Painting oak kitchen cabinets

Welcome to Phase 2 of OneandSeventy’s Kitchen Makeover.

Hold up. What do you mean Phase 2? What happened to Phase 1?

It was waiting for Phase 2!

Boom!

In all seriousness, as kitchens go, ours is a fairly large, extended space and when you’re the doing the work solo, sometimes this DIY business takes for EVER.

And frankly, I was too bleeding knackered to write about it once I’d finished.

And then I got distracted by other shiny things.

As you do.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the sneaky peek in my summer styling post and I have to be honest, I still get a big kick out of knowing I painted our kitchen cabinets. I can’t quite believe I transformed the heart of our home from a sea of dated orange oak to a modern and sophisticated kitchen.

Complete with bling.

Oh yes.

This makeover was a game of two halves that took a total of 6 days. (Excluding all the faffing since. Well of course!)

Phase 1 was to give the walls, ceilings and woodwork a fresh coat of bright white paint and of course, being a kitchen, everything needed sugar soaping to within an inch.

First, I tackled the “North side” extension, so called because of its north-facing window

Then I moved everything not nailed down to start on the other side, which looks out onto the South-facing back garden.

It might not seem like it in these before photos, but the walls were a rather tired and grubby-looking magnolia. I chose white, because a) I love it, but also because I thought it would brighten the whole room, especially the North side. I also love how white gives me a clean back-drop with which to accessorise.

After chatting with a very helpful guy in B&Q, I decided on Dulux Brilliant White emulsion for the walls and ceiling but I have to be honest. Having lived with it a while, I’m not happy.

I would have been much better off using a kitchen and bathroom paint, because the matt emulsion just doesn’t clean up very well.

Not great when you have a clumsy bird in the house.

I fear there’s going to be another coat on those walls in the not too distant future.

*sigh*

In Phase 2, I went to work on the cabinets. Again, this is a job that needed to be broken down into two halves – the upper cabinets and the lower, which will come in Phase 3.

We have a LOT of cabinets!

The kitchen is a big selling point for any home and OneandSeventy was no exception. I love the space and the aspect, while Beloved fell in love with the bespoke oak cabinets. However, little did we know that the previous owners had done a really bad job of oiling the worktops, leaving us with a sticky mess.

That’s Phase 4.

Or that the base units had been installed ON TOP of laminate flooring

Phase 5.

To be honest, I was never a fan of the orange oak and couldn’t wait to paint it. After doing lots (and lots!) of research, I decided on the primer and top coat method.

Three coats of Zinsser B-I-N (which isn’t nearly as pongy as I imagined) and two coats of Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell later and the room looks entirely different.

I even don’t mind the bottom cabinets as they are. At least for a while.

Oh yeah and that kitchen table will also be getting the Suzy Homemaker treatment at some point.

For the top cabinets, I used Farrow & Ball’s All White (No. 2005), but I’m still umming and aarrrring about the base units.

I’ll definitely be using F&B again; the Estate Eggshell is a dream to work with. It’s also beautifully soft and silky to the touch, whilst being really hard wearing. But I keep changing my mind about the colour.

It’s a toss up between Downpipe…

Source

And Railings…

Source

Beloved and I are leaning towards the almost black of Railings. It’s so dramatic, but what do you think?

It’s worth noting our worktops are not going to be white!

Not unless we win the lottery, so we can afford to change them all.

And hire a cleaning fairy.

While we decide, I am LOVING the transformation. The space is clean, fresh and bright and it’s a joy to spend time in our kitchen.

I’m taking a break before I move onto Phase 3. Summer is most definitely NOT the time to be painting kitchen cabinets!

I’ll be back soon with some homemade kitchen accessories, including the farmhouse sign above the door and that skull light near the range.

In the meantime, why not drop by my Facebook Page? I share lots of crafts and interior styling from around the Interweb, as well as loads of happenings from my world that don’t make it to the blog.

I hope to see you there.

A hui hou,