Updating your kitchen has never been easier or less expensive especially if your cabinets are in great shape but just an outdated color. Although sometimes it is worth the full investment of either replacing the cabinet doors or even the boxes all together, here’s when you should simply have them painted.
Are your cabinet boxes in good condition? Are you happy with your kitchen layout? Are your cabinet doors solid wood? If you answered ‘yes’ to all of these questions, then your kitchen is a perfect candidate for a paint job. Now, even though this may seem like a reasonable DIY task, let me explain why hiring a professional may be in your best interest. First of all, you have to take all the hinges and hardware off before beginning to paint which is quite a time-consuming task. Taping around them may seem like a time saver, but I assure you, as the hinges continue to be used after the paint job, it’ll begin to chip around it. Second, the best results are achieved when the cabinets are first sanded, regardless of what you’ve read on Pinterest about how you can easily skip this step; it’s very noticeable. The sanding process is very labor intensive and generally takes a few DAYS for a full-size kitchen and usually a team of 3 to tackle it. When it comes to materials, buying paint and a brush is not all that expensive, but the best results are achieved when the doors are sprayed while they lay horizontally positioned on something above the ground to get to the edges well. So, an industrial sprayer (because cheaping out on this may completely ruin the project) isn’t cheap, you’ll also need an electrical sander, painter’s plastic to protect the area where you’re painting, and so much more.
Don’t let this deter you though, having a professional handle it can be an expense of about $750-2500 depending on the extent of the work and the size of the kitchen, and it generally takes about 3-6 days since letting the cabinets cure is also a very important step that’s not to be skipped. At the end of it all, you’ll get a product that looks custom, especially since you can also putty old hardware holes before painting and choose something completely different and modern to update your kitchen. The reason why I insist it’s a job for a professional is because it’s the most used room in the house and if you have to stare at it daily and begin to see chips, stains, drips or all of the above, you’ll certainly regret not getting it right the first time around.
Some of the colors we’ve been loving for painted cabinets this year are a little more on the bold side. Although the tuxedo look is still popular, the all-white kitchen is on its way out. Using one bold color on the bottom and either a shade of white for the uppers or open shelving really balances the space and doesn’t make the forest green or matte black feel overwhelming or too dark. One area where we especially love to get creative with colors on the “risky” side are small bathrooms and laundry rooms.
Here are some of our current favorite colors that we’ve used on past projects or intend to use on upcoming ones:
Benjamin Moore – Polo Blue
Sherwin Williams – Hunt Club
Valspar – Rocky Bluffs
Sherwin Williams – Sea Salt
Benjamin Moore – Dark Olive
Sherwin Williams – Caviar
Benjamin Moore – Simply White
Sherwin Williams – Alabaster
And some of our favorite hardware to go with some of the colors above:
Matte Black Hardware
Long Euro Bar Pulls in Matte Gold
Copper Pulls