Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing

This is one of the most time consuming projects I have ever done.  It might not seem like much to the average person but it took me months of working on it little by little.

We are on a very limited budget, as most are, and couldn't afford to replace the cabinets in our kitchen.  I really didn't want to gut the kitchen out anyway.  Also, the cabinets are really sturdy so it didn't really make much sense to tear them out.  It is a very small kitchen which made it difficult to maneuver around everything while working on it.  I still have some things to do but I can't believe what a difference paint and knobs can make...

Before:

My upper cabinets had so much grime on them from dirty fingers and the paint was wearing off from so much scrubbing.

The same with the lower cabinets.
They were so disgusting!!!

The doors had to be cut down  because they would not close properly.  The previous owners just slapped some wood up to use as doors and painted them.  They didn't close and the didn't match.  The wood was all chipped too.  I tried to fill as many holes as I could but there wasn't much I could do with some of it.   

 As you can see, they were really bad...


















After...

The upper cabinets now...

The lower cabinets...

There is still stuff I want to do but until I am able to take a trip to my favorite store (Ikea), it will have to wait.

I plan to replace all of the counter tops with butcher block.  I have already replaced the island top with it and it made such a difference.  Plus, it really isn't that expensive and it is durable.

There are other little things I plan to do too.  I purchased some inexpensive peel and stick tiles from The Home Depot and plan to line the bottom of my cabinets with that.  It will make it look cleaner...







My next project for the kitchen (until I can purchase the butcher block) is to repaint the island.  My brother-in-law built it for their kitchen and when they remodeled they passed it on to me.  I love it but my kids are really making it look grungy.  Plus I want to make it "pop" by painting it a deep red color...