I have been wanting to redo my cabinets since I first walked through my house before I bought it. I searched the internet high and low, far and wide for tutorials or ideas and inspiration. I didn’t use any one how-to, but I’ve been deciding for a couple years what I would do with the limited funds I have to do it. In all reality, I did what I could afford, and I love the transformation. The cost was about $120, but that included the crown molding for the top of the cabinets. If you are just going to paint/stain your cabinets, you can do it for about $80. I included the supplies in the cost, like foam brushes, sand paper, and rollers. Since I added the upper cabinets to the left in the picture about 6 months ago, I didn’t include them in the cost, but they were $160.
So here’s the before:
And here’s the after
And one at night where you can tell that the cabinets aren’t black, just a dark java brown color
We added the cabinets to the left of the refrigerator several months ago, and they were just unfinished oak cabinets from Lowes. I was so happy when we added those because they gave us so much more storage. Then I put the little island in. Someone was throwing away an old dresser, and my brother snatched it up and took it to my mom’s where I took it from and stuck it in my kitchen. It sat for quite a while before I started working on it.
It had a plain particle board back but everything else was the same. We took out the top two drawers and Jacob cut shelves to fit in. We also took off the curved legs to make it look more like an island and less like a dresser, even though I really liked the curved legs. Just not for the kitchen.
I still have to paint some more coats on the shelves and do another coat of stain on the top, but this is what it will look like. I also need to get new handle pulls for this. I store my pots and pans on the shelves and the kids’ cups and snack bowls in the drawer. I finally have space in my kitchen with the addition of the cabinets and island. What kind of nut job would throw away this dresser?! As you can tell we added bead board to the back and bought baseboard to go all around the bottom. I bought a quart of Olympic satin paint in Feelin’ Blue and painted the whole island that color. The top was painted, but we sanded that down with 60 grit sandpaper and a palm sander since we were removing the paint. The stain for the top is the same as the cabinets, the java gel stain, but I think the island top is maple, so the stain looks different on the maple than the oak. I still need to do another coat and poly coat that as well. The island cost me about $50, with the bead board, base board, and paint. The wood for the shelves was from Jacob’s collection of wood. The stain is included in the price of the cabinets.
I’m really happy with how everything turned out. It was a lot of work, particularly the Honeymilk cabinets (they aren’t white, they’re Honeymilk.)
The lower cabinets were easy peasy. I sanded them and used a java gel stain. Now, I am no professional and I do not claim that I did everything right. Did I use the right grit when I sanded? I don’t know. But do the cabinets feel good and look good to me? Yes. After I primed I would sand until smooth, but after I would put on the second coat of primer, the cabinets would feel rough again. So I would sand again. I don’t know if this is what’s supposed to happen, but that’s what happened for me. I thought that the cabinets would stay smooth after I put on the first coat of paint but they didn’t. So I even had to sand between coats of paint. Don’t know if that’s a normal thing. Like I said, I did the best with what I know, and the cabinets look good. Of course if a cabinet-maker person came in and saw them they might be appalled, the same way I am when I see a bad photograph that someone thinks actually looks good. ** I did just read many tutorials online, and apparently you should sand between every coat for the best finish. So yay me.
So, this is what I used.
- 120 grit, 150 grit, 220 grit, and 320 grit sandpaper $10
- 220 grit angled sanding block $5
- foam brushes $5
- 6” foam rollers for door and cabinets $10
- Zinsser Bull’s Eye 1-2-3 Primer (quart, Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc.) $10
- 1 gallon (didn’t use even 1/2 of the can) Valspar satin paint in Honeymilk for upper cabinets (use whatever paint you want, this is just what I used) $22
- General Finishes Java Gel Stain (quart, buy online) $22
- and I will add a couple poly coats soon of Rustoleum Ultimate Polyurethane in satin. I like this one because you don’t have to sand between coats. Whatever poly coat you use, make sure it is water based so it won’t turn yellow. $10
- 17 feet of crown molding above cabinets $40
- Men’s white sock
Upper Cabinets:
I took off all the doors and put all the hardware into baggies that were labeled accordingly. I sanded all the bases and doors with either 120 or 150 grit, I can’t remember which one for sure. At first I was using a power sander, but it was too much power for what I wanted. I didn’t want to totally strip the cabinets or anything, I just wanted to get the gloss off. So then I switched to just folding a piece of sandpaper in half and holding it in my hand. Some of my cabinets were unfinished wood, so those needed to be smoothed before I primed. The ones that were stained and coated basically had to have the gloss removed. Initially I bought a deglosser, but I don’t think it did a darn thing. In the end I just decided that since these are my cabinets and I want them to look nice, I’m going to cover all my bases and not take any sloppy shortcuts.
This is what I did for the upper cabinets. In order:
1. Sand, 120 or 150 grit
2. Prime
3. Lightly Sand until smooth, 150 or 180 grit
4. Prime
5. Lightly Sand until smooth, 220 grit
6. Paint
7. Lightly sand until smooth, 220 grit,
8. Paint
9. Lightly sand until smooth, 220 or 320 grit
For the priming and painting, it probably would have been wonderful if I had used a sprayer, but I didn’t have one. I didn’t want brush strokes, so I brushed the primer and paint on with a foam brush and then went over it with a foam roller. The only tricky thing about this is that since I wasn’t getting the roller completely covered in primer or paint, they both would start to dry on the roller so that when I went to the next cabinet the dried paint or primer would flake off onto the cabinet I was painting. I ended up changing foam rollers probably every two cabinet doors so that this didn’t happen. And if it did, I just sanded it off.
A while ago when I decided I wanted to paint my cabinets, I had initially wanted to fill the grain first since my cabinets are oak, but I decided that would be too much work. I think the grain looks just fine. Not fine like I-guess-I’ll-just-live-with-them fine, but a they-look-great kind of fine.
For the lower cabinets:
This was a much faster process. I sanded the doors and frames with 150 grit sandpaper, and then wiped the stain on with a sock. I covered my hand with a glove, then put the sock over my hand, and wiped in the direction of the grain. So easy. I did two coats of this on the doors and for some reason the frames needed 3 coats. I read somewhere that people didn’t sand before applying the stain, but I didn’t like how the stain took to parts of the frames that weren’t sanded so well. So I would sand. Just to get rid of the gloss and shine. Really, the staining was easy. I’m going to do all the bathrooms this week and also my upstairs computer desk. And the quart that I bought has plenty left to do the rest of my cabinets.
So that’s it. That’s what I did. Was it worth it? Oh my heck, yes. But did it take forever? Yes, the upper cabinets have taken years off my life from all the priming, sanding, and painting. My kitchen was an absolute disaster. Cabinet doors were everywhere. So just know it will be messy and chaotic. If you’re working around the kids, know that you probably won’t be able to get it done as quickly as you’d like to unless you are just staining. But I love the Honeymilk cabinets. I wanted to do the whole kitchen that color, but laziness got the best of me.
Here are some pictures from my phone. Notice the mess.
This is what the frames looked like before we painted and added the crown molding to the top.
Jacob putting up the crown molding.
The upper cabinets were added about 6 months ago, and they were unfinished oak. I should have taken a before picture with those up, but I never did. The molding looks terrific.
And the after pictures again, just for fun.
I bought knobs for the cabinets and pulls for the drawers, but those will go on once I poly coat. I’m not making any promises about when that will be. But that will be the finishing touch. Now I just need stainless steel appliances. Oh, and granite countertops.
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