How to transform your kitchen for less than $100 (or, "Are we done painting yet?")

As Joe already mentioned, we are in painting hell. Our recent efforts have focused on the kitchen. I was hoping I'd have the complete "after" pictures ready to post by now but, alas, mother nature hasn't cooperated with us the last couple of weekends. Ice and snow have limited our ability to travel to the country estate. So I am going to ruin the suspense and go ahead an post a few "almost after" pictures of our kitchen work. (*If you don't care about the kitchen and want to see gratuitous pictures of Max, skip to the end.)

First, the wall paint. Here's the cutting in shot:

I actually really like the green in the kitchen. But it just doesn't go with anything else. The counters and floor are ivory and the trim is true white. The combo just didn't work for us. So we decided to paint the walls to match the countertops and floor (the color is Sherwin Williams Toasted Pine Nut). That way, the walls, counters, trim, and floor have a sort of cream on white thing going on. It makes the cream/white combo seem deliberate instead of clashing.

"But that's so boring," you say. "Why would you want to paint your kitchen Johnson County Beige?" (Sorry JoCo readers, but you know it's true). In a bold (at least by our standards) move, we decided to put color where it counts--on the cabinets.

The decision on whether to paint the cabinets was quite a debate. Some people (my Mom) were adamantly against it. Others (my friends Sarah and Lindsey, who have or have had painted cabinets) told us to go for it. The fact is, those cabinets are dated. We hated the wood finish. We despised the carving in the doors. So we figured we couldn't make it much worse.

So now, I'm going to present to you the Gagnon method of painting cabinets. We guarantee that, by using our method, you too can get your kitchen cabinets painted in about a month (or two...hell, it may take you three months--we don't know since we're not done yet).

First, you learn to use a drill and take off all the cabinet doors, stripping a couple of screws in the process.

Next, you wash all the doors and stack them in a neat little pile on the kitchen floor. You foolishly believe you will be able to completely prime and paint them the following week.
When you get ready to start priming, your husband will tell you that the cabinets must be sanded before he will let you begin priming. You make him do that.


Then, you prime all the cabinets, drawers, and doors. During this process, you will lay on the floor, climb on the counters, and stand in the kitchen sink. When you are finished, you will have primer in your hair, on your bottom, all over your hands and shirt. Your husband will sigh and ask you how you can possibly get so much primer all over yourself in just one day.

Finally, after the primer dries, you notice that your hand and wrist are cramping from using a paintbrush to prime for 6 hours. Your husband will give you a rest and begin putting a coat of paint on the cabinets (Sherwin Williams Bunglehouse Blue).
You will be pretty encouraged by the results, but still nervous about how this is all going to look when you get done. You will realize that it may take you another month to put the cabinet doors back on since you did not mark them when you took them off.

OK, now it's gratuitous picture time...
*Here's a picture of Max when we took him to see Santa a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure this was the worst moment of his life.
*And here is a much happier picture of Max wearing his own Santa hat.