When we moved into our house, we were fortunate in that the owners had recently upgraded the granite in the kitchen but it still had the original oak whitewashed cabinets.  About 3 years later, we had a major slab leak that pretty much destroyed the lower half of our kitchen.  On the bright side, we got updated cabinets but on the negative side, we had to cover the costs to have the higher cabinets match, something we weren’t planning on.  Needless to say, we updated the kitchen about 10 years ago but not by choice.

Fast forward to 2018 when we discovered yet another leak behind our refrigerator that had gone through the walls and destroyed half of our kitchen.  This time, we debated putting it all back together as it was or really taking the opportunity to update it again.  The previous colors were out of date and dark.  I could never get enough light in my kitchen!

After getting estimates for custom cabinets, we decided against that since it would pretty much cost the same as our son’s college.  Not quite, but close:)  We also looked at pre-fabricated options but didn’t feel those were going to be right and still cost a ton of money.  I had seen other people’s cabinets who had them painted and I loved the look.  My husband was skeptical but after getting a referral from a friend to a great painter and looking at the cost difference, we went for it.

Because we decided to paint, we had to add hardware so that the paint didn’t become worn from touch.  Initially, I took my mom and sister to Restoration Hardware and ordered a set of knobs and handles that we liked.  The beautiful part is that with my mom’s connections as an interior designer, we found knobs at half the price through Top Knob, so the original set went back.

When it came to the countertops, we looked at multiple options but in the end, just felt like we didn’t have the money to invest just yet.  With that said, the old backsplash absolutely had to go if the countertops were staying.  Once again with my mom’s help, we picked out a beautiful glass subway tile that would go with my current kitchen but would also work when we replace the countertops at some point.

In the end, we still came out of pocket more than anticipated since the project was unplanned, however, we got a beautiful updated kitchen at a fraction of what a new custom one would have been.

For anyone wanting details, the paint color is Whisper from Sherwin Williams, Tile is Dunes Pearl Flat in size 3×12 from Arizona Tile here locally.  Hardware all came from Top Knob.

Thanks, as always, for all of the love and support!