I repainted my kitchen cabinets

My kitchen cabinets were built by my son, and I love them. They are solid and will last forever.  But they needed some TLC and I wanted a new look.  The tops are now a brighter white and the bottoms are a mushroomy tone.

I also painted the underneath part as well as the window frame behind the stove to the same bright, white. 

It feels so much cleaner and brighter.  Notice how often I am using the word, brighter?  That is what I was going for, and I am quite pleased that I got my bright results. 

While I was at it, I took stuff out of the cabinets, cleaned and rearranged them, washed this curtain and the ones on the window, and soaked every glass knob in soapy vinegar water. 

The pottery on top of the cabinets got a trip through the dishwasher while I was painting and was ready to put back up there as I finished up with my paint brush.  

The walls of the recessed area around this bank of cabinets are painted a very pale blue.  I was tempted to redo them too, in a more sea glass shade.  

Since I am still dealing with post concussion syndrome, I decided to just tackle one job at a time.  But I did take down everything on the wall, wash it, and slightly rearrange the pictures.  And I’m still day dreaming of an ocean blue to slap up there later.

The paint I used was Behr latex satin. Since I have been the only person to paint these cabinets, I knew all of the products that were on them, and didn’t have to sand or prime.  I’d previously used latex and a water based top coat, so I knew that my satin coat would adhere nicely.  That saved time.  And my Grandfairy was helpful too, Sugarwings took off all the hardware for me then put it back on when I was done.

Here is an older photo of the room.  See, brighter!  Another thing that helped was replacing our light bulbs with daylight LEDs.  Although two chandeliers’ worth of brand new bulbs felt like a major renovation cost (dang, light bulbs aren’t cheap!), they made a huge difference.

Daylight bulbs  versus soft white changed everything.

I saw cobwebs that I hadn’t noticed, my husband could do his morning crossword without reading glasses, and my cabinets looked dirty.  I’m glad I got the new bulbs, even though they made me feel like I needed to repaint the room and started this whole production.

 I’m pretty happy with the new BRIGHTER look.