Cabinet Upgrade: Kitchen Makeover

With the range hood finished, it was time to take on the next phase of this kitchen makeover – the cabinet upgrade!

p.s. I can only give you a little sneak peak because the appliances are a SURPRISE!

This is what my original cabinets looked like:

This is the inspiration for these cabinets:

Inset Cabinet Conversion

I had an idea and I won’t lie…I think it’s brilliant. Like I said, this isn’t our forever home so I’m not going all out on this makeover. Instead of getting completely new cabinets, I’m just swapping out the fronts since the cabinets themselves are in great condition. Okay BACK TO MY IDEA. I love inset cabinets where the door sits inside the frame rather than on top of it. My idea is to add framing that boxes in all the cabinet doors and then swap out the hinges for inset hinges. I’ve never seen anyone do this and I think it’s genius. Let’s do it! I grabbed a bunch of framing pieces and just secured them with my brad nailer. It totally worked!

Trim

Next, I installed the triple crown molding that I have all around my house. I love the character this gives the space. It was an instant upgrade!

Then, I added filled the holes, sanded, and caulked to give myself a bit of motivation. It helped me feel like we were getting somewhere!

Toe Kicks

I decided to add some cute toe kicks because why not?! I made a little frame to go behind them. Next I cut my boards down to the right width and height. After that I traced a circular sanding disc and used my jigsaw to cut it. Then, I attached the toe kicks to the frame. I literally love them.

Then, I sanded and I sanded and I sanded and I sanded. So much sanding.

Paint

FINALLY TIME FOR PAINT! I was literally so excited for this part. The paint is Creamy White by Benjamin Moore. I used the cabinet & trim enamel..which is very stinky but so durable. I decided to paint instead of spray because in the end, it would have been more work to tape everything and it would have been impossible to clean up everything.

When I say I am obsessed with this color…

I painted every visible surface in here in preparation for the new drawer and cabinet fronts. The kitchen already felt SO different just from the paint change.

Here are all my absolute favorite and essential paint tools:

New Cabinet Doors

I got my cabinet doors and drawer fronts from Nieu Cabinet Doors. If you don’t want to replace your cabinet boxes (like me), you can just replace the doors! I wanted a more modern look. They paint matched the color I painted the rest of the kitchen and painted the doors with a factory finish and they look BEAUTIFUL! All I had to do was install the hardware and then install the doors and fronts themselves.

I got this hardware from Rejuvenation and I’m obsessssseddddd. For the inset cabinet hinges, I used a frameless hinge with a half overlay. I made it work by adding blocking underneath each of the hinges. I glued the blocks in with wood glue and then screwed them into the cabinets. This is what made it possible for me to use these hinges.

And BOOM there you have it! My cabinet upgrade! ALMOST DONE WITH THIS DANG KITCHEN!!!

– Cass

All my tools & materials for my cabinet upgrade!

Everything I wore working on this project!