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This is our kitchen. It's not that big. It severely lacks storage space. But it's open. It has windows and a great door wall. It is also outdated. The wood is light and the knobs are gold. I can't stand that. But most of all I can't stand how the wood of the cabinets is different than our wood floor. Is that weird? Oh, and don't even get me started on the ancient appliances. They came with house and have lasted us two years and will probably still remain for another few years. I guess the ice machine not working and the oven taking too long to preheat aren't reasons enough to buy new?
I have been wanting to pain the wood cabinets to lighten, brighten and modernize our kitchen. I have seen it done on countless blogs and HGTV shows to know it would look incredible. I also know it will be a lot of work. It will require quite a bit of time and effort. And I'm also really indecisive on what color to paint the kitchen. White? Light grey? Black?
Then a co-worker recommended staining the cabinets and I kinda love that idea if I can stain a really dark color. I think it would be less work? And still maintain the wood instead of completely ruining it.
This is where I need your help! What would you do? Stain the wood a darker color? Paint? If painting, what color do you think would look good?
Thanks friends! I value your opinion and appreciate the help!
12 comments:
Your kitchen looks and sounds JUST like mine! I have decided to just be content with it for now until the refrigerator actually isn't working anymore. I have heard the stainless steal appliances are a pain to keep clean. Yes, painting the cabinets is a huge chore. I think I will save up and someday have someone else paint mine. However, I think your kitchen is beautiful!!! I sure am thankful for mine. I LOVE my wood floors!
If you do plan to paint or stain your kitchen cabinets, I would really recommend getting a few bids on it to see what it would cost someone to do it for you. The thing about painting cabinets is that it's not like painting your walls where you do it in a day or two. Any blemishes are on display, you need to remove the cabinets off the walls, and overall it's a big pain to do yourself. And I would never ever recommend staining your cabinets if you're not very comfortable working with stain. That is an even bigger process because you have to prime the cabinets, apply the stain, sand them, apply another coat of stain and then do coats of poly over the top. I think some projects are great for DIY but there's some that are honestly better left to professionals! (I say this from experience, we recently moved into a house and my husband - who does this for a living - redid our kitchen and it was a crazy amount of work and there's some stuff that even he's not happy with. But once it's done it's done and fixing it is SO much work). Also, we bought new appliances at a scratch and dent place - they're all Maytag stainless steel and we got them for a steal. I'm sure they have some in your area! Good luck!
Really tough call. What kind of budget do you? Painting the cabinets by yourself will be really hard and time consuming, you'll need to take off all the doors, sand them, prime them, paint them, do the same to the boxes as well... My parents had their cabinets professionally refinished and it wasn't that bad price wise. With your existing appliances, it will be hard to find a color to work well. If you go dark stain, it will just make the old appliances 'pop' and stick out more. If you go white, they are likely to clash.
When we redid our kitchen I really really wanted white cabinets but everyone talked me out of it and I'm glad they did as they would show every scratch, piece of dirt, etc. Basically would require more maintenance than a dark stain.
As for appliances, people do say stainless steel are harder to keep clean but it's really not that hard... you just wipe them down, no big deal.
Whatever you choose just make sure it's something that works for you and your lifestyle!
Ditto on hiring out painting the cabinets.
Definitely go with white cabinets. (I strongly disagree with white being harder to clean, etc. I put painted white cabinets in my first house and am doing them again in my next house. They're classic!)
Updated appliances would also help. Stainless is a good default these days.
They would look great painted white but would be a ton of work. So if you're wanting a quicker fix I'd stain them dark! Both options would look great. Also, we had the same problem for storage and found an awesome smaller island that has a couple shelves a drawer and wine rack. More prep area for meals too:) got it off of Craigslist! I'm trying to decide if I should paint or stain it. Haha
I am having the exact same quandary. I'm leaning toward staining, but i have TONS of cabinets in my kitchen and so i know it will take FOREVER. I am still thinking about doing it this summer.
~Kathryn
I repainted my cabinets this summer with the rustoleum cabinet paint. I went from a lightish brown to a darker brown and just LOVE it. It took me three days by myself, while looking after two kids. Really easy! I also used their countertop kit and love it!
I think I would like white cabinets and grey :). I also LOVE a cherry wood color--so rich :). We just bought a condo (closing next week) and you have SO MUCH MORE SPACE in your kitch than we will!!! But our appliances are newer?? I am a wee bit excited for my ceramic top oven :). At 29 I didn't ever think I would be excited @ that :)
Painting wood is almost sacrilegious to me and my family...lol. Staining would be better. Just take the doors off, sand them, stain them, and put back on. Then you will have a nice contrast. It is easy to do. Why pay someone when you can do it yourself. Take that money you would spend and help someone else who needs something.
As far as the appliances, get a repair man to fix them. The new energy star appliances are actually junk. Our repair man told us that. He said to keep the old ones as long as you can. He said the way they run the voltage (not good at the electrical lingo) for the new appliances causes them to burn out long before old ones. And they don't save you that much money. Plus the older fridges actually hold more. I have an over 20 year old top bottom one and it has more cubic feet than any new one does! I just had it fixed when it had an issue. It is really a waste of resources and money to buy new appliances just for appearance sakes. You could feed a lot of starving kids for the cost of a new appliance. Or you could help someone needy pay off a medical bill or some other kind of pay it forward. We really have so much compared to others. We are rich compared to most of the world and should do more to share.
I think white would really open up the space a lot. Also, I had to laugh at limited storage space. This is about double what we had in our first house. Can't wait to see what you decide.
I've heard dark colors close in a space, so the white/off-white would be great. Be sure and read some expert blogs b/c my friend Liz did hers and they chipped and stained in months and looked terrible. So you don't want to do all that work for nothing! I do like the look of your kitchen now though, classic, but maybe painting would update it since you have painted a lot of your other trim already. Good luck!
We are going through a kitchen right now, so I know exactly what you mean.
At first we were going to replace the cabinets- but that was too expensive. Then we tried refacing- again, too expensive. We are going the DIY route and use Rustoleums Cabinet Transformations kit. I've done a bit of research on it, and it seems to be a good product. I also looked their before and after pics online.
I would love to go white, but b/c our cabinets are a cherry color, I'm too nervous- especially since it will be DIY.
In addition to trying the kit, we are also changing out the lights and replacing the handles, which I think will make a huge difference.
Good luck!
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