My first house I bought turned into my rental house once my now-husband and I bought and moved into our house together, thus fulfilling a life goal of becoming a landlord (to each their own, right?). In the five years I lived in my house, I renovated and updated aspects of the house as time went on. The house was move-in-ready, yet dated, when I purchased it. I updated light fixtures, changed out faucets and doorknobs, and installed privacy doors. Additionally, I updated the kitchen to bring it forward to the current decade. This house was built in 1981 and the kitchen was original.
It's not that it wasn't functional, but I wanted to increase the value of the home and given the kitchen just needed a bit of TLC to brighten it up, I knew I could do it myself.
TLDR: Label everything, tape it off, put the prep work in, paint multiple coats with the last one being the front, paint hardware to save some money, changing out a sink faucet will make a world of difference :)
Here is what it looked like before the renovation. I did not think to take photos without all the stuff on the counters, so please forgive the mess :)
Basic cabinets and laminate faux wood countertops.
Basic shallow stainless sink and a low faucet.
The first step was to remove all the cabinet doors and pull out (and empty) the drawers. As I removed the doors, I labeled them by writing on painters' tape to ensure I would reinstall them in the right location. I used a numbering system for the upper cabinets and an alphabetical system for the lowers. At the same time, I removed the hardware (hinges) and put them into cups marked with their location.
My labeling system.
I set up my garage as my cabinet painting area. I laid down plastic sheeting, and set up as much area as needed for laying out all the cabinet doors. I used sawhorses with 1x2's covered in painters' tape to extend my work surface as well as a few tables I had lying around.
This is where the magic happened.
Technically, my next step was ripping up the countertops because I was replacing those with granite and before I installed the granite counters, I had to build up and level the cabinets (old house and they weren't installed level). Doing so was easier prior to painting. If you're only working on transforming your cabinets, you simply will need to cover and tape off the counters to protect them.
Next, I taped everything off both in the kitchen and for the drawers since I was only painting the drawer fronts and cabinet frames.
Spoiler alert: I installed my new faucet as soon as I got it because I was so excited!
Now for the hard work! I used Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations (I got it from Home Depot) so I wouldn't have to do as much refinishing work, but the early steps for this product are the most crucial. How well you execute the prep tasks will affect the difficulty and success of all the following steps. I knew I wanted really white cabinets to brighten it up, so I didn't even tint the white base which came in the kit. If you want any other color besides stark white, you can "tint" the base to whatever color you want (HD will do that for you).
I applied the Deglosser from the kit using the included scrub pad and went to town! This took a few days to get every nook and cranny within every door and drawer, but, again, this step is critical to success if you aren't going to go through the trouble of stripping varnish and sanding down everything.
Next, I painted on the Bond Coat. I used a paintbrush every step of this, but if you have a paint sprayer, as long as you dilute the paint a little, you could use that. I imagine it would save you a good amount of time. Also, in using a paintbrush, you can see the strokes if you're looking close enough (so you have to be deliberate when using). The Bond Coat starts off looking a bit patchy, but it builds and builds on itself. I ended up doing three coats of this (used up all of it from the kit).
I did all the coats on one side of the doors before I started on the other side. There are many ways of doing this, but I knew I wanted all my last coats on the door fronts.
I let coats dry overnight, so you can see how the days added up. One day for coat #1 on the back, one day for coat #2 on the back, one day for coat #3 on the back, one day for coat #1 on the front, etc.
My final step for the cabinets and drawers was the Top Coat. I did two coats of this on the backs then fronts which gave it a lovely satin finish.
The last item which I did in between coats one evening was paint all the hardware to bring it up to this century too. Spray paint has come a long way and I used Satin Nickel spray paint on all the hinges and screws. I stabbed the screws in cardboard so they'd stand up and stay put.
Before: Original dirty bronze
After: They look entirely different!
The final step was reinstalling everything and having my granite counters delivered! I also took the opportunity to get a deeper, larger sink as well.
By doing it myself, I accomplished this kitchen renovation for under $2700, which is a fraction of the cost of paying for a professional kitchen overhaul. I should note, I was working on the kitchen evenings after work and on weekends. Other than Saturdays and Sundays, I didn't work on it more than about two hours any other day, so the whole project from kick off to re-installing the last cabinet drawer took about a month.
I hope this gives you confidence to tackle a DIY in your home!
Good luck!
Hannah
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