Kitchen Makeover

[knittykat]

Does anyone have any ideas for a relatively inexpensive DIY makeover for a blah kitchen?

I have medium oak cabinets with brushed nickel knobs. Gray faux granite countertop, black appliances, cream walls, copper jello molds on the wall.

The "bones" of the kitchen are fine--I have enough storage, enough counter space (if I'd clean it off once in a while), enough outlets.

The cabinets wouldn't be my *first* choice but they're not bad, and I'm not interested in investing enough money or time to redo them. The knobs are new--I put those on.

I have fluorescent lighting bars under the cabinets, and an extremely neutral ceiling fan light fixture in the ceiling. There's *enough* light but it's not really great light--it's practical but not terribly attractive.

I just painted one wall in my living room screaming citron green, and I LOVE it. I still have 7/8 of a can left so if it wouldn't be a mistake, I'd be game for painting some or all of the kitchen with that.

I want a kitchen that makes people go "WOW!" Right now I have a kitchen that makes people go ::snoooooze::
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"Fun is where you find it" - jackierocket

[Snow Ghost Seven]

i painted our kitchen cabinets last year and while it was a huge *bitch,* totally worth it.
(if we're friends on fb, you can see it under my photos.)
xo
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"I believe in safe spaces and everything, but eventually you got to let everybody who is cool into the party." John Cameron Mitchell

[Chiquita]

Do the doors to the kitchen cabinets have an inset panels that can be removed? If so you could: take out the panel and replace with glass if you have cute things on the shelves inside; replace the panels with cheapo wood that is painted/covered in a great paper, replace with colored or textured glass so you don't have to see inside.

One of my neighbors removed the doors to the cabinets completely and painted the interior of the cabinets a great color. that does require tidy cabinets so you have to keep on top of things.

I'd leave the under cabinet lighting. Switch out the ceiling fixture/fan to something you love. That is really inexpensive and a dyi project.

Without a photo to help I'd have to say that cream walls with black appliances doesn't have a huge wow factor. That's without seeing it though so I may be waaay off base there.

[knittykat]

[casiep]

Maybe paint the backsplash wall area between the upper cabinets and the counter or install some interesting tile. If you get the smaller tile it comes in sheets and is really easy to install. You could probably find a pattern with a little of the green you like in it to compliment your living room.

It's not as hard to do as it looks and it can look pretty awesome:

http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-create-a-colorful-glass-tile-backsplash/index.html

http://www.hakatai.com/

Also, maybe you could replace your ceiling fan light fixture with a more updated fixture in the brushed nickel to match your knobs. Maybe a track-lighting fixture?

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10051&N=+502740+4294871160+90401&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&cm_sp=dept-_-d27-_-track-_-finder-_-fixed_brushed_nickel

casiep - who watches way too many homep improvement shows
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[knittykat]

sweeeeet casiep, I will have to inform my husband this weekend we will be tiling LOL :-)
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"Fun is where you find it" - jackierocket

[chairs]

knittykat, can we see some pics? I might be able to get a better idea that way.

FWIW, we just repainted half our house including all the kitchen cabinets and trim. It made a HUGE difference. And yes, it was a total pain in the butt. I think the oak cabinets like you're describing can date a home sometimes, have you thought about painting them for a more modern feel?

Painting can dramatically change the feel of your kitchen. See these before & afters. Under cabinet lighting can really help as well.
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[killr]

Those before and after shots are great but I had to scoff when the caption says "in only a couple hours.." Really? remove all hardware, sand, prime, paint, reassemble.... Im a big fan of straight up wood but my kitchen is like a white oak massacre (ugly fake wood grain counters dont help). Whats a reasonable estimate for time for 2 people with average or below average DIY skills?

[chairs]

Yeah let's talk about time. If your cabinets are already painted, you are lucky. Especially if they are flat, not super glossy. I didn't sand at all. I used the Behr Ultra paint with paint & primer in one. That stuff is AWESOME and I highly recommend it. Two coats and I was done. I even covered the black trim with a really light aqua color in only 3 coats.

You'll be able to use a foam roller for some of the surfaces but a lot will have to be painted with a brush so it is time consuming. I did the cabinets all myself, I would estimate a solid day of work (6-8 hours). I work pretty quickly.

If you have to sand, it will take longer. Get that Behr paint and skip the priming. It really works great.
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[madgeylou]

i just painted the kitchen in my boyfriend's house. i had to scrub the ceiling and walls and cabinets first -- that took a while, but i used this very cool non-toxic biodegradable concentrated cleaner and it went more quickly than i thought it would. then priming and 2 coats of paint. we did the ceiling white, the walls cream, and the cabinets turquoise.

the whole thing took me about a work week. the cabinet were probably a day/a day and a half of that. i did have to prime, and i also had to scrub the hell out of the hardware cause it was pretty grimy. so your timeline will probably be a little shorter than mine was.

it really made a huge difference though. painted cabinets make me happy -- they're so much more cheerful than plain wood, and you can change them from time to time. just make sure you use semi-gloss or gloss paint so that it's scrubbable and feels nice on your hands (eggshell or flat feels terrible!).
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[knittykat]

Well, I woke up this morning on a *mission* and was at the Home Depot with Maggie by 9 a.m. I found they had LOTS of different glass tile. I took a sheet of each over to the kitchen section and found a kitchen that had similar coloring to mine. I held each one up for Maggie's opinion and she kept picking the same one; a cobalt blue glass with copper streaks. It seemed too dark to me, but she kept picking it over and over, and call me odd but when she picks something like that over and over she knows what she's doing.

She was so right!

I found a salesperson who was a tile installer and he helped me get all the stuff I needed. I went home and started right away. I had 17 linear feet of backsplash and it took me probably 2-3 hours of work, but it was delayed because Mr. Knitty and my dad wanted to do some work on the outlets. Oh, and I touched the WRONG THING and sparks flew so then they needed to fix that LOL.

It looks AWESOME. I'm so thrilled. It's like having a new kitchen. LOVE. I went to Ikea tonight and got fabric for the curtains and just now taped out my abstract design on the one wall that will be painted screaming citron green tomorrow. The cabinets don't even look so dated at all anymore; it looks like a very contemporary kitchen.

Now I can't write that and then not show PICTURES, right?

(casiep if you're ever in Chicago I owe you lunch).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7883408@N04/?saved=1
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"Fun is where you find it" - jackierocket

[midnightsky1686]

The tile looks great! I always think that blue or bright red really makes the oak cabinets look more modern!
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[pitseleh]

the copper totally works with your jello molds, too... for some reason, i was totally focused on your jello molds while reading your first post.

looks great!
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[skybluepink]

What a difference! I love it! My kitchen has cobalt blue subway tile with black countertops and light wood cabinets, so I can relate to the color scheme. :) I think I see a table in the room. Would you consider a cobalt blue glass pendant light above? We have three along our counter and the way they pick up on the tile color looks great. Ours are similar to these: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xr5/R-100323276/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053, but above a table maybe: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/Cobalt-Blue-Glass-Mono-point-Trio-Pendant-Chandelier__H9469.html ?
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[knittykat]

I would love a cobalt blue pendant light above the table, but there is a fixture in the dead center of the room and it wouldn't work to have another fixture. We had a regular (more modern) fixture up there but something was wrong with it and the flickering drove me nuts. I missed the ceiling fan anyway so I just put that up this summer.

It's a short measure but I'm going to use glass paint to paint the "bells" on the fan and give it a little pizazz.

I actually decided I was tired of the copper molds--I'm going to put one back up and leave the rest down. Time for a change!
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"Fun is where you find it" - jackierocket