Kitchen Reveal; DIY Painted Cabinets

I have been so excited to share today's post with you! We finally have the kitchen cabinets painted and photographed for you to see! If you missed the prior post where I explained how I painted the cabinets myself, you can catch up in the full step-by-step guide here. It's not to be missed if you are thinking of painting your cabinets.

Ok, so now to the before pictures. Remember those outdated oak cabinets? Not hideous, but needing to be refreshed.

Oak kitchen cabinets before being painted Oak kitchen cabinets before being painted, close-up viewKitchen before the cabinets were painted, wide viewOriginal oak kitchen cabinets before the DIY paint projectKitchen layout before the cabinet painting project

Here are pictures from the painting while in process.

Kitchen cabinet door partway through the painting process Kitchen cabinet doors drying during the painting project Cabinet door after the first coat of paint

And lastly, the best pictures yet. The completed kitchen!

Finished painted kitchen cabinets in a soft grey colourFinished kitchen with newly painted cabinets, view oneFinished kitchen with newly painted cabinets, view twoFinished kitchen with newly painted cabinets, view threeFinished kitchen with newly painted cabinets, view four

For the time being, we decided to leave the doors off of these two cabinets to display my white dishes and glassware.

Open shelving styled with white dishes in the finished kitchenFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional viewFinished kitchen with painted cabinets, additional view

I think it looks so fresh and clean. It definitely lightens up the whole space.

This project gave me a few grey hairs and inconvenienced our family for a few weeks, but it was completely worth it in the end. It cost roughly a tenth of the professional quote we were given to have the cabinets painted by a contractor.

If you're thinking about painting your own cabinets, the full guide with all the steps is here, and you can also read how the paint held up a year later.

  1. A kitchen, much like a closet, is one of the more under-appreciated spaces in a home — you use it every day, but don’t often give much thought to how you organize it.

  2. Wow! It looks so great. Glad I stopped by. You are cool!

  3. Alice says:

    Your cabinets look great! Just wondering how they are holding up? Been reading a lot and going between regular paint and chalk/milk paint… and it says you used gray but your cabinets look white, is that just the lighting in your pictures? I need to brighten up my kitchen and I have almost the same countertop!
    Thanks

    • Amy says:

      Hi, Alice. Sorry for the delay in responding. We’ve been traveling a lot this summer. We are no longer in that home but I did a one-year recap post following the painting and I was pleased with how it held up. There were knicks on the cabinet used the most (trash cabinet), but I always kept a small jar of extra paint around for touch-ups. The color was a white with a smidgen of gray. It looked more white to me. It was definitely a great update!

  4. […] If you are new here, you may be interested in seeing how I DIY’ed my kitchen cabinets.  I am still over the moon about them and decided to share my Christmas kitchen with you as my tour today!  If you want a look back and peek at how the painted cabinet project began, you can see the full post projects HERE and HERE. […]

  5. […] we go into the kitchen.  My white cabinets are perfect for subtle little fall touches. My 3-tier is a hardworking piece with storage of my […]

  6. […] See the full reveal with a lot more pictures, here. […]

  7. Giselle says:

    I am going to be painting my cupboards in a couple of weeks so I really appreciate all of your tips! I have the same cupboards only a bit darker and a lot uglier! I have always hated the stain but didn’t want the work of refinishing and until recently was too chicken to paint for fear of what it would happen when I try to sell my house. Fortunately, painted cabinets are the fashion so I am going for it! Your kitchen looks so clean and bright! Great job!

  8. Betty says:

    Your kitchen looks so lovely. I just posted ours. We painted over knotty pine and so much more.

  9. Sara says:

    Wow. Love the transformation. Painting the cabinets is such an easy an inexpensive update. Just A LOT OF work. It’s so much brighter. Looks awesome!

  10. Iris Nacole says:

    That white paint is exactly what your kitchen needed! It’s so open and eye catching now! I applaud you for tackling the project yourself. From what I’ve read, it’s a big job!

  11. Tiffany says:

    Hi, Amy ~ Your kitchen looks amazing! I’ve been wanting to paint our kitchen cabinets for along time (we have similar oak cabinets), and now that I’ve seen yours I want to start NOW! :0) I’ll definitely be checking out your how-to post. Congrats on a beautifully refreshed kitchen!

  12. Karen says:

    Its’s amazing what a difference paint can make! Your cabinets look beautiful! I agree that they didn’t look terrible before, but WOW, the white completely gives new life to your entire kitchen!
    Now I’m going to be eyeing up my cabinets!
    Well done!

  13. Your kitchen looks fantastic, Amy!! And the cost savings is incredible! Definitely worth the time investment, even if it did cause a few grey hairs!

  14. Kristen says:

    It looks amazing! Great work!

  15. Mallory says:

    Looks amazing! Great job! I am getting ready to do this to our kitchen cabinets but I am way overwhelmed with all the white paint options!

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Most Sundays, once the house has gone quiet and it's edging towards nine, a letter goes out. It's the one I'd write to a friend with good taste and not nearly enough time: one thing worth reading, one thing worth buying, and one thing to skip. No noise, no pressure to spend, just the considered version of what I've actually been using, loving, or quietly sending back.

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