KiTCHEN CABINET UPDATE PART 5!!! or... the incredible journey...

 Needless to say...the week got away from me.

What with school starting, and the earthquake, 

and the aftershock and the cleaning and the 

cleaning and

 the mimosas with some other New Moms of High schoolers...

I just feel drastically behind.

But you know what I FINALLY finished?

The kitchen cabinets!

 seems only fitting, I started them the week that school

got out for the summer

and I finished them the week school resumed.

Yeah, piece of cake.

this is all I can say...

NEVER AGAIN!

BEFORE #1

BEFORE #2

 AND NOW...

DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!!!!!

THE AFTERS!!!

...and AFTER!!!

I can hear you thinking..."is it just me...or are those cabinets...are they...well, a different color than the walls?

YES!! YES! YES! they are. 

Not on paper, 

what I mean is that the color of the cabinet doors
AND
the color of the frames and walls 

is named (  Benjamin Moore's Mountain Peak White) 

 which I myself painted..

...all by myself.
There is

something about the varnish process, 
which yellowed them a bit and I

as of yet

have not been able to 

match them.
But I will keep trying. 
and trying.
and trying.

there is a panel coming which will cover that scrolly thing above the sink...

but I did not want to make you wait another minute!!!

I Love LOVE LOVE the hardware

which is from restoration Hardware.

I used the Gilmore pulls, The Aubrey Pull and 

the utility latches, all in polished nickel.

I love the fresh look of the polished nickel. It does show finger prints

if you have little ones with sticky fingers, but

wipe up beautifully.

yeah, that avocado oven is still there..Rome was not built in a day!!!
or even 7 years.
...there is another cover coming for the window cut-out as well.

BIG CHANGE...EH?

   

SO we have come to the end of our LONG JOURNEY,  
which started in February 2011
and cost about $3000.
The cabinet door makeover is complete.

Doing the cabinets this way, 

replacing the doors,

instead of replacing the entire cabinets 

saved us thousands of dollars. 

I feel like the trend of late is to gut and renovate

and while I am always a fan of a good makeover, it is not always the most sensible thing to do.

Especially, if you are content with your kitchens layout 

and the quality of the "boxes" is good,

 as in my case, 

then find a good cabinet maker and just have doors made!!!

I found our cabinet guy, Charley Hunter, on ebay and then traced him back to his website:

http://www.hunterswoodworking.com/

he was wonderful to work with;

very helpful, answered all of my questions and worked with me 

on all of my silly requests.

Charley is the man!

So, wrapping things up...
What I learned:
1. Measure with a professional and then...measure again, and then 
once more, for good measure..
2. There are many different sizes of European Hinges, so if you run into a door which is too close, or too far, you can change the hinge size. This saved my bacon on a few of my inaccurate measurements.
3. Hang the doors with an ADULT non-relative
assistant. It is too much of a job for one person, and sometimes a bit too stressful to do with someone you have to eat dinner with every night.
4. make Sure you HAVE ALL of your supplies handy and within arms reach,
perhaps by wearing a tool apron.
You will be climbing up and down ladders and on counters
and dropping a screw from high up is a pain!


Supplies:
1.Drill with small bit for screws and appropriate bits for hardware.
2. Screwdrivers and extra screws.
3. tape measurer
4. Level and or lazer level
5. music to listen to, or in my case, a laptop with 2 seasons
of "Queer Eye..." to distract and amuse when the going gets tough.
6. a sense of humor, 
you'll need it.