Finally, my kitchen cabinet transformation is over! It only took me three weeks! I was very busy at the same time and had a very limited work space. First, let me tell you, I rent my apartment, therefore I do not want to invest a ton of money into fixing it up. However, I have made a few inexpensive changes. When I moved in, back on '06, my kitchen counters and back splash were a burnt orange formica, hideous! I asked my landlord if I could remove the formica and put in tile. Of course he said, "yes". And lucky for me I was able to get my friend's father to do the labor for free. I found some discounted tile at Home Depot and whole project cost about $100.
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| kitchen before |
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| kitchen before |
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| new kitchen counters and cabinets before |
Here you can see the new tile counters and back splash. The change in tile helped brighten up the space, but recently I've wanted to brighten it up even more.
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| kitchen cabinets before |
This year I decided my kitchen could use a face lift, that's when I found the
Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformation kit. My landlord was nice enough to pay for the kit and let me pick the color. I chose Quilter's White because it is more of a cream than a stark white.
The transformation process does take a long time, therefore, if you can get some extra help I suggest you do because it will speed things up. Also, the instructional CD says to apply two coats of paint and one coat of the protective top coat. However, I applied three coats of paint and two coats of the protective top coat. After applying the two coats of paint I noticed it left streaks and the dark color of the wood still showed through, so I decided to apply a third coat and am very happy with it. Also for the protective top coat one coat did not protect the surface enough so I applied an additional one.
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| kitchen cabinets after |
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| knobs I chose |
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| cabinets after |
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| cabinets after |
Since I chose such a light color I decided to add hardware to the cabinets. The new knobs will help keep the doors and drawers clean. I suggest if you are choosing to add knobs I would drill the holes before painting. Since the paint was so thick some areas cracked when I started drilling. My next door neighbor was visiting when I was drilling and suggested I use her electric drill instead of my battery powered one. The power of the electric drill helped tremendously and I didn't get anymore cracks! The power in that thing is amazing, but it is extremely loud!
Over all I am very pleased with the outcome and would suggest the cabinet kit to anymore looking to change things up a bit without spending a great deal of money.
Happy Cooking!
