Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets needed an overhaul (as did every other thing in this house) and we didn't plan on replacing them so I had to figure out what to do to make them work for us.  Paint is magical.  Seriously.  I am always amazed at how just painting something can completely transform it and everything around it.  Painting kitchen cabinets is a long and painful process, but totally worth the time and effort when you see how they completely make the kitchen look new afterwards.  Here is the kitchen before:

Quite ugly, don't you agree? 

I sanded and sanded, which took several days.  Then I painted three coats of antique white on the top cabinets and the ones on the wall above.  I wanted to give the room a splash of color too since the walls and most of the cabinets would be antique white, so I used a country blue on the bottom cabinets around the breakfast bar. 

Three coats!  I painted and painted and was cussing these cabinets before I was done.  This is definitely a project you only tackle once every ten years or so because it is a lot of work and it takes a long time.  I had to paint three coats on each cabinet door, wait at least overnight, flip them, sand the edges (again!), and then paint three coats on the backs. 

After all of the painting, I sanded the edges of the doors and cabinets to give it an antigue finish.  Then I sealed them all with a coat of polyeurethane.  The poly gave them a yellowish tint, which I was upset about at first, but it's ok.  It adds to the antique feel.  Now that they are done I love them and it was totally worth the effort.  The kitchen doesn't look like the same kitchen at all.

Here they are - DONE!

I also hung my chalkboard up in the kitchen and am putting a quote on it each week.  The kids have really enjoyed this.

So there you have it.  What do you think of the cabinets?