Painting Cabinets and Picking Hardware Pt. 2

We finally started painting the other side of the kitchen cabinets! Last week we painted the new side of the kitchen that we installed ourselves after we picked out the final colors. Sherwin Williams is our local paint people so we decided to go with them rather than Home Depot. After some paint samples, we decided on "Ice Cube" for the upper cabinets and "Tricorn Black" for the lower cabinets. And let me tell you, SUCH a good decision. Ice Cube is perfect because it has a grey tint rather than the stark white we first picked out because it compliments the greyish counter tops. The Tricorn Black is amazingggg. It has the perfect blue undertone so it is not flat and boring. I've seen alot of rooms starting to use this color on the wall and I'm kinda drooling over this one and this one.First we had to sand down every square inch of the cabinets. It was covered in grime and scratches and who knows what else. Taking off the top layer of shininess (if that's a word) also helps with the paint not chipping off. We had to do it all by hand because the sander can't get all of the cracks and edges. Thankfully my (hunk of a) husband pitched in alot because I have been doing all of the cabinet painting.

Even though the 50's vibe can be cool, we decided to fill in the three lines that were embedded into the faux drawer in front of the sink. That way it is just flat like the rest of the cabinets. I mean I like things funky and unique, but not too crazy. You can see the garbage disposal we got at Home Depot on Sale for like $40. It makes life easier and makes you feel just a little bit fancy, which we can all use a little of.

Taking off the doors before painting was such a good idea. We had to sand and fill in holes, not to mention just cleaning them from the grime that had been there for years. P.S. This wireless speaker, is amazing. It is meant for heavy duty construction sites so it has a 50 hr. battery life and also can be hooked up to a phone with the auxillary port as well as having the built in radio. Plus, it can get so loud. I can't work without music, so it has kept me going the past few weeks. It is definitely worth the money. That link is probably not the cheapest, but I'm sure a quick Google search will lead you to the right place.

  

 Doesn't it look so much better already! We took out the weird middle soffit and florescent light above the sink and made it open to the top. Now we just have to hang the pendant light, paint them a few more times, and then install the new counter top and we will be good to go (for the mean time anyways). Down the road we are going to put in a pretty tile back splash but right now we are just aiming to move in and them make cosmetic changes later. You can see the huge 70's fridge to the left with the mounted microwave that goes above the range on the other side of the cabinets.

Picking Hardware

It turns out, picking hardware is incredibly difficult. There are so many options, but at the same time, such a limited selection. In case you've never bought pull or knobs for cabinetry, just let me tell you, it can get SO expensive. At even $3 a piece, which seems like no big deal, when you buy 30 of them, you're spending $100 already. And $3 is pretty low when it comes to hardware that is not the standard cheap looking ones. In store, like Lowes and Home Depot, also do not have a big selection of brass (aka gold looking) hardware. So what we did was go to the store and find the ones we liked, and then went online and ordered them in the brass finish that we wanted. A tip: if you can, go to the store and see/feel them before you throw down a Benjamin or two. When you're paying a bit for something, you want to make sure they feel right when you open and close them because they are going to be used every day. 

When we were thinking about what styles we wanted, I was really conflicted. Below are the choices that we gave ourselves to achieve the modern style we wanted. My favorite was #3 with the full faced pulls in a line straight down the cabinets. We couldn't do that arrangement because the trim on the doors was not wide enough. In the end we ended up picking #4 because I just could not get away from those dreamy full faced pulls. We found these pulls and these knobs both by Martha Stewart Living at Home Depot. The total came to about $100 online which gave us free shipping and a nice coupon to use next time. I made these mockups with the Houzz App, where you can upload photos and sketch on them, including searching for products and seeing how they will fit into your space.