Have you been dreaming of a white kitchen?  Hate the wood tone of your cabinets?  Is your kitchen stuck in a time warp?  Thinking about a change?

You won’t believe what a difference paint makes.  By simply painting your existing cabinets you can transform your kitchen making it lighter, brighter and feel more modern.  You may want to try going darker or even using color.

According to Forbes the cost of a kitchen renovation can cost $25,001 to $50,000.  Lavish renos can run up to $80,000.   The kitchen is very important to the value of your home and serves as the heart of the home.  Are you happy with your kitchen?

If you hate the physical layout and/or you plan to replace appliances then a remodel may be your only option.  Let’s look at cabinetry only in this post- not flooring, backsplash or appliances.  If your cabinetry is in good condition you can save thousands of dollars by painting the existing cabinets instead of replacing them.  It’s also possible to just purchase new doors if they are damaged which would also save lots of money vs a remodel.

While our FL home was brand new we didn’t get to choose anything.  It had 42″ maple kitchen cabinets with crown molding.  Might have been a selling point to some but it was just sooooo much wood going on for me.  I decided to paint my own kitchen cabinets and my business partner, Stacy, did hers the same weekend.  Soon there after we began painting kitchens all around Tampa.

At first I tried to appease myself by wrapping the island in bead board and painting it an accent color.  The wood cabinetry still made the kitchen so dark.  The white kitchen was popping up everywhere and is really appealing whether your style is farmhouse, coastal or modern.  Many model homes and new homes we saw were one extreme or the other- very light (white or light gray) or very dark (jet black or deep expresso).  Seeing that we had dark wood tile installed throughout the entire house the floors were staying dark forever.  That meant one thing…..painting the cabinets lighter.

This is the kitchen in progress with just primer on and look how much brighter it is already.

Here is the kitchen in FL after it was painted.  Scroll up, scroll down. Scroll up, scroll down.  The white cabinets really transformed the kitchen.  It’s lighter, brighter and more modern vs dark and traditional.   The white cabinets look so much better against the flooring.

I used the straight white out of the can on the shelf from Valspar Cabinet Paint.  There are so many whites I just didn’t care anymore and used the stock color.  It ended up being super white and bright to the point you almost wanted sunglasses.  Luckily we had a dimmer switch and I would dim the lights a bit to balance it out.

Moved to Virginia and guess what? Wood cabinets AND wood floor.  Ugh.  Literally wood on wood.  How did that happen?  That may have been in style 20 years ago but not now.  The cabinets were in good shape (still don’t love the arched detail in the cabinets but once painted it looks less 80’s), good quality just all this wood is not my taste.  Clearly we knew if we bought this house I’d be painting those cabs as soon as possible.  I actually had dreams about painting over all that oak before we even moved in!

Another view of the oak EVERYWHERE.  Well, that didn’t last long.

So.much.better.  Again scroll up, scroll down.  So.much.better.  The white cabinetry brighten up the space.  The white was a crisp contrast to the wood flooring instead of it all being monotone.  I used Sherwin Williams ProClassic latex enamel in Pure White.  It’s a notch down on the bright white scale but still a pure white.

I’ll share a few before and afters of some kitchens that we painted as Stylish Spaces projects.  Cabinet colors were chosen based on counter top, flooring and backsplash- wall color is easy to change.

After.  We painted all cabinetry lighter and the island darker.

After Stylish Spaces painted the cabinetry lighter.

BeforeAfter Stylish Spaces painted the cabinetry lighter and new hardware was added.

Now that you’ve seen a few examples you can why you would want to paint the cabinets.  You can see how paint truly transforms the kitchen dramatically.  You can take decades off your kitchen and make it feel fresh and new again.  Replacing hardware enhances the new color and can be found inexpensively on Amazon.  These are 2 simple changes that go a long, long way.

Most towns have businesses who paint cabinetry for you if this isn’t a project you feel you can tackle.  They would likely use brush and roller for the bases and a sprayer for the cabinet doors/drawers off site as we did with Stylish Spaces.  The sprayer speeds up the process and ensures a clean, even coat of paint.

You can expected to spend $1,000-$3,000 depending on the size of the kitchen.  Check your local businesses on Facebook and google painters. If in the Tampa area Stacy with Stylish Spaces is still painting kitchens.  If in the greater Roanoke area I may be convinced to paint your kitchen.  It was so nice to tackle it with a partner but we are both figuring it all out solo.  Ask to see examples, ask for the steps and types of paints used and the timeline of the project as well.

If you want to see the steps or are considering painting your own cabinetry I’m sharing it all in the next blog.  Stay tuned 🙂