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This Old Kitchen (Progress) – Part I

Posted on May 6, 2016

When we moved into this old house, the kitchen was cosmetically in the worst shape of any room. Even our home inspector said it was ugly! And he was right. But when you have a room with character and good bones, you have a room with a lot of potential – our kitchen was no exception. I have big plans for this space, which include knocking out a wall – but that requires putting in a very expensive header that doesn’t fit in our budget just yet. So in the meantime, we’ve been focusing on small cosmetic fixes to save ourselves from cringing every time we walk in the room. I started rehabbing this space well before I started this blog, but we’ve made such great progress (and it still is a work in progress), that I felt it was worth showing some before/afters!

BEFORE:

These photos were taken straight from the real estate listing when we bought the house. There is a tan/pink/orange/green tumbled marble backsplash, gray laminate countertops, 1940’s cabinets with cheap country hardware, loose magnetic clasps, bent hinges, and a chipping paint job. The dijon yellow walls and vinyl flooring are just the icing on the (ugly) cake. Why, previous homeowners, WHY?! Just…yuck.

AFTER:

Still in progress, but such an improvement!
So let’s talk about how we got to this point.

Part I: Cabinet Refacing
Our cabinets are original, solid oak cabinets. I’m a big fan of Nicole Curtis‘ theory that if you have quality woodwork, don’t replace it! They seemed to be in great shape, and offered plenty of storage, they just needed a ~~little~~ lot of TLC. We removed all of the cabinet doors, took off all of the hardware, and numbered them so we’d know which cabinet/side they came from. We then stripped them down to the wood using Citrustrip chemical paint remover and a 5-in-1 tool. That last sentence sounds so easy-peasy, I know…but sweet jesus it was not a quick task. Stripping paint is seriously my least favorite job on the planet. I would rather deep clean a bathroom with a toothbrush than strip paint, and every time I take on a project that requires it, I get about 40% of the way in and say “I’m never doing this again!”. And then time passes, I forget about how much I hate doing it, and then take on another paint stripping project (example: notice the stripped door in the kitchen). I’m dumb sometimes.Anyways…the cabinet boxes themselves were in good shape, so we left those alone until it was time to prime and paint. When you have older cabinets like these, you should avoid sanding if you can, due to the risk of lead paint. After removing 6-7 layers of paint from the doors (in all colors of the rainbow), we gave the wood a good sanding with an orbital sander, giving it a once over with 120 grit, followed by 220 grit to give it a smooth surface ready for painting. We ripped 1/4″ birch plywood down into 2 1/2 inch wide strips with a table saw, and attached them to the doors with our brad gun to add some shaker trim. I put wood filler on all of the brad holes, but didn’t fill in the lines on the cabinet face because that would have gotten rid of the classic shaker look.

We then primed the doors and boxes with Kilz, and then did 3 coats of Benjamin Moore’s White Dove (my favorite white of all time) in Eggshell finish.

After letting that dry for a few days, we did 3 coats of Polycrylic Satin. When I think farmhouse, I think white and oil-rubbed bronze, so that’s the finish we went with for the new hardware. I also got matching half-moon pulls for our pull-out drawers, and faux drawer faces. We have semi-inset cabinets, so I got matching oil-rubbed bronze hinges with a 3/8″ inset to fit.

They look like completely different cabinets, and I LOVE them. So much more fitting for the space. If you plan on refacing, and work full-time, give yourself a good two months to get this done.

We also attached this bottle opener that we’d had laying around for a few years on the side, because it’s adorable AND functional. Jeremy made the small cap catcher box below it out of some of the leftover birch from the trim.

Tools Required:
5-in-1 Tool
Orbital Sander
Table Saw (we used one at Maker Works in Ann Arbor)
Air Compressor + Brad Gun
1/4″ Brads
Screwdriver (a drill is even faster!)

All in, the makeover costs were:
Birch Plywood: $30
Citrustrip: $12
Primer + Paint: $45
Topcoat: $10
Sanding discs: $10
Cabinet knobs: $30
Cabinet pulls: $11
Cabinet Hinges: $30

TOTAL: $178
Hiring a professional to reface/redo cabinets in a kitchen our size usually starts at about $1,000, which after doing the job ourselves, I totally understand those labor costs. Coming in at $178, I’m pretty thrilled at saving more than 80%!

What do you think? Part II coming soon…