Kitchen Makeover, Refacing Kitchen Cabinets
- By Joan
- July 18, 2019
- 11 Comments
Over the past month my computer has slowly been dying. It’s been freezing up, the blue screen of death has been appearing quite frequently or the screen just turns black…it’s having issues.
At 10 years old, it probably has lived past it’s normal life span. In Windows terms, I was still using Vista…yes it was that old.
Before my computer died on me completely I took the opportunity to upload a bunch of photos to the cloud before I no longer had access to them. Hidden among all my pictures were these of my kitchen.
We moved into our home 27 years ago. Our home was new at the time but we’ve since replaced the linoleum floor with tile and the laminate countertop with granite. A florescent ceiling light was replaced with these pendants (they may be due for a change too) and the backsplash has twice been ripped out and retiled. We originally wallpapered the kitchen and it has been repainted twice since then. The shutters now take the place of a previously installed poofy flowered valance above the window.
The biggest change to the kitchen were the cabinets. These are still the original cabinets but they were originally the builders oak and they came with no handles. I stained the cabinets 10 years ago when I had two kids in college and couldn’t afford a full makeover. If you like this look, this is a PolyShades – Stain & Polyurethane in 1 Step, Bombay Mahogany, Satin
So now it has been 10 years since the Polyshades , It has faded a little bit where the cabinets got direct sun and I’m once again ready for another change.
The question was whether to sand down the cabinets again and paint, rip out the entire kitchen or do a cabinet refacing.
I quickly discarded the idea of ripping out the entire kitchen. There was nothing wrong with the tile or countertop and a complete reno would take months.
The idea of resanding and repainting all the cabinets, while the most cost effective, seemed overwhelming. I still remembered how long that job took 10 years ago.
A middle ground was refacing. While it still costs thousands, it is still thousands less than a complete gut job and it ended up taking only 3 days. What you get is completely new cabinet fronts, new hinges, new knobs and pulls. Totally new drawers, not just drawer fronts and all the cabinets and drawers are now soft close. I could save my current backsplash, floor and countertop and thus avoid those expenses.
After only 3 days I love my kitchen again!
Even having the cabinets refaced professionally there are still projects you can tackle yourself.
This was one of my past kitchen projects. Here you can see the color of the original cabinets before staining (oak) and the original countertop (white laminate). The desk never got stained because it was always in the plan to some day rip it out. Last year I finally replaced the desk with a buffet made to look like a built in cabinet.
Notice I kept the upper cabinet?
Above the window you’ll still see this shutter valance from 2016. For this project I repainted the red with a dark gray.
The vintage pantry door was installed earlier this year.
The counter stools also got a new cover, the striped seat on the left is the new. I still liked the red covers but they were stained pretty badly. Hmmm, maybe I should have left it, the stains don’t show up in the picture nearly as much as they did close up.
I have one more DIY project for the kitchen which hopefully I’ll bring you next week. Until then, stay inspired.
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Wow! Love how things have been transforming over the years…..especially love the desk conversion! Houses that are 20-30 years old all have those! Very inspiring post.
My whole house is a work in progress. If something has been around over 10 years its days may be numbered 🙂
Even though I hate white in houses, these colors were a great improvement! Love the windows at the sink! And really like the shutter valance.
WOW…I love EVERY change that was made. What an awesome kitchen!!!
The changes you did were great and much improved the look!
Sheesh, I thought your original kitchen still looked pretty good! I do like the white though, looks bigger too. Those shutters look good, I bet you could add a second row of shutters and then use magnets to open it back up?? Looks like you get a ton of light in the AM or PM.
How cool is was saving your photo’s to the cloud! I am using Windows 7 and Microsoft has notified me vie my computer that after Jan 1st 20, it will no longer support my system. Yikes
Good post, thank you.
I like the idea of magnets though I’d probably have a heck of a time finding shutters to match. We get most of our sun in the winter when the leaves are off the trees. While it’s really bright, the sun does a fantastic job of warming the kitchen.
While the before is a beautiful kitchen, that change is just beautiful. Brighter, lighter, and making the room look MUCH bigger, what a lovely job!
Gosh, what I’d do to have that big bank of windows in my kitchen. Your kitchen is lovely and looks so much brighter in white. Wow, impressive that it was all done in three days.
Have any REPUTABLE recommendations for Door replacements???
Hi, I really liked your idea thank you for sharing. Keep up the good work.