Kitchen Re-Make

Here are some shots of the kitchen on the day the realtor handed me the keys at closing on our new house:

 

They were flat white, grungy in that sort of way that doesn't wash off and tricked out with some clunky door pulls and hinges vintage 1977.  Amazingly 35 years later this house had it's original kitchen.  If money wasn't an issue... like a major issue right now... we would have pulled it all down and put in new cabinets in a more functional configuration.  We would have also put in larger stainless appliances instead of the smallest of white ones.  But life is what it is and we are in make do mode.

So with about $3,450 investment and a couple of days labor, we turned the appliance-less old kitchen into this:

$3,300 of that is new appliances and installation fees.  The other $150 bought a Rustoleum Transformations kit for cabinets, a can of brushed nickel spray paint, brushed nickel door pulls and some various and sundry stuff like paint brushes, screws and shelf liner.

The spray paint was so I could re-use the once nasty antiqued brass hinges rather than plunk down $70-ish for new ones.  I thought that was one of my more ingenious cheap-skate solutions!

The most often asked questions we've encountered were about the Rustoleum Transformations kit.  People have inquired if it worked, looks good and is as easy to use as the box says.

It was pretty easy.  A bit time consuming, but definitely not difficult.  The simple steps of washing the cabinets, brushing on a deglosser and wiping it off with a clean wet cloth, putting on 2 coats of base color, brushing on the glaze and wiping it away with a wad of cheesecloth and then brushing on a finish coat - with drying/curing time in between each step - were very straight forward.  Of course, if  you have a slight bit of artistic ability or vision you'll be better able to mimic a wood grain look when wiping the glaze away...

It worked to transform the appearance of the whole kitchen.  The pictures speak for this fact, so yes, I'd say it worked.

It looks better than when the cabinets were painted white.  Did it achieve the pretty dark cherry wood finish I covet?  It hints at it but falls a little short.  But then I wasn't really looking for a miracle and would say we got pretty close to what we were expecting from the product.  This kitchen isn't forever... it's very much a 'for now' thing so falling short of perfection is ok.

My only REAL gripe about the product is that it chips very easily when bumped with pan or where two doors touch each other.  Yes, both of those incidents have happened already so I'm searching out a way to cover up little white spots.

And... trying very hard to be a little more graceful than a bull in a china shop so I don't make more chips!