and I could never have justified getting rid of them altogether.

Many thanks to Young House Love, whose great tutorial on painting cabinets I followed to the letter.

If you'd like to see the other before/after pictures of our Oregon house, you can see them here and here.

 

5 Replies to “Evolution of a Kitchen”

  1. Holly West says: July 23, 2009 at 8:49 am

    I do want to change the lighting, but that’s a project for another trip. Also on the agenda is painting all the doors in the house white, or switching them out entirely.

  2. Antoinette says: July 16, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Job well done. I bet it feels amazing to have that off your “to-do” list.
    Any plans to change out the lighting?

  3. Michelle says: July 16, 2009 at 8:09 am

    OMG HOlly!! Your kitchen looks GREAT!!! And the cabinets look like new!

  4. Morgan says: July 15, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    Love it! maybe I should paint my cabinets?

  5. Julie says: July 15, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    You (and John and Sherry) have convinced me to finally paint my bathroom cabinets. I’m going the opposite way though – they’ll be a rich, chocolate espresso color instead of light oak. I’ll have to do it after Oregon though!

Leave a Reply