Mini Kitchen Makeover: Painting Cabinets & More

text by Vicki     Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email!

This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.

Steph's kitchen has been a work in progress since she bought her house. The kitchen was really in need of updating as nothing had been done to it since it was built. Actually, it was pretty overwhelming to go through the list of what needed to be done.

When she first moved in, we did the bare minimum before we ran out of steam to do anything else. We cleaned everything, took down the wallpaper and painted, put down new flooring, and swapped out the 90's gold handles for sleeker silver ones. We labeled the cabinets and drawers in anticipation of taking them down and painting, but that project never got started!

Four years later, a partnership with The Home Depot and Liberty Hardware, gave us the push we needed to complete the long overdue projects!

The kitchen as it looked move in day

The kitchen before the mini makeover

Materials:

Behr paint- Weathers white in semi-gloss
Liberty Hardware Hinges
Liberty Hardware Pulls
Liberty Hardware Knobs
Rev-a-Shelf Trash Pull Out
Krud Kutter deglosser
Diablo SandNet Sandpaper

Tools:

Kreg hardware jig
Makita wet/dry vacuum
Ridgid orbital sander
Milwaukee framing hammer
Milwaukee Shockwave Impact Duty Steel Driver Bit Set
Husky magnetic bowl
Ridgid Foldout Panel Light
Painter's Tape
Purdy paint brush and foam roller
Dremel with cutting attachment

What we did in the mini makeover:

• Paint: all the doors, drawers and frames were painted as well as the inside of the cabinets 
• Cabinet liners: lined the cabinet bottoms that tend to get wet to protect them, especially the one under the sink that had a lot of damage from dampness. 
• Under cabinet lights: we replaced a set of under cabinet lights for a brighter and sleeker look 
• Hinges: because the existing hinges were still the old brass ones, we swapped them out for new matte black ones (a surprisingly easy fix)  
• Handles: we replace the old silver handles with Liberty Hardware matte black geometric ones

• Knobs: we decided to trade out the drawer handles to knobs. Because we were painting the cabinets, this was a good time to do this as the old holes could be patched, sanded and painted to 'disappear.' 
• Trash can: We installed a Rev-a-Shelf trash can pullout in a bottom cabinet. Again, because we were painting the cabinets, we could drill new holes for new handle placement then patch and paint. We also patched the existing hinge holes.
• Light fixture: the 90's overhead fixture had to go! We used a geometric trash can as the shade and a purchased light kit. It was a quick swap out. You can see if come together in the video to the right.

A post shared by Vicki & Steph (@motherdaughterprojects) on Oct 13, 2017 at 11:34am PDT

In bright lighting, it was easy to see that the cabinets and drawers were in pretty rough shape.

To learn more about the handle and knob install, see our post here.

To keep everything easy to replace, we took the time to number all the cabinets, doors, and drawers. We used painter's tape for this. Don't skip this step!

Removing all the hinges and hardware from the doors and drawers.

All the doors ready for cleaning, sanding, and painting.

We brought in our Mikita wet/dry vac from the garage to use with the Ridgid sander fitted with SandNet from Diablo. This step would have been a mess if we had not had the dust collection and SandNet that works so efficiently with it. We had virtually no dust from using a sander inside the house. Also, we used the Ridgid Foldout Panel light to brighten up Steph's dark kitchen. I need all the light I can get when I work! It's lightweight and adjustable to add light where needed.

The cabinets needed to be painted inside and out!

Under the sink cabinet. So much water damage!

Speaking of the fridge--it was easy to move out of the way to paint behind it.

With a little bit of paint it was so much better!

We originally planned to spray the doors, but our sprayer turned out to be defective. With no time to get another, we decided to brush and roll the cabinets which turned out to work very well.

Two handy tools--Milwaukee magnetic bits and Husky magnetic bowl.

The magnetic bowl kept the two sizes of screws separated.

These Milwaukee bits are a must!

We used a level and a paint stick, at the bottom of the door, to make sure everything was level and correctly placed.

The magnetic tip on the driver bit made easy work when rehanging the doors.

To free up floor space we took the time during the mini makeover to install a Rev-a-Shelf pullout trashcan in one of the lower cabinets. This is definitely an easy upgrade, especially if you are planning to paint at the same time. 

All finished! It's always fun to step back and admire a project once it's finished. It's amazing what a little paint, beautiful hardware and new lighting adds to a space. This mini makeover has certainly added value to Steph's basic builder's grade kitchen. 

What is on your kitchen makeover list? What do you need to give yourself the push to get started? Let us know in the comments below!

We want to thank The Home Depot for providing the following products for this post: Liberty hardware pull and knobs, Rev-A-Self, Ridgid folding panel light, Makita wet/dry vac, and Diablo SandNet discs.

We acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with us to participate in the The Home Depot ProSpective Campaign. As a part of the Program, we are receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for the purpose of promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are our own words. Our post complies with the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Federal Trade Commission guidelines. 

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

FYI: Affiliate links are being used on this page. Purchasing via these links help support MDP!

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