Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

One of the main things I wanted to change when we bought our house was the kitchen cabinets.  Our house was renovated before we bought it, but the kitchen did not get even half the attention of the rest of the house.  The previous owner did put all new cabinet doors on, but left the old frames.  So, if you look closely you will notice that the doors and drawers are not the same wood as the frame itself.  Also, all of the cabinets under our sink area were not updated and they didn't match any of the other cabinets.  It drove me crazy!

In the first year of living in our new home, I had a local company come and quote me to stain the cabinets.  Needless to say, it was way more money than what I had intended to spend at that time.

Then, just recently I had a company quote me to paint the cabinets.  Again, the amount of money was ridiculous!

At this point I knew that if I ever wanted these cabinets changed, I was going to have to do it myself!  And that I did (or am doing).

Here are a couple pictures of our kitchen the first week after moving in.  In the first picture you can see our new cabinet doors and if you look closely you will see that they don't match the frames.  In the second picture you will see how the cabinets under the sink share no resemblance with the others.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across a product called Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations.  I immediately showed my husband, and we watched the tutorial video, looked at the before/after pictures, used the virtual tool and then agreed that we were going to try it.

With Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations there’s no stripping, no sanding and no priming required, so its super easy to do!  And the best part is the price!  A small kit will cover 100 sq ft and was around $79 and a large kit will cover 200 sq ft and cost about $140.

You can choose from 70 different colors and finishes so there is no doubt you can find the custom look you are going for.

There are four easy steps:  1.  Apply Deglosser to degloss the surface  2.  Apply Bond Coat (this is the paint color)  3.  Apply Decorative Glaze (optional...we did not do this)  4.  Apply Protective Top Coat

Although, this process is pretty simple...it is very time consuming.  Especially because I am doing the project on my own.  If you had more than one person I'm sure you could finish your kitchen over a weekend.  At this point, after 2 weekends, I have half of the project done!  I just hope I don't run out of steam before I'm finished!

Here are some photos of my progress so far!  Please excuse the messes inside the cabinets and also the photo quality is poor as these were taken with my phone.

Before



After applying Coat #1
(we ended up needing 3 coats instead of the recommended 2)



Coat #1 on the backside of the doors
(we did 3 coats on the front and only 2 coats on the backside)

Upper Frame Complete

Slowly but surely making progress

We decided to add new hardware to the cabinets for a more modern feel.  All in all, this project has cost us less than $300 and that includes 30 cabinet pulls, the transformation kit and all of our supplies.

Note:  We have noticed that some oils from the wood are seeping through a few of the cabinets causing yellow/brown streaks.  I contacted Rustoleum yesterday and was told that certain types of woods contain more oils than others.  He recommended deglossing those doors again, coat with an oil based primer and then finish with the bond coat and protective coat.  Rustoleum is going to reimburse me for the cost of the primer as this product is 100% gauranteed!