Remember when our kitchen was a light peach color? Not just any peach color…A color that clashed badly with our nice, warm tan walls and white appliances. Well that is NO MORE!!!
Behold our new kitchen…
Warm, rich brown paint now coats the kitchen cabinets in a swanky semi-gloss finish. Brand new brushed nickel hardware in a modern style bring boring doors and drawers into the 21st century.
And our to-do list? CONQUERED!! Ahead of schedule to boot.
But let’s go back to Sunday afternoon…We had finished both topcoats on the kitchen cabinet doors and were able to wash that roller and brush for the very last time for this project.
The last step? New hardware.
Enter my dad. He is a professional wood craftsman so I knew I was going to beg him for a little help and expertise. As always, he came through like the hero he is and he and John knocked out the hardware install in no more than an hour. For 19 doors and 6 drawers, that is no small feat!
The process is a bit beyond me since I had little to do with it (mom and I sat in the living room and played with Rocky while the boys worked in the kitchen). But I did help with set up. Fist, I dumped out the bag of metal hardware that had been sitting in our pantry since April waiting for this moment. After spreading everything out on the counters for easy grabbing, we were ready for drilling.
Dad made this handy template from scrap wood to help with the measuring.
Since we already had one vacant hole to begin with where the original single “arm” hardware used to be, Dad was able to slip a screw through one hole in his template and then slip the end of said screw through the hole in the door. Then lining up the edge of the wooden template with the edge of the door, he drilled through the second hole in the template and then kept going, drilling through the door.
Here are the doors before drilling with the one hole exposed:
And here they are after drilling – It was just a matter of screwing the metal pulls into the door from the back and then it was all done.
If you haven’t already noticed, we had to do some quick problem solving when it came to the drawers…
As you can see in the photo above the drawer pulls are centered horizontally, but not vertically. The reason was the set up of the drawer construction. You can see below how the drawer front is attached to a box to create the front section of the drawer. If we were to center the pulls both horizontally and vertically, the thickness of the wood to drill through would have been too long for the hardware’s screws. So we simply moved the pull up until we would only be drilling through the thin drawer front.
See how it is twice as thick when you factor in the drawer box with the drawer front when looking at it from above?
But honestly, I sort of like the unique look of the high drawer pull placement! It is consistent with the cabinet door pulls being pushed to the edge, and it just looks a little more modern. Oh and remember the poll I put up a few months ago about going “all horizontal” or “both horizontal and vertical” with the hardware? Simplicity won the competition and we went with “both horizontal and vertical” so that we wouldn’t have to redrill all new holes in the doors. Good thing, because that was the dominant opinion of our readers too – By almost 83%!
Now for more “After” photos…
Did you happen to notice our new kitchen window “curtains”?
I hate to sew (don’t have a machine to call my own anyway), so I was hoping to find some kind of no-sew solution. John and I went to Target over the weekend to pick up a few things and, after finding nothing worth buying in the premade curtain aisle, it suddenly hit me that a pretty kitchen towel could be just the ticket. I needed something about 18 inches long and these two 16-inch clearance towels coupled with once inch curtain rings were my perfect alternative to sewing or hemming something up.
Bonus: They are super durable and easily-washable – What could possibly be better to hang in a kitchen window above a sink than a pair of towels? I’m in love. Now to keep John from using them as actual hand towels after washing the dishes…
This project has been a doozy to say the least. But we are both so in love with the finished product that I think we’d consider doing it again if our next home calls for it. Since we grossly overbought when it came to paint, we’ll certainly have enough to paint another kitchen on down the line.
Speaking of buying…Here’s a quick breakdown of the cost for our kitchen cabinet overhaul:
- 30 contemporary brushed nickel drawer/door pulls: $45.99
- 4 packages of tack cloths (2 pack each): $1.99 each
- 3 mini plastic paint roller trays: $2.82 each
- 1 mini paint roller handle + 1 4-inch roller: $4.73
- 1 4-inch paint roller refill (2 pack): $4.45
- 2 1-gallon cans of Kilz2 Latex primer: $15.18 each
- 2 1-gallon cans of Valspar paint in “Mudslide”: $31.33 each
- 2 tubes of woodfiller: $2.83 each
- Mouse hand sander: $0 (already had it)
- 2 packages of Mouse sanding pads in 120 grit (4 pack each): $4.73 each
- Angled paint brush: $0 (already had)
- TOTAL: $179.73
But hold the presses before you take in that number. Since we ended up returning or not using a few items from the list, we can deduct some of those digits from the final total:
3025 contemporary brushed nickel drawer/door pulls: $38.334 packages1 package of tack cloths (2 pack): $1.9932 mini plastic paint roller trays: $2.82 each- 1 mini paint roller handle + 1 4-inch roller: $4.73
1 4-inch paint roller refill (2 pack): $4.452 gallons1/4 gallon of Kilz2 Latex primer: $3.802 gallons1/2 gallon of Valspar paint in “Mudslide”: $15.652 tubesabout a tablespoon of woodfiller: approx. 28 cents-worth- Mouse hand sander: $0 (already had it)
- 2 packages of Mouse sanding pads in 120 grit (4 pack each): $4.73 each
- Angled paint brush: $0 (already had)
- FINAL TOTAL: $79.88
Woa. That’s about $100 from what I thought that total was going to be!!! Especially when you think that it would have cost at the very least $600 to have it done professionally…I have stumped even myself today, folks.
Next on the list: new modern bar stools, a faux backsplash treatment and wallpapering the inside of the open shelving to make it look more intentional. Stay tuned for those updates this spring!!!
For now, we are going to go do our happy dance in the new kitchen…
(If you want to tackle this project but missed the lead-up posts on how to sand, prime and paint topcoats, check those out here, here and here. And always feel free to email us if you have questions at DreamGreenDIY@gmail.com)
