Painting kitchen cabinets?

[ms.yt]

We have put an offer on a house that needs quite a bit of work. If we get it, I would really like to have all new kitchen cabinets, but with everything else we have to do, it will probably have to wait. My MIL said that just painting them and adding new hardware along with a new countertop would make a big difference. After thinking about it awhile, I kind of see her point. I'm thinking about painting the cabinets black. There is white tile backsplash, which I'm fine with. Here is a picture of the cabinets. Try to ignore all the junk that is still in there from the current owner. What opinions do you good folks have about the color for the countertop and floor tiles? Also, what would be a good color for the rest of the kitchen? Thanks!

 

[golfgal]

Are the cabinets maple or birch? They look like birch, which takes stain very nicely. I don't know that I would paint those-not being able to tell from the photo, they look like they are in great shape. You would be surprised what a good cleaning and just new hardware will do for the kitchen. If you are going to do new countertops, adding a color to the countertops will set off the woodwork very nicely. We had birch in our old house and LOVED what various paint colors did for the wood. We had a sage green in our bedroom that just made the wood POP. Even just fresh paint and new hardware will spruce things up for now.

 

[KTSMOM]

We recently redeocrated our bathroom and I painted the cabinets black and added new hardware. It looks like a very different bathroom. We already had white marble countertop, and that looks great with the black. We painted our bathroom a lilac color, which might not work for a kitchen, but the lighter color definiately pops against the black. I think a light sage green might look nice or maybe a lighter blue. Good luck with your decision.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Whether you choose to paint them or stain them, you will need to take them apart and sand the surface well. If you paint them, be sure to use a good primer, and have the primer tinted to the color of the paint. The paint will have to be a semi-gloss so that it is scrubable, but that means that it will show every imperfection - so do a good job sanding.

I would probably stain them and go with some new hardware. Again - the better job you do sanding, the better the new stain job will look.

At any rate, they can be made to look great if you take your time. Good luck!

 

[NJFabFour]

Yes, we had the exact same cabinets in our kitchen when we moved in (must have been very popular as most of the homes in our area had them at one time until replaced). We hesitated as well with painting but had to do something . . . ours were badly stained from oil/grease and were a mess. We ultimately painted them a dark brown (keeping the wood-grain countertop) and replaced the back-splash with lighter stone tiles and decorative bronze tiles spaced intermittently. I think a dark color against the white would be great! Good luck (painting was a pain!)

 

[ORMom2Four]

Black or dark brown would be nice, especially against a light counter & backsplash. You might want to get an estimate from a professional painting company to see how much having them paint the cabinets would cost. If it's not done right it might look sorta "sloppy", kwim?

We were going to have our cabinets refaced, but the refacing companies want a TON of money! Instead, we are going to replace the doors with white shaker style doors (you can buy doors by themselves) and paint the face of the cabinets white. DIY refacing on a budget

 

[Disney Doll]

I know I am looking at a 2"x3" Internet picture, but those cabinets don't look that bad. Would you consider trying to clean them first and change the hardware? The reason I say that is because I am looking at the woodwork on the window there, and it matches the cabinets, or at least appears to.

The backsplash looks like white tile. The countertop appears white...is it tile? Formica?

Actually, what might make a big difference in that kitchen is a new floor. Something with a little zip & color. The one that is there now looks a bit "blah". Doesn't necessarily have to cost a fortune...consider it a "5 year floor" and purchase accordingly.

If you do paint, I'd probably do them black or a chocolate brown or maybe navy, green or cranberry....definitely a deeper, darker shade as opposed to a yellow or white...and I'd paint that window woodwork white (it would make it fade into the background since the backsplash is white too)and change the cabinet hardware. If that brownish colored dishwasher (I think it was called "copper" back in the day) is going to stay, you might want to do a brownish color that would "blend" that in a bit.

 

[ms.yt]

I know I am looking at a 2"x3" Internet picture, but those cabinets don't look that bad. Would you consider trying to clean them first and change the hardware? The reason I say that is because I am looking at the woodwork on the window there, and it matches the cabinets, or at least appears to.

The backsplash looks like white tile. The countertop appears white...is it tile? Formica?

Actually, what might make a big difference in that kitchen is a new floor. Something with a little zip & color. The one that is there now looks a bit "blah". Doesn't necessarily have to cost a fortune...consider it a "5 year floor" and purchase accordingly.

If you do paint, I'd probably do them black or a chocolate brown or maybe navy, green or cranberry....definitely a deeper, darker shade as opposed to a yellow or white...and I'd paint that window woodwork white (it would make it fade into the background since the backsplash is white too)and change the cabinet hardware. If that brownish colored dishwasher (I think it was called "copper" back in the day) is going to stay, you might want to do a brownish color that would "blend" that in a bit.

The cabinets are in relatively good shape, but I really don't like the wood. I don't know what kind it is, but it's really orangey looking. It's just a personal preference thing, but I just really, really dislike it. And, yes, all the trim is that color too, so painting will have to be done on all of it. I like the idea of painting the window trim white, though. It won't be a small job, that's for sure. My MIL says she's done it before, so she seems to be confident about how to go about it.

We plan on replacing the floor either with tile or a nice linoleum. I agree that it's very blah. I don't know what the countertop is. It's the same thing as my parents had when they built their house in 1971. It's white with some yellow flecks.

And no, we're not keeping that dishwasher. I feel like I need to see if there is a dishwasher museum to donate it to because I've never seen such a strange looking dishwasher. I'd love to know how old it is!

Thanks everybody for the opinions!

 

[Disney Doll]

The dishwasher is from the 70's. How, you might ask, do I know this??? Because my mother has that same color dishwasher in her house. Except, she was able to get some kind of panel for it in "almond" (off white) when the copper color went out of style, so it doesn't look so bad. The panel covers the front and sides of the door...I think hers actually had the panel somewhere contained within the dishwasher's door...you flipped something around or something, IIRC.

If the countertop is white with yellow flecks, you could do black cabinets and a black & white checkerboard floor, yellow walls, window treatments with some black, white & yellow in them. I just redid my bathroom and painted it yellow and have a bunch of bumblebee (black and yellow )stuff in there and it looks cute. The only thing I always worry about with black is that it doesn't get the whole room looking drab and dark. if you do black cabinets, you need good lighting and all the other stuff in the room (floor, walls, curtains, accessories) needs to be light and bright.

If you did cranberry cabinets, you could do a Tuscan sort of look with the ceramic plates on the walls, those really colorful roosters and so forth...for whatever reason, cranberry and yellow together always makes me think "Tuscan".

My neighbor has a blue & yellow kitchen...looks nice too and blue can be an "unexpected" kitchen color...think deep blue cabinets, yellow walls, floor with maybe some pattern of blue & yellow, blue & yellow curtains. My neighbor has blue walls, blue countertop, blue & yellow floral curtains...More "beachy" to me, but very pretty! You could do the cabinets blue and the walls a sand color and really run with the beachy theme. Or you could do the cabinets a sand color and the walls blue and run with the beachy theme.

Of course, deep green with yellow always works.

 

[Pigeon]

If they are in good shape, I'd also stain them. You could certainly stain them to look less orangey. I wouldn't find black attractive.

 

[disneyismyname]

I agree with some of the other posters on here. i would try staining them. My mother and father did that to my grandmothers 40 year old cabinets(they look just like yours in the picture) and added new hardware(black). Everyone thought she bought new cabinets! They are beautiful! They stripped them as well to get all the gunk that was on them...

 

[raysnkaysmom]

The cabinets are in relatively good shape, but I really don't like the wood. I don't know what kind it is, but it's really orangey looking. It's just a personal preference thing, but I just really, really dislike it. And, yes, all the trim is that color too, so painting will have to be done on all of it. I like the idea of painting the window trim white, though. It won't be a small job, that's for sure. My MIL says she's done it before, so she seems to be confident about how to go about it.

We plan on replacing the floor either with tile or a nice linoleum. I agree that it's very blah. I don't know what the countertop is. It's the same thing as my parents had when they built their house in 1971. It's white with some yellow flecks.

And no, we're not keeping that dishwasher. I feel like I need to see if there is a dishwasher museum to donate it to because I've never seen such a strange looking dishwasher. I'd love to know how old it is!

Thanks everybody for the opinions!

I was the same way, cabinets were fine, just not a fan of the color... we just painted ours black..
heres a picture that I put together.... sorry it's so dark

I really like how they turned out... if I can get a brighter picture, I'll post it.

 

[ms.yt]

This is kind of what I had in mind, but maybe with a countertop with more grey to blend better with the white tile backsplash:

I know the cabinets in the house we're looking at aren't as up to date looking as these, but it's the closest I can find to what I'm thinking of. These cabinets were painted, too, apparently.

As for the dishwasher, I have never seen one without any type of buttons on the front. It just has that weird handle thing. My parents built their house in 1972, and it still has the same (nonworking dishwasher). It looks pretty similar to a "modern" dishwasher except for the harvest gold color and the shape of the buttons. I don't doubt that this one was from the 70's as someone said, but man, is it weird looking! We thought it was a trash compactor at first.

 

[raysnkaysmom]

This is kind of what I had in mind, but maybe with a countertop with more grey to blend better with the white tile backsplash:

I know the cabinets in the house we're looking at aren't as up to date looking as these, but it's the closest I can find to what I'm thinking of. These cabinets were painted, too, apparently.

As for the dishwasher, I have never seen one without any type of buttons on the front. It just has that weird handle thing. My parents built their house in 1972, and it still has the same (nonworking dishwasher). It looks pretty similar to a "modern" dishwasher except for the harvest gold color and the shape of the buttons. I don't doubt that this one was from the 70's as someone said, but man, is it weird looking! We thought it was a trash compactor at first.

Yeah..I love those too! Mine turned out similar, but we kept the brushed bronze color to match our other things as opposed to silver/steel hardware.

 

[disneyhand]

This is kind of what I had in mind, but maybe with a countertop with more grey to blend better with the white tile backsplash:

I know the cabinets in the house we're looking at aren't as up to date looking as these, but it's the closest I can find to what I'm thinking of. These cabinets were painted, too, apparently.

As for the dishwasher, I have never seen one without any type of buttons on the front. It just has that weird handle thing. My parents built their house in 1972, and it still has the same (nonworking dishwasher). It looks pretty similar to a "modern" dishwasher except for the harvest gold color and the shape of the buttons. I don't doubt that this one was from the 70's as someone said, but man, is it weird looking! We thought it was a trash compactor at first.

My oak cabinets were painted an espresso brown and new hardware added. It totally transformed them. Don't have pictures to post yet. My doors had the panel look like the picture you posted.

I've seen HGTV shows where plain doors like yours have had molding or trim added simply and inexpensively to update the look. If you or your husband are handy, maybe you could do something like that?

My husband added trim to a huge bathroom mirror for me, it was a pretty easy job for him and it turned out really well. Details can make a huge impact.
Good luck!

 

[C.Ann]

This is kind of what I had in mind, but maybe with a countertop with more grey to blend better with the white tile backsplash:

I know the cabinets in the house we're looking at aren't as up to date looking as these, but it's the closest I can find to what I'm thinking of. These cabinets were painted, too, apparently.

Personally, I could not deal with the black because of my eyes (I always feel like I'm in the dark), but I do have to say that the above kitchen is gorgeous!! I like those colors together - as well as that counter top..

 

[raysnkaysmom]

Here are some pics of our cabinets that hopefully isn't so dark....

and... what the color was before is this.

I really like it better in person, but thats just me

 

[raysnkaysmom]

This is kind of what I had in mind, but maybe with a countertop with more grey to blend better with the white tile backsplash:

I think that is so pretty... here are some more that kind of inspired me to paint. I really like the design on the inside of those cabinets too...I may look into tiling something on them as well...

 

[ms.yt]

Here are some pics of our cabinets that hopefully isn't so dark....

and... what the color was before is this.

I really like it better in person, but thats just me

Thanks for posting this. I couldn't tell much from your first pic, but this looks great! You painted, not stained, right? Did you have to sand & prime them first?

 

[raysnkaysmom]

Thanks for posting this. I couldn't tell much from your first pic, but this looks great! You painted, not stained, right? Did you have to sand & prime them first?

Yes, we painted... and I was in too much of a hurry to see the outcome that I talked DBF out of sanding OR priming I'm very impatient. But, the color was Olympic Black Magic, flat enamel. I was told you HAVE to have flat paint...