Before we actually moved ourselves and our children into “the pretty house” in June, we had a top priority: update the kitchen. The overall layout of the kitchen was beautiful. I liked that it was open to the rest of the living space but still somewhat closed off so my children couldn’t run through it screaming while I was trying to cook dinner (yeah, that happened most days at the old house).
But this gel stain? We weren’t so much a fan.
Gel stain can be a pretty way to upgrade cabinets and give them a darker, cleaner look but it really wasn’t well done in this case. You could clearly see the brush strokes on the wood and it just wasn’t a look we like. We knew we’d want to update this as soon as possible and decided the time to do it was before we moved in and would have to deal with a non-functioning kitchen for a while.
At this stage of homeownership we know our limits when it comes to DIY projects so we decided to source this one out to Jordan’s brother, Markus. He owns his own contracting company and does custom woodworking on the side so we had him build custom Shaker doors to put on the original cabinet frames. He and his guys came in and painted all the cabinets white and oh my goodness…we LOVE how it turned out.
When choosing the colors, we had an interior design friend come over and do a little color consult to help come up with the plan. She helped us choose the color for the cabinets (Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace) and was the one who suggested we have custom doors built instead of just painting the original curvy (and dated) cabinet doors. Having the clean lines of the Shaker doors makes the whole space feel so much more modern and bright.
Also as a side-note…I really do love decorating but I can’t say enough what a huge help it was to have a friend who does it for a living come help out when we were making big picture decisions. If you live in the area or want to do an online consultation, I can’t recommend my friend Laurie of Laurie Champ Design enough!
We also decided to upgrade all the hardware to a flat black country look. These knobs and pulls are from D. Lawless Hardware, which has been my go-to source for hardware for most of our DIY projects like this hutch or our hallway at the old house.
I love how the black pops against the white cabinets and it all goes so well with our countertops and the overall style of the main level. If you’re wondering about sources, these are the knobs we chose and these are the cup pulls! I like the overall feel of them when opening and closing drawers and cabinets as well.
Another change we made was getting a new pantry door. We chose one with a little farmhouse feel from Home Depot and had my brother in law paint it Behr Dark Granite. It looks so much better and is the perfect contrast to the light cabinets!
One final finishing touch that might not be noticeable in pictures was upgrading to concealed hinges. I’ll be honest, I had no idea about the different kinds of hinges that existed until we went to do this project and I’m so glad we did a little research and went with these.
As their name suggests, you can’t see concealed hinges from the outside and I think they make a big difference in how clean the overall feel of the cabinets is. I’m so glad we went this route and got these ones from D. Lawless Hardware!
I mean, look at the difference of this before and after, y’all. So crazy!
It’s crazy for me to look at the pictures of the dark, gel stained cabinets because even after living in this bright, white kitchen for a month I already can’t imagine it being anything but white. Keeping them clean hasn’t been as bad as I expected and it makes me so happy to sit on our couch in the living room and peek over at the prettiness of our new updated kitchen!
Now I can move on to the fun little updates I can actually handle like choosing a light fixture for above the kitchen table, styling the top of that hutch, and hang up a few little fun art and photo pieces to personalize the kitchen a bit.
Let the never-ending house projects begin!
