I reblogged a post yesterday about painting cabinets.  I thought this was a perfect post because I made a really drab kitchen, really beautiful last year.  I truly wish I could find the old photos for before and after but I think that was before I had a digital and only God knows where the photos are now.  But I did take a picture of the cabinets in the bathroom that are still there---they looked exactly like them.

In this kitchen, we put in the two windows that are to the left of the sink.  Before that there were no windows there--just another bank of cabinets.  The stove also sat on this wall and dishwasher was to the right of where the stove is now. The window to the right of the sink used to be where the microwave is now and the sink was where the stove is now.  The picture out those windows is way to beautiful to not be able to see all the time.  In my post last week when it snowed, I showed you what I see out those windows.  Check them out HERE.  ~~ I made the pictures pretty big so you can see better.~~

Before I started, the cabinets were very dark colored old cabinets. In some places they were pretty beat up.  Here is the process I followed to do the cabinets.  First we stripped and sanded all the casings and the doors and primed them. Then I painted the cabinets and doors with an off white color.  After they dried I took a meat tenderizer, screw drive and a butter knife to the cabinets and doors and gave them a stressed look. After they dried,  I painted a dark brown color over the top of the white.  Before it could dry I took a rag (make sure you get one that does not have lint) and wiped it off.  The paint filled the cracks of the cupboards doors, the stress marks AND it filled the grain of the oak which really made it look cool.  I took a close up so you can see it on one end.  Unfortunately, this is where my husband painted sideways when he primed and didn't go with the grain so there is a little affect from that.  After the brown dried I went over them with a clear lacquer.  I chose matte lacquer but my husband liked the shiny-- you can do it what every way you like.

On one wall about 3 feet up there is waynescotting and it is also under the bar.  I did the paint procedure with that also.  I will say that there is a trick to it.  Don't and I repeat DON'T try and do it when it is really hot. If it gets cold in the winter where you are, wait until winter because on the long runs it is hard to get the paint off before it dries.  There are a few places I need to redo because I tried to do it in the summer when it was 90 out.  Our air conditioning couldn't keep up.

My husband rebuilt many parts of the main cabinets.  I don't know if you can tell but the microwave sets out a bit from the other cabinets because the microwave was deeper than the cabinets.  We do need to finishe the trim on the upper part of the cabinet to the left of the microwave.  Everything got new knobs and new hinges and we put in a new sink with a new faucet.  We also retrimmed the whole kitchen with the wide moldings and the decorative tops and painted them white.  My husband did trim work also but a finish carpenter showed him how to do it.

We also put new counters down.  I layed the new floor which is laminate.  It was so awesome to see that ugly linoleum gone.  It also had a drop ceiling with those ugly plastic pieces.  I ripped that out to and my husband put in recessed lighting.  I also installed the ceramic tyle back splash.  And then we installed stainless appliances.  I love, LOVE, my stove that doesn't have a back.  The old cabinets were low and we had to work with that to put the microwave in so it is a little low but with the flat cook-top it looks pretty cool!  I also took the old plain glass out of the china cabinet and bought the bubble glass to put in.  That really made that area look nice.

I really wish you could have seen this kitchen before ---it was  U G L Y!!!!  Really ugly.  The counters were yellow and the cabinets were so dark.  Everything was dark! I am thrilled, extremely thrilled with my new kitchen.  These pictures don't do it justice but I have people I don't know dragged through my kitchen all the time so they can show their husbands what they can do with the old drabby dark cabinets.

As you can probably tell, my husband I are pretty handy people.  We have always done everything ourselves because we couldn't afford to have someone else do it.  When I take buyers looking at houses, I can give them all the possibilities AND I can usually explain how to do it.  Although, there have been many, many times I have went and helped my clients after they purchase a home.  I can always get them going with tile or paint.  My husband has also shown them how to do trim work and many other things.  I am probably a pretty strange women but I know how to roof a house, side a house and  I can sweat two pipes together with the best of them.  I can do minor electrical and I know how to drywall  . . . but I hate it!!  These skills come in pretty handy when helping a buyer to visualize what can be!!!

This is what I see from my sink: