This post is long overdue. We actually finished painting our cabinets and walls in our kitchen four weeks ago but I am just slow posting the pics.

(Click here to see Part 1 of the kitchen remodel)

Part 2 is about the cabinet area of our kitchen. Who knows when I will get to Part 3 which requires me to spray paint one of our kitchen appliances (the stove). This may take a while because I am still researching it, putting it off, and also trying to convince the hubby to just buy me a new stove

BEFORE

PROGRESS

Look how much better the cream cabinets look with just a different paint color on the wall! Well, I guess there is a new countertop too.

Here is what it looks like now….

AFTER

Here it is again….

BEFORE

AFTER

Painting Walls & Trim

So lets first deal with the walls since painting it the blue just made it so much bright, warm and inviting.

Here are my tips when painting. For walls I like to use a satin base because it cleans off easily especially with little kids. I used satin Valspar Ice Morning for the kitchen walls.

I HATE taping down the entire room when I am painting so I have two tools for “cutting in” (painting up against trim and in corners).

Frog Tape & (my new favorite) Sherwin Williams Premium XL Tight Spots 2″ Angle Short Handle Brush with Comfort Grip (holy paint buckets that is one long name!)

Buy the GREEN Frog Tape…. not the BLUE tape. You can get Frog Tape at any hardware store, Wal-Mart or home improvement warehouse. I repeat DO NOT BUY THE BLUE TAPE! It doesn’t work. It doesn’t stick as well and you will have bleeding and paint running problems. With the kitchen I only taped the floors and around the windows. When taping the windows I used a razor blade to make sure I got the tape in real close so there would be no possibility of the paint getting on the window.

The Sherwin Williams (Long Name-Small Handle) Brush is my lifesaver. This brush is great for painting on and around trim (no tape necessary) and it works wonders when getting into corners and small spaces. Love, love, love it! Check out the perfection

New Hardware

So as much as I loved the old hardware…..sorry not my style….I decided to replace them. Even if you don’t want to go to through the hassle of painting your kitchen cabinets at least buy new hardware. This is the cheapest and easiest way to update an old kitchen.

BEFORE

AFTER

We started by removing the old handles and sanding down the cabinets really well before we applied the cabinet paint.

Here are the new handles next to the old ones…..see…the choice is simple Especially when these new ones were on sale at Home Depot.

The previous owners had this house for about 6 months. They painted the cabinets in the kitchen and all the walls and trim in every room. They also, I think, spray painted the hardware and hinges on the cabinets some sort of bronzy color.

Since our cabinets are original to the house we have these lovely hinges that show on the outside rather than being on the inside of the cabinet doors.

At first I was going to spray paint the hinges silver to go with the new silver handles. But that was just going to take way too long to remove, paint, dry, put back on, etc…. So I decided to just paint the hinges white. I am really glad I did this because when you walk in the room you can’t even tell that the hinges show. If you get right up to the cabinets you can see them but they really look great just white.

Painting the cabinets

I used Valspar Elan paint which is for Kitchen and Bathrooms. This paint is best to use when you know you are going to be dealing with food and water splatters.

I was rather upset by the selection of paint products our wonderful town has. Wal-Mart and Hardware Hanks only carries the foam rollers in the two smaller sizes. I can’t stand foam rollers. I prefer nap-style rollers so I had to make a special trip to Home Depot to get these.

I did two coats of the Rich White color on our cabinets. We took the doors off and painted them with the bigger roller (above). Then we painted the rest of the cabinet with the smaller roller (above).

When painting the cabinets I figured out what color they use to be. They were an oaky maple wood. Since I don’t have a picture of what they looked originally I did some searching on Google to find some similar.

Here is what they may have looked like before, before

Original Cabinets??

After (the previous owners painted them)

After (we painted them)

New Sink

I am obsessed with my huge stainless steel sink. The only things that I hand wash are my huge pots and pans and stoneware. Everything else goes in the dishwasher. So this massive sink is great for my hand washing projects because it is all my larger items, which never fit before in the double sinks we use to have.

The faucet at our old house was such a pain because I had to clean around the faucet, the cold water knob, the hot water knob, and the sprayer. So when I went searching for a new faucet I wanted one that was basically an all-in-one.

I found this one at Menards for $69.99!!! And it has 3 spray functions SCORE! So much more convenient when doing dishes and cleaning around the sink

New Dishwasher & Countertops

There was no way I was going to live in a house without a dishwasher. We had one of my friend’s dads do the construction in our kitchen (everyone knows everyone in our small town ) In order to fit a dishwasher into our kitchen they had to take out the cabinet drawers on the left….

And also had to install a new countertop because the one we had was about 6 inches too short once the dishwasher was installed. Darn…I really liked the mauve colored countertop (note sarcasm).

We also had to hire someone to redo the plumbing since the house had never had a dishwasher before. I bet all previous owners of this house were confined to the kitchen always hand washing dishes…how did people live back then without these things? I think we are probably a bit dishwasher spoiled nowadays…but seriously I would rather play with my kids then do dishes all day long, YUCK!

So there you have it. Part 2 of our kitchen remodel!