Usually I have a really hard time deciding on paint colors. It's been my decorating nemesis. But I knew I needed to pick something that would go with the yellow countertops since we wouldn't be replacing them. Yellow and gray have been the "in" color combo the last few years so I decided to go with gray cabinets. I decided I wanted to lighten up the upper cabinets after years of dark brown cabinets, so I chose a lighter gray, (True Value Antique Silver) for the uppers. However, I didn't want a light color on the lower cabinets because I've had white cabinets before and the lowers get disgustingly filthy. So I went with a color two steps deeper on the same paint chip card, (True Value Mountain Gray), for the lowers. I also chose a very light grey-white for the walls. (True Value Cadet Gray)
My plan is to accent with yellow (like my kitchen-aid) and aqua. Keeping the overall feel calm with the gray but with pops of color to brighten things up. We were going to do beadboard wainscoting on a couple of walls with yellow paint above to tie it all together but I think we've decided to shelve that idea and just use the colors as accents.
Our long term plan is to eventually remove the wall between the living and dining rooms. I've fought that idea for a long time, but it recently dawned on me that I spend 90% of my day in the kitchen area and we set aside 60% of the living space on this level as a living room that we only use at night to read scriptures in. If we open the space up it becomes a much more family-friendly and efficiently used space rather than underutilized space. Anyhow, that's the plan and here's what we've done so far...next up, wall paint. As soon as track season and school are done!
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| Adding the beadboard wallpaper to the doors... |
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| our first glimpse of how good this was going to look and how much better it was going to be... |
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| showing the 40+ years of wear and tear on the finish on the cabinets...they are original to the house |
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| the damage on the tops of the drawers. Kids and knives and drawers....not a good combo. |
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| the wear on the edges of the doors...for years these cabinets did not have handles so after many years the finish was worn off where people gripped them to open the door... |
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| pantry cupboard...decided to make it dark |
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| I hated the wood strip down the middle that didn't allow much to be stored in this cabinet. We thought about making a whole new door but it would be difficult to get it to match. I had a brain-storm one day and lo and behold, it worked. We unscrewed the strip between the doors, glued and nailed it to the left door and now when the doors are closed it looks like it always did, but when the doors are open....VOILA'! We have full access to the cabinet. We plan to make sliding drawers to house my #10 cans and bags of cereal and chips, etc. LOVE IT! |
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| showing the strip attachment to the left door on the small upper cabinet... |
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| we did sand down the upper and lower edges of the strip so that it closes easily... |
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| We only have 4 drawers so it was not too expensive to buy the bin pull handles I love. We just spray painted the old knobs and hinges in brushed nickel and put them back on the cabinets. |
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| a look at the finished lower cabinets |
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| it was so fun emptying out the cabinets and priming and painting them. It was a good time to sort, purge and reorganize... |
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| A shot showing the two-toned cabinets. I really like them. I'm super happy with how they turned out. I don't think the wallpaper is going to be a good long-term solution, but if it buys us a few years til we knock down walls, it will be fabulous. I think it will take a lot of abuse on the lower cabinets. But it was an inexpensive way to change the look of our kitchen and I'm happy we did it. |
