Simply Beautiful By Angela

creating simple beauty on a budget

Repainting the Kitchen Cabinets-Part 2 (The Big Reveal!)

Hello hello! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! My little break was much needed. I enjoyed some quality Mommy-Baby time with the little man.

On Thursday we checked out the Children’s Museum which he thoroughly enjoyed. Friday morning was spent at a new park, followed by an afternoon at the toy store where we finally used his birthday money that he got over 6 months ago!

Unfortunately I came down with a nasty sinus infection Wednesday afternoon and Tristan started showing symptoms yesterday 🙁

But despite being busy and sick, guess what I managed to squeeze time in for and finally finished?!

Can you believe it? I still can’t! It feels like I’m walking into someone else’s kitchen haha. In case you missed the first part, you can read all about it here . I began by using the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation kit.

I mentioned that the Pure White kit was stark white, and was intensified when the guy at Home Depot convinced me that it need to be tinted. After researching online I learned that the Pure White kit is already tinted and does not need to be tinted again at the store like the light and dark kits.

We went back to the store to complain and to see if they could give us a new kit, only to learn that since the Pure White kit is only sold online we would need to order a new one online and they couldn’t just replace it with a light kit from the store.

I definitely didn’t want to live with my kitchen disassembled any longer, so we returned the kit and asked one of the employees what he recommended for cabinet paint. He pointed us to Behr Premium Plus in semi-gloss.

This stuff turned out to be amazing. It has awesome coverage and it’s also super durable. It took us forever to decide on a shade of white (who knew there could be so many?) but we finally decided on Polar Bear.

Here’s an example of what a difference the new paint made. On the right you can see how cold the Pure White from Rustoleum was, and on the left you can see how much warmer the Polar Bear from Behr is.

Here’s some more proof (although it’s much easier to see the difference in person!). The top cabinet has been painted Polar Bear but the bottom cabinet was still Pure White.

And here, the left side is Polar Bear and the right is the Pure White. See the difference? It’s much “richer” feeling, right?

Okay are you ready for the big reveal?? I’m so excited 🙂

First, let’s take a little journey back in time. Here is the kitchen when we first moved in.

And here it is after I was done spending an entire weekend painting the cabinets espresso.

And after one coat of primer, one coat of Pure White, three yes–THREE coats of Polar Bear, and a coat of Miniwax Polycrylic, here we are today!

Here’s a before and after from the other side.

It’s so bright and cheery! And instead of feeling like a dark cave, it now feels very open and airy in here.

I’m so in love!! Next on the to-do list is the subway tile backsplash. I’m not sure why I keep putting this off, it can’t be that scary–right? :0

I also want to add beadboard and molding to the ends to finish it off.

Have a happy week everyone! 🙂

Linking up to these awesome parties!

This post was featured on Fridays Unfolded hosted by Nancharrow! Click on the image below to take you to the feature post.

Firdays Unfolded

Comments

  1. It looks fantastic, great job. It really opened the kitchen up and made it so inviting. I will have to look into that Behr paint, I love their stuff! My cabinets were done years ago, and it is time to do them again. It is a really big job!

  3. I've been trying g to talk myself into painting mine too…but I want to do something crazy like turquoise lol. I just had this house built 5 years ago though…so maybe I can live with my current cabinets for a while 🙁

    Yours look amazing though!!!!

  4. Amazing transformation! We just redid our kitchen cabinets and painting is a chore. The fact that you did it twice makes you my hero! I also LOVE the paneled wall you added to the eat in kitchen.

    Great job – bravo for your hard work!

    • Thanks Jennifer! It's safe to say that I don't plan on painting another kitchen again anytime soon haha. Thanks for stopping by 🙂

  5. You're right the Polar Bear makes a big difference compared to the bluish-white tinge of Stark White. The colour totally transforms your kitchen. Love it!

  6. Very pretty! and I use Polar Bear too! I use it for all my white trim throughout the house. Your kitchen looks so clean and fresh now. You did a great job!

  8. This looks amazing! I did my cabinets with the Rustoleum about 7 years ago (it's one of the darker wood colors) and now I want to go white. I've been trying to decide whether I should use the Rustoleum again or paint… I think you have convinced me! Did you brush the paint or spray with a sprayer? Did you use any paint conditioner for the brush strokes? Sorry for all the questions!

    • Thanks Karrah! I was really happy with the Behr paint, I felt like it had awesome coverage. I just brushed the paint, didn't use any conditioner but also didn't end up with any bad brush strokes since I went with the grain. I wish you luck, over dark isn't easy but I would do it again if I had to (only if I HAD to though! haha…)

    • Thanks Kate! I agree, it is a lot of work but it is TOTALLY worth it and it makes you appreciate it that much more 🙂

  13. Gorgeous! I painted my cabinets a year or so ago and I can tell you I'm not looking forward to ever having to do that again but the payoff for all that hard work is a gorgeous new space like the one your kitchen is now flaunting. Love it.

  14. Angela,
    LOVE the transformation!!!
    We, too, painted our kitchen cabinets many years ago!!!
    This year we refreshed the cabinets and applied new wall paper!!!
    Like you, I adore the lightness and brightness the change brings to our small Galley Style Kitchen!!!
    I'll be watching for that new back splash to appear!!!
    Fondly,
    Pat

    • Thank you Pat! I bet the wallpaper looks fantastic 🙂 and thanks for the encouragement on the backsplash, I think I'm ready to finally take the plunge this weekend!

  16. Beautiful transformation, I love it! Can I ask if you have a post about the shelves on the far wall, by your window? I'm looking to do shelves like that and wondered where you got them or how you did them? 🙂

    • Thank Megan, I really appreciate it! I made the floating shelves a couple of weeks ago (you can read about it in this post here. They were surprisingly simple to make (as are most of my projects haha..).

      Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 🙂

  17. Looks amazing! You are almost giving me the courage to tackle this project. Our hinges are similar to yours. Did you replace them?

    • Thank you Jeanne! If I can do it, you can do it 🙂 Yes we did replace the hinges when we first moved in. We took the old ones to Lowes and asked someone to help us figure out which ones would be best and they found something that was very similar in style. Good luck! 🙂

  18. I have heard that some have painted their cabinets, then found that after painting they look good for a while, then look terrible. Do you have any input on this. Wanting to paint ours for our new house, but afraid to waste the money on it, if it doesn't last long. Also, did the rustoleum deglosser take place of your sanding?

  19. Hi Sidnie–yes the deglosser took place of the sanding. The polycrylic that I used as a topcoat has yellowed a little bit in some spots but only if you get really close and are looking for it. Anyone that comes over can't tell. Also when I painted the bathroom cabinets most recently I used a roller instead of a birth and noticed a huge difference in both the smoothness and the time was also cut in half. Check out Thrifty Decor Chick, she recently painted her cabinets with a sprayer and they turned out super professional. I'm happy with ours but if I had to go back and had the money to invest in a sprayer that's what I would do. Hope that helps!

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