thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

I hate my kitchen - HATE it! My DH does too- but we don't have the $$ to re-do it right now (it would require adding an extension to the house).

The cabinets are wood - medium colored - and the countertop is a forest green - with grey tile floor - it has a tile backsplash that is white - but some tiles have images on them - its VERY country - and I am NOT a country kinda girl...
so I was thinking maybe I could refinish the cabinets...paint them? Stain them? Change the counter top - do a few things to really change the feel of the kitchen.

Here is a pic (For some reason my mom took this pic while we had a ton of people over - so its a mess!!!)






Has anyone ever done anything like this in their kitchen? I would love any feedback, ideas, stories - anything!!!

Re: thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

I had painted cabinets in my kitchen and a horrible countertop. I took everthing out of the cabniets, cleaned them good, re-painted them (they had too much paint on for me to strip them) in a glossy white. On the cabinet doors, there are some etched lines in the doors, I took the sage green paint that I used to paint the wall in the kitchen and painted the lines in the cabinets. it really pulled the whole kitchen together. Then my DH and I took out the old countertop and replaced it with butcherblock looking laminate. We are going to replace the floor alos, with laminate flooring (on our 2-do list!! ) We also had a tile backsplash put in and we had to replace the stainless steel sink (that was on $50) The total for the project, not including the flooring, was around $1500.

It really wasnt that hard, mostly just cleaning everything up and new paint makes it look fresh. the only "appliance" that we changed was our stove hood. the one that we had was huge...went up to the ceiling and it didnt work.

Here are some pics of the work. I do not have pics of the kitchen totally complete but you can get the idea.

Before and after pics of kitchen

Hope that helps.

Re: thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

Lisa - thank you SO much for sharing your pics. I love everything (esp. the countertop - great touch!!)

You have inspired me!

Re: thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

I just want you to know this all started by me wanting to JUST replace the cabinet knobs!! My husband went to London for 3 weeks for work and when he returned it was like a "while you were out" episode!! I had everything done...except the counterop. I installed the stove hood and the sink with the help of my grandfather. DH was very impressed and said he will be taking more trips in the future!!

Re: thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

That is how i feel - I want to re do everything NOW!!

Re: thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

Jenn I think your counter top could go with a lot of styles - it doesnt even look that country to me. I HATE my kitchen as well and we are refacing the cabinets. DH is making the cabinets for us so it's costing less than $1.00 per cabinet,. But we priced Lowes and they were pretty reasonable. My Dad is painting his wood cabinets to update them because he doesnt want to spend the $$ on them. His neighbor did the same and it looks really nice and changed the look of the whole kitchen.
Also, new hardware (get rid of those white knobs) will change the look a lot.

Re: thinking of refinishing my cabinets...

Lisa - that's an amazing job on your kitchen!! I'm really impressed.

Right now I have a pink kitchen from the previous owners. I'm going to make it my summer project!!

Jenn, maybe just lightening the wood to a more oak-y stain will help. Sometimes the dark makes it look more country.

And I agree with Kathy, the hardware alone will brighten it up and modernize it a little.


I can't wait to see your "after" pics!!