Welcome to the second week of the One Room Challenge! Last week I announced that I’m jumping into this crazy challenge once again to tackle our dated kitchen. I shared the before pictures and my plans here in case you missed it:
One Room Challenge (Week 1): Farmhouse Kitchen Plans
I have a little bit of progress to share with you guys this week as well as a dilema that I’ve encountered while trying to pick a color to paint the cabinets. But first a quick reminder of what we started with!
The first item on the agenda is painting the cabinets. I know it’s still pretty tabboo to some people to paint over natural wood cabinets, but I love, love, love white cabinets! We had the same exact cabinets at our last house and as soon as I painted them white I felt like the clean, crisp feeling completely brightened up the space.
I must also note that although they don’t look too bad in the pictures that I took, in person they have a strong orange tint to them that completely clashes with the white trim and doors we’ve been adding throughout the house.
So right away when we purchased this house I knew that the cabinets would be painted white. But as many of you may know, choosing a white isn’t simple! If you’ve been around for awhile you may even recall how when I painted the last kitchen cabinets I started with a white that was too stark before switching over to Polar Bear by Behr. But more on paint colors in a minute!
Last week I pulled down all of the cabinet doors, removed the hardware and labeled them with painter’s tape. I created a map to help me remember where they all go! I used letters for the doors and numbers for the drawers.
Then I took them out to the garage, turned on some music and got started on the tedious but totally necessary step of deglossing.
You can’t really see your progress as you go and I think that’s why I dread this step so much. But it’s important to do the best job possible here to ensure that the paint really adheres and doesn’t chip away.
Once I was done with deglossing, I scrubbed each one really well with KRUD KUTTER to remove the deglosser along with any dirt and grease that’s accumulated on them over the years. I rinsed them with the hose and then propped them against the house in the sun to dry.
The whole prep process seemed to take FOREVER, but once I was done I could finally start priming them with my new toy!
I ordered the HomeRight Paint Sprayer a couple of weeks ago and was sooo nervous about how to use it that it sat unopened in the garage. I finally brought myself to take it out and looked at the instructions last week, and I was surprised that it actually didn’t seem complicated at all!
I absolutely love this thing. Seriously–best money ever spent! I was able to get one side of all the doors and drawers done in less than an hour. I’m so mad at myself for not getting one of these sooner…so much time and energy wasted!
I plan to share a full tutorial with you guys on how to use the HomeRight Paint Sprayer very soon so stay tuned for that! (spoiler alert–it’s crazy easy!)
Okay so let’s talk about the paint choices. I’m using Benjamin Moore Advance paint this time around because I’ve heard amazing things about the self-leveling feature. So last week I headed over to our local store that sells Benjamin Moore paint to choose the perfect white.
I brought home a bunch of paint chips and agonized over them all weekend. I thought I felt confident on Simply White and Chantilly Lace, so on Monday I went over and picked up samples of both, along with Atrium White, and put them on the back of one of the cabinet doors that had been primed. But I still wasn’t sure, so I went back Tuesday and picked up White Dove and Distant Gray.
I was immediately shocked to see how yellow the Simply White was! I took the above picture outside so you can’t really tell, but inside it has a very yellow hue to it. The Chantilly Lace looks the best out of all of them, however I’m worried that it may be too stark and cold. I liked Atrium White originally until I read that it has a tinge of pink in it and now I can’t unsee it. And finally the White Dove seemed to look very similar to Simply White and was creamier than I wanted.
So I’m stuck. So stuck! I recently started reading about Snowfall White, but I don’t know you guys…
Hopefully I’ll have it figured out soon because I’m ready to purchase my paint and get moving because seeing the kitchen without doors is giving me some major anxiety!
Oh, before I go there’s one more thing that I’m debating on. I know for a fact that I want these aged iron pulls on the cabinets.
But what I don’t know is do I want to put the same ones on the drawers, or do I switch it up and do these aged iron knobs instead?
Decisions, decisions!
Ok so here’s the plan for the upcoming weeks left in the challenge
Week 3 (October 10 – October 16)
- Finish painting cabinets
- New countertops (pushed the install from this past Tuesday to next Monday to give me time to finish painting the frames)
- Install new hood vent
Week 4 (October 17 – October 23)
- Install backsplash
- Start on island makeover
Week 5 (October 14 – October 30)
- Finish island makeover
- Install butcher block on island
- install craftsman trim around window
- install new lighting
Week 6 (October 31 – November 6)
- Accessorize
- Photograph and write up reveal post!
Eeek so much left to do! I’ll be back next week with a look at our new quartz countertops and hopefully finished cabinets!
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Whites can be really tricky! I would go with whatever looks best IN the room itself since you aren’t repainting the walls. But I am sure it will look lovely whatever you choose!
Thank you for the encouragement Angela! 🙂
It is so hard to pick a “nice” shade of white! Good luck with the challenge. I love those door handles (we went with the same hands on both drawers and doors).
Thank you! And yes that’s so true!! I decided to switch it up and use the knobs but it was a hard decision they both look really nice 🙂