Looks great!  I'm too chicken so far to repaint my cabinets, but I'm getting closer and closer to jumping in.  *laugh*  Great job!

Looks great!  I'm too chicken so far to repaint my cabinets, but I'm getting closer and closer to jumping in.  *laugh*  Great job!

Painting the cabinets was a lot of hard work, and I don't want to ever do it again! It had to be done though because I couldn't live with those weird handles in the middle of the doors.  

Painting the countertops was pretty easy, and we were very pleased with the results.  We priced out new laminate and were quote $1700, and there was no way I was paying that because we were still undecided about keeping the cabinets at that time.  

BTW, the oven is the original from when the house was built 40 years ago.  It is pretty ugly, but it cooks like a dream so we decided to keep it until it dies. 

I think it looks beautiful and very refreshing! Lol to the stove, I bought my house last Jan and it was built in 1968. Pretty sure my cooktop/wall oven came original. Both work great outside of one small burner even though they are ugly. Placated the gf by saying I would replace both asap, but gee isn't it interesting how other things keep taking precedence? Heehee, lol! I figure I have at least another year or two or another burner going out before I'll have T actually replace it!

Nice job! Maybe I will go your route, Crispy, and set up a blog so I can post my before and after painted counters. I see that you made a good choice to paint them yourselves. Amazing what paint can do!

Very nice.  Wow, a lot of sweat equity.  I thought they were new countertops until I read that you painted.  Never would have guessed.

I love it, you guys did a great job!  Our kitchen layout is almost the same, and I love how open and easy it is to work in there.

Thanks!  I will post more pictures at some point although most of the other things have been subbed out.

That looks awesome! I'd have been too scared to try. What a great job you did.!

It looks fantastic!

We too have painted a kitchen full of cabinets and I will never ever do it again.  Way to labor intensive for me, plus so many things can go wrong with the paint, etc...  Our last kitchen update we had our cabinets refaced, cheaper than new cabinets, but more than painting.  Was worth it in my opinion.

Your turned out wonderful and I know it is a huge sense of accomplishment.  Enjoy your new kitchen over the holidays!!

Gosh I love the white (or cream?) cabinet makeover, they completely transform the entire room. I feel you on the oven.. If it ain't broke no need to rush replacing it.

LOVE IT!!

Painting cabinets is tons of work so i hear!

I want ours changed up but we are not good painters and they are in fine shape so they stay put til our someday full kitchen reno (aka when the kids more out lol.. err or never!

very nice!

Can you tell me how many hours you spent on the project?  Our cabinets are now white and I want to paint them a dark blue.  Also, can you tell me what you used to paint the countertops?  I will keep the white cabinets in the bathrooms but I hate the countertops so painting them would be a good option.  I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt this project or hold out until we can get new cabinets/laminate.

Can you tell me how many hours you spent on the project?  Our cabinets are now white and I want to paint them a dark blue.  Also, can you tell me what you used to paint the countertops?  I will keep the white cabinets in the bathrooms but I hate the countertops so painting them would be a good option.  I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt this project or hold out until we can get new cabinets/laminate.

We used a Giani Granite countertop kit which cost about $80.  It was very easy to use and the painting and drying time was only a couple of days although we did keep everything off the counters for a week.  The finish looks nothing like granite to me (didn't really expect it to), but it does look nice and sure beats the yellow ones we had.  We bought the kit from Amazon, but you can get it from some retailers or directly from the company.  Rustoleum has some countertop kits also, but they were more expensive and seemed a lot more complicated. 

The cabinets were a lot more involved.  We spent probably three days total doing prep work - filling in holes with wood filler, cleaning thoroughly with TSP to remove any grease and residue (these were 40 year old cabinets so they were kind of gross), taping, removing hardware, etc.  I also demolished a set of upper cabinets so we had to patch and repair the nail holes and drywall.

We both had 5 days off over Thanksgiving, and we spent those days doing the actually priming and painting of the cabinet boxes and doors.  We used oil based primer so it needed 8 to 10 hours between coats.  We used Benjamin Moore Advance paint which is specifically for cabinets.  This stuff is awesome!  It is self-leveling so the surface ended up being very smooth.  We did three coats of paint and then let them sit for close to a week before hanging to give then a chance to cure a bit.  Putting the doors back on and adding the hardware took another several hours.  We re-used the hinges that we had (spary painted to match the new hardware) so we didn't have to repair those holes or do any extra drilling).  If you are changing out the hinges, you may need to do account for that also.

It is not complicated, but it is time-consuming and tedious for sure.

Thanks for the info!!!  I counted up about 130 hours - does that sound about right?  So if I paid someone $20 an hour, it would cost about $2,600, which is much cheaper than new cabinets.  People may think I'm crazy for painting existing white cabinets another color!!

Your kitchen looks great! 

Thanks for the info!!!  I counted up about 130 hours - does that sound about right?  So if I paid someone $20 an hour, it would cost about $2,600, which is much cheaper than new cabinets.  People may think I'm crazy for painting existing white cabinets another color!!

 

Your kitchen looks great!

That time seems a little high because there was a lot of waiting between coats. I think 50 to 60 hours of labor is a bit closer.

A friend who is a painter charges $70 per door and chargers a certain amount per square foot for the cabinet boxes. Still much cheaper than new cabinets. He uses a sprayer though so the finish would probably be a lot smoother.

We've had painted counter tops as did my mom and grandma and my mom painted gram's cabinets too.

Labor of love!
 

60x$20=$1200 (great savings!!

You guys did an amazing job!  Looks fantastic!  

Fantastic job! It looks so fresh! I know from personal experience how much work it was, we did ours twice!!! The second time was not as involved, just a light sanding and then paint. The major prep work was done the first go around. We replaced our counter top, because we changed appliance location.

I still want to replace our cabinets. They are poor quality and we want to make changes with the layout. Hopefully within the next 5 years, I've already waited 20 what's another 5?!!

Yeah, at some point, we would like to do a full remodel, but we are trying to spend our renovation budget on the things that will give us the biggest bang for our buck if we had throw the house on the market tomorrow.  The cabinets were in really good shape so doing an inexpensive refresher makes it look nice without spending a huge amount of money.  We did receive a couple of estimates for gut jobs, but the 25K they wanted was our whole remodel budget...yikes!

We spent that on finishing out a bonus room and laundry room and adding heating and air to that part of the house, painting the house (we used a professional for the parts we didn't want to tackle like all the dark trim and the wood paneling), and redoing both bathrooms. Adding the square footage will add the most value in this area.