Even before the Mister and I ended our house hunt with our dream house, I was ripping pictures out of magazines of glorious, beautiful white kitchens.
There's just something about clean, crisp white cabinets that makes my heart go pitter-patter. So, of course, the first project I decided to tackle after moving into the house was to paint those bad boys and bring some life into my builder-grade-oak-cabinet-filled kitchen.
I perused different blogs and forums for days on end, trying to find the perfect shade of white for the cabinets. I decided to splurge on Benjamin Moore paint, because I wanted something super high-end and durable since cabinets take so much wear and tear. But then I realized that BM has 110 different shades of white, and I freaked. (The Mister just rolled his eyes. "White is white...right?") The fact that we have white appliances was a major factor - I didn't want to pick a white that would look dingy next to the appliances, and I didn't want the appliances to appear dirty because they were next to stark white cabinets. Quite the conundrum.
I started combing through forums to see what paint color others had used in their kitchens, but almost all the renovated kitchens were rocking stainless steel appliances. I was at my wit's end when I finally landed on this beauty:
Three_Daisies Kitchen from GardenWeb
This kitchen caught my attention because it had two things I was looking for - the white dishwasher (that you can just barely see above the island) and dark granite - both elements that my current kitchen was sporting. And thankfully, Three_Daisies was kind enough to share her cabinet color: Benjamin Moore White Dove. It was settled! I decided to go with the glossiest finish they had, so the cabinets would really shine and be easier to wipe down.
So, shortly after moving in (and by shortly, I mean about three days), I began what would be a three-week kitchen overhaul. (These things take awhile - especially when you have a day-job to keep you busy until 6pm every night!) I started with all the bottom cabinet doors and drawers, including the island. I wanted to keep the project inside, because 1) it was wintertime, and 2) I like having the TV in the background when I'm working. So, space was severely limited and the project had to be done in a bit of a piecemeal fashion.
I sanded all the doors and drawer-fronts, using 220 grit sandpaper (and a hand-sander that a dear friend loaned to me. What a life saver!) After sanding and dusting everything with a microfiber cloth, I started priming. I used Premium Kilz Primer, and I did three coats. Yes, three. On both sides of the doors. (I decided that I was going to do this project once, and never again.) I used little foam rollers, and they worked like a charm.
Eventually, I finally got to the good stuff and got the first coat of White Dove on there.
Seeing it start to come together was just the inspiration I needed to keep on going - that, and I wanted to finally cook a meal in my new house. I did two additional coats of the White Dove, because I figured three coats of primer deserved three coats of paint. Finally, with the help of the Mister, I put the bottom half of my kitchen back together and took a well-deserved one-day break before tackling the top half.
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| The island in all its glory |
After repeating the process for all the top cabinets (yay for no more drawers!), the Mister was kind enough to assist me in reassembling those as well. Once the cabinets were finished, I took a step back and surveyed my work. The cabinets looked beautiful - but I couldn't help but notice they sort of blended into the wall color, which was a basic off-white. Now my mind was wandering again - I needed a wall color to complete the look, and really make those cabinets pop. And so back I went to different forums to find the perfect color...
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