She Will (Get Her Husband to) Makeover the Kitchen!

I know I said I would be posting more frequently in my last post but time got away from me.  Posting today was important because I couldn't wait to show off our kitchen!  Several months ago, Matt and I talked about changing our kitchen cabinets.  It's not that they were bad, but they were your standard oak cabinets and didn't really match our tastes.  You can see a picture of our initial cabinets in the pictures below (ignore the mess).

We went back and forth on what color cabinets we wanted: black, really dark brown/espresso, or white.  We eventually decided on white and due to budget, we decided to try painting the cabinets ourselves.  I did a little bit of research before we started and decided Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation was the best fit for us.  It doesn't require any sanding and came with everything we needed, except the paintbrushes.  I tried out the half bath cabinets first to see  how it would look.  Even though it took us awhile to complete, we though the end result was worth the effort and went full steam ahead on the kitchen cabinets. 

Matt and I both agreed that if we started on this project, we wanted to have it complete in time for Morgan's 2nd birthday on Saturday, October 13th.  We don't remember the exact date, but we stated at the beginning of August and put up the completed upper cabinet doors on Friday, October 12th.  Whew, only 1 day to spare!  We could have gone a LOT faster, but we got a little lazy and we were only painting after the kids went to bed or when Matt was off of work.  The last week, we kicked into high gear and were painting two coats a day. 

Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation has 4 major steps: Deglosser, Bond Coat, Sealer/Top Coat, and Glaze.  We chose not to use the glaze because we didn't like the color/effect, but we did put on 4 coats of the Bond Coat instead of the 2 recommended coats.  It's a long process, but overall, we are super happy with how it turned out and would definitely recommend it to anyone else who is looking to make an affrodable change!

Below are some step by step pictures of the process.

Another large part of the transformation are the cup pulls and knobs.  The original cabinets didn't have any hardware, so we really got to start fresh.  I searched a lot of websites for ideas and fell in love with cup pulls.  In the end, the combination of cup pulls and knobs came together really well.
 
Now comes the fun part...the budget breakdown!  I don't remember the exact cost of everything and can't find all the receipts, but below is a pretty conservative assessment:

Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation (200 sq ft kit) - $150
Cup Pulls = $4.97/each x 8 = $39.76
Knobs = $2.97/each x 20 = $59.40 (I think this estimate may be high)
Husbands Labor = Priceless
TOTAL = $249.16

For under $300 this is a pretty amazing transformation and we haven't even touched the countertops or backsplash.  We will be making a change there as well, but right now we are pretty burnt out on big makeover projects and probably won't be ready to spend any more money on the house until after Christmas. 

I'm really proud of our kitchen, so I'll leave you with one final shot!

Lori