Kitchen Facelift

I don't think it's a secret that I want a new kitchen. Ok, maybe not an entirely new kitchen.

But, as with the rest of our house, the kitchen could use a facelift.

I do feel that once we remove these terrible linoleum floors, it will make a HUGE difference.

The cabinets themselves are decent. They are pine, which I don't love, but they are "nice" cabinets. They are tall and once refinished, will be beautiful.

Here's my kitchen now:

I apologize for the clutter - it's not usually this bad. This pic is actually giving me anxiety. I never have anything on the island and I an see soooo many things that need to be put away. 

BUT I DIGRESS. But, see how the cabinets aren't terrible? They are BEAT UP though. 

The family before us had 3 girls ages 5 and under. The cabinets have been through A LOT.

I eventually want to get some sort of stone countertop - does not have to be granite. 

Above the fridge cabinet. I will eventually get a black stainless fridge that matches our new dishwasher. Same for the stove. 

The island that is just too small. We may make a larger countertop out of concrete or butcher block so it'll be more useful. I'd like to be able to sit the girls here to eat. I want to put the microwave down here as well and put a range hood up.

Here is my inspiration (photo cred: google) with the white cabinets and white backsplash. I wasn't going to go with the white subway tiles like in the above pic, but Steve said he liked it. We'll see. I would also like to have some open shelving. 

Oh, did I mention that I'm going to paint the cabinets by myself?

Yeah, it's just more cost effective that way. I did get it quoted, purely to find out how much something like this would cost. I had no idea. I know painting cabinets is a royal pain in the ass. Taking the doors down, making a spray room, hanging the doors so we can do front and back at once, painting/spraying the cabinets that will remain hung on the walls. 

To have a contractor do all of the work would be about $2,300. 

I just can't fathom paying that much. I know it'll be labor intensive. I know I'll probably hate every minute of it.

But, I can probably do it for less than $1,000. I pulled that number out of my ass - I have not looked into hardware and all of that. But seriously, I can't imagine it being anywhere close to $2,300. 

My friend has actually done this before. It's Willow's mom - a friend I've known since elementary school. We weren't friends back then, but we are now. 

She told me she'd lend me her sprayer. She had a blog back in the day, and I plan to follow (somewhat) her detailed instructions for how she got it done.

I want to get it done so badly. 

I also have zero interest in starting this behemoth of a project. 

Luckily for us though, we won't need to replace anything in the kitchen...yet. We plan on painting, of course and putting up a backsplash. But there will be no structural changes, which is good. It literally will be just the cabinets - and I think painting them white will make such a difference. 

I'm going to start with the island cabinet, since I feel like that's an easy one to tackle.