Kitchen Cabinet Update

3 Materials
$250
3 Days
Medium
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One of my very best friends wanted to give her kitchen a complete overhaul and it was nothing short of spectacular! The kitchen was in excellent shape, so there was no reason to get new cabinets. They just needed a fresh look! Also, why pay thousands of dollars on new cabinets when you can do a DIY and spend some time with your awesome friend (me, duh)!
Here’s the kitchen before the reno.
The cabinets are a gorgeous solid wood. This is their natural color and it had a clear coat glaze on top to seal the wood. This is a great sized kitchen with A LOT of cabinets! (You’re going to be slayed by the transformation!)


If you’re going to paint your cabinets, the first step is removing the hardware. My friend did that before these pictures were taken. Next, removing all of the cabinet faces from the wall.
Don’t worry about emptying the cabinets! There’s no reason to do that unless you’re going to paint the inside. Which is up to you, but might be more trouble than it’s worth!


After removing all of the cabinets and drawers, we took them outside and sanded them down. I used a 120 grit paper on my sander. A lower grade (harsher sand paper) might work faster, but it will not give you a smooth finish. We laughed and cried a little at how long this took us. My friend thought it would be an hour, I said, “no way, it’ll be more like 3 hours.” Well, it ended up taking us just over 5 hours to sand everything. That’s 10 man hours total. If you’re going to paint your cabinets, you’ll need to dig deep. Pro Tip: Do this DIY with someone you enjoy spending time with! It’ll go by faster icon
Here’s a before and after of a drawer face that I sanded. You can see the difference in the color of the wood once the glaze was removed. The surface was entirely smooth and almost ready to be painted!
Depending on what kind of hardware you choose, you might need to fill the holes. My friend decided to go with some new hardware and switched from a knob with one anchor,  to a drawer pull with two. You’ll need a flexible joint knife and wood filler to do this.
Take a dab of the wood filler and push it into the hole. The take the joint knife and smooth it out, just like if you were spackling a wall. Do this on both sides of the cabinet or drawer.
The   is available on Amazon and I have only excellent things to say about it. This was my first time using it and I literally could not believe how far 32 oz of this paint goes. For the entire kitchen we only used 3 of them. The paint goes on thin and smooth but is heavy enough that you only need two coats.
When the cabinet faces are drying, you’ll need to go back and paint the cabinet frames. Once everything is dry, you’ll need to seal the cabinets with a protective finish. My friend used  . This will protect against general wear and chipping. It will also create an easy to clean surface.


When you’re all done, you can add your hardware and hang the doors back up! I recommend using a hardware guide to expedite the process and more importantly, please your OCDs.
This difference is unbelievable! Those are the same floors! The same space! The same cabinets! The white is so brilliant, it makes it feel like a completely different room. You can basically do cartwheels in this kitchen now. I can’t explain it. But it’s glorious. Just look at it!
This difference is unbelievable! Those are the same floors! The same space! The same cabinets! The white is so brilliant, it makes it feel like a completely different room. You can basically do cartwheels in this kitchen now. I can’t explain it. But it’s glorious. Just look at it!
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  • Monica P Cole Monica P Cole on Apr 07, 2018

    love The new look I’m going to try I also have a question , the back splash ? What did you use ?

  • Elva Carrillo Elva Carrillo on Sep 27, 2018

    I really want to know the brands that you used for the white paint and the sealer. The words get cut out

  • Pam L Pam L on Apr 17, 2020

    I have kitchen cabinets that are two tone in color the doors are off white with wood in honey oak color. I like the honey oak but hate the cream color cabinets. Decided that I would paint just the doors in black but have been looking for something else like that in pictures and did not see anything so now I’m asking do you have any pics with just the doors painted black leaving the rest wood color? Thank you for your time. P Linkous

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  • Vicki Vicki on Aug 26, 2018

    Beautiful job! By the way, that was a great job of sanding...I'm impressed with your skills..

  • Maggy Maggy on Dec 23, 2018

    I had oak cabinets in great shape on the top. The bottom were not so great. So I had the bottom painted gray. N I got used to them. N people loved them so I got uppers painted as well in gray. Now I need countertops n I have a new kitchen. Great savings. I was like many others hestitate to paint over wood. You just have to do it. It’s not for everyone. But if you get a good painter. It looks great !!!

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