diy kitchen results

The kitchen is done for now and we're really pleased with the lighter, cleaner, and more colorful outcome. It is definitely better than the brown on brown look of 1981 that we dubbed "burnt toast". After much deliberation we decided to go for a quick and inexpensive back splash update and actually painted our horrible brown flowered tile a retro teal color, that I absoltely love. I had my doubts this process would work, but the results are fantastic for just $15 and a few hours of work. The finish is shiny and solid; you cannot damage it by scratching or cleaning it.

What we did:

Cabinetry: Removed cabinet doors and drawers, removed hardware, removed cup hooks (the old owners loved them and used up to 9 per cabinet door--what an eyesore and a pain to remove--thanks Josh!), filled holes with wood putty, cleaned and sanded everything, 2 coats of kilz primer, and 2+ coats of "snowstorm" white latex paint, attached new hardware and hinges (from home depot).

resource: this old house article

Back splash: Deep cleaned, removed light switch plates, sanded tile surface and then wiped it clean, 3 coats of kilz primer, 2 coats of "tropical breeze" oil paint, 1 coat of oil based polyureathane for shine.

resource: diy article

All in all this took 2 full weekends to complete; twice as long as I expected, but all in all not too tedious or difficult.