Do-it-yourself home renovation

I want to update the look of my kitchen cabinets without tearing them down and installing new ones. Any suggestions? Sierra is trying to help me too. The cabinets are white and made of plastic (I think?) like the cheap ones at Home Depot. Hubby and I were thinking of getting a spray paint to change the color and also change the handles (right now they're wood but we're thinking metal). If our kitchen walls are mustard yellow, what color cabinets would look good, y'think?

MUSTARD?? :eek: How about changing the color of the kitchen. LOL. JUST KIDDING. I have a thing against mustard walls... *shudder* Nothin' will look good with them.. BWAHAHAHA...

Plastic cabinets? Meh. Why bother?

In my old house, we had these hideous ancient wood cabinets that looked like poop. I took all the hardware off, pulled the doors off and sanded them slightly (to rough up the surface for good adhesion), took 'em outside and primered them with a spray primer then painted them with a kinda speckly, slightly textured paint. Inside, I sanded the cabinet bases, primered them (not spray LOL) and painted them a gloss antique white. Then when I brought the doors/drawers back in, I did the raised part in the same antique white, put all the hardware back on and bought new handles (iron, spirals)... it looked like a brand spankin' new kitchen. And I did that all by my lil ole self.

BUT, when I moved into this house, the kitchen was absolutely abominable. Here's a before and after pic:



We just tore all the old cabinets out and put them in the laundry room (there were no uppers as you can see) and my brother helped us install the new ones. It was no where near as hard as I thought it would be. You get the new cabinets (you can order directly from Merlat or some other manufacturer for cheaper than home depot and they are nicer... my HUGE kitchen was a total of $3,000!), grab a level and some shims and just drill the suckers into the studs. NOT very hard. The hardest part was dealing with the electrical in the island and the plumbing for the sink. I did the counters myself... (ceramic tile) and that was pretty cool.

But plastic cabinets? Oh god, no. Throw that crap out. LOL.

~phos

phos... amazing! gal of all trades!

Thanks, christina! The hardest part is all the finishing work... I still haven't laid the quarter round... the room is 25 x 25, so its a LOT of quarter round. LOL The drawer that was broken in the picture is fixed and in place now, and we have new lighting... but that was a very fun project. We did the floor for the whole room, too. (Anyone plannin' to do a floating or hardwood floor should check out lumberliquidators.com, cuz they have GREAT deals!)

~phos

WOW!!!!!!!!!

Ok two questions:

1) How do you get photos into the message like that?

2) How long did it take you to do this kitchen? It looks INCREDIBLE!!!!! I love the countertops!

Maybe mustard is the wrong word. We want to paint the kitchen a warm sunny yellow (not pastel yellow)--kind of like the color of the smilies on this site.

I had no idea how cheap it can be to redo the entire kitchen. $3k is not bad at all! However, we have to put in new windows, get someone to paint the house (Hubby hates painting and I just don't have the time while in school), buy new appliances, etc. so money is a little tight. We don't even have money for furniture so half our house will be empty!

That's why I got this spray paint idea. If we have to live with these white laminate cabinets for a year or two while we save up a few grand, then at least we can try to make it look as cool as possible.

So NO color looks good with yellow? That's my favorite color! :(

Yellow is a wonderful color. Mustard is downright nasty looking... on walls, that is. It looks so muted and dull and DIRTY, especially in kitchens. My kitchen/great room, when I bought the house, was half that blase tan with horrible wallpaper and the other half nasty, dirty mustard. YUCKNESS. Make sure the yellow is BRIGHT. Then many colors go well with it, particularly dark forest green...

As for inserting pictures, go to villagephotos.com or photobucket.com and create a free membership to upload your pictures to a URL address (they host your pics there) and then copy the web address they give you and come here. You can either hit the "IMG" up under the subject line in your message and insert the web address there, or you can simply type [ img ] without the spaces, then paste the web address, then end with [ /img ] without the spaces again.

It took a couple months with us both working full time to complete/complete the kitchen, but we only lived without cabinets/sink for about a couple days. On a Friday after the cabinet company delivered the cabinets, we ripped the old cabinets and flooring out. Saturday, we installed the new ones. Sunday, we put in the sink/electrical, dishwasher (which we didn't have before) and laid the plywood countertop base (we knew we were doing ceramic tile). Monday, we went back to work. The next couple weekends we laid floor. Then another weekend I removed wallpaper, and painted. It took me about a month before I was ready to do the tile counter, so we were just pretty careful about not spilling on the unfinished plywood. When we were ready, we laid the Wonderboard over the tile (its a concrete underlayer used in bathrooms and for ceramic tile) and then I spent and entire day... 12 hours, to be frank, cutting and laying tile with grout. That had to sit overnight before we could do the finish grout and I was SO tired I gave up floating the grout about 1/3 of the way through and Litical took over, feeling my frustration.

He hates to paint, too, so I do 90% of the painting and enjoy it doing it, to be honest. I think its fun. LOL. Just learn that blue painters tape is your BEST friend. If you tape the room right, you have much less touch-up work to do. I've learned to never think any painting job, even a small room, will take you less than 3 days. Of course, I work full-time, have 2 kids and commute 3 hours a day... so, it CAN be done without paying out big $$$ to some painting crew. And NOTHING works better than the good ole cheap roller and disposable tray liners with latex paint. The paint sticks, sprayers and wagner power rollers are a HUGE waste of time and money. I'm on a septic system and I don't want to be flushing paint into the system, so a roller and disposable tray liner are cleaned up in about 5 minutes flat. Toss the roller, toss the tray liner, rinse out the brush. DONE. Of course, if you're going to paint more tomorrow, just wrap the roller and tray up in a garbage bag, airtight, and then there's no SET UP the next day either.

Good luck on your project and planning... and if ya want any information, hit me up anytime.
~phos

I am a big fan of underpainting and effects...as long as its not popcorn ceiling or anything of the likes. I am also a recent convert to dry brushing and linen texture!

Yo Fos! LOVE the kitchen! The sink island is MIGHTY! Did you move the plumbing or was there pipes running under there you just had to bring up. That is FREAKIN' AWESOME!

The counter top tiling looks excellent. I'm working a little on a kitchen, but my fiance has a buddy whos a contractor who owes him a favor, so he's doing the base cabinets and the cabinets...and replacing the 1/2" rusty shipwreck piping with 5/8" but that's not really a big deal. He's also going to figure out my tin ceiling. I was going to tile the countertop with ceramic, but due to the tin ceiling and new pipes price overrun (you would not BELIEVE how much a tin ceiling costs!I hope you are sitting down...10 and change/square foot. But it looks freakin' fabulous!!!!!!) I went with the formica. The base cabinets and hanging cabinets should finally be in this week. They are pine, but I'll try not to abuse 'em. Got a good deal on them, and a good deal on a restauraunt floor tile.

The only thing that sucks is between bathrooms, kitchen, bedroom, living room (and this year we'll do the upstairs) when its all said and done, we'll drop about 40 grand on a house that, IF he sells, he's giving the money to the kids, and if he doesn't sell its going into a living trust for the kids. How nice to spend SO much money, time and effort on people that absolutely hate the fact that use oxygen on this planet. God forbid his kids childhood home falls into disrepair, they might cry. They're all going up there to visit next weekend so i had to take all our pictures down again. Someone remind me why I am marrying this man?

Because you love him, hon! ;)

I'm totally with you on the underpainting. I have done some awesome faux finishes I'm really happy with. I don't care much for sponge painting, though. Blech. Dunno why, just over-used.

I did my front room (too small to be a formal living room, so I made it a library ~ but the kids turned it into a WRECK with a lot of books ~ LOL) with a very yellow base coat, then rubbed on the second coat of a rust orange in a translucent glaze with cheese cloth. Has an old style appeal, but made the room look like the inside of a Mango. YUM. Did all the trim in white and since the old 1800s wood flooring under the carpet I pulled out was ugly, but not rotten, I just painted it for now with a dark red floor paint. Looks pretty good... It's the "Mango Library."

I got paid to do something similar for one of my bosses client's as a side job, and that turned out REAL nice, too. Did several really cool paint jobs in my old house, but we really have to do a LOT with the Crooked Chimney before it shapes up, to be honest. A LOT. The laundry list of HELL from owning a house that was built in two different eras... half in the 1800s, half in the 1970s and not very well upkept? EGADS.

As for the island, there was a sink there before, so we only redid some of the plumbing and wired in the dishwasher which wasn't there before. It's about 2 feet longer than the old island. I'm still not 100% done with all the finish work in that room, but right now we have bigger fish to fry, like a partially started bathroom reno and backroom.

Got this giant 15 x 20 back room, which we intend to wall off and make 2 rooms, cuz it will offically make the house a 5 bedroom. And then E can just move in... which will work out best for everybody.

~phos

I've got home reno's too. Actually more than reno's. I'm living in a tiny trailer, while I build a cabin (which will also be tiny :rolleyes: ). It sucks but I'm trying to be patient and remind myself that I'm making sacrifices now that will pay off later (ie. saving money!).

The cabin has a roof and walls now, chimney installed, but sadly no windows or doors in yet and no insulation (darn chilly!!). I'm thinking I'll get the place finally finished sometime this summer...right about the time that it gets warm enough to not care whether it's finished.