Kitchen Cabinet DIY

Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR simple, inexpensive, and relatively quick kitchen DIY projects!  I first did a full re-paint and stencil to warm up the cabinets, then I added a simple, cheap kitchen backsplash, then I lined the cabinets and drawers with a pretty shelf-protector paper, and finally replaced the knobs on the cabinets and drawers. So much better!

Kitchen Before: White...so white...everything was just bleak, stark white.

That area behind the kitchen sink was disgusting - years of food splatter and gross sink water splash was stuck up there.  All the yellow paint behind the sink had turned kind of a brownish color. Blech.

What a difference some paint makes!  I used a gallon of Benjamin Moore "Canvas" to re-paint all the cabinets a much warmer, prettier neutral cream color, and used a quart of Benjamin Moore "Exotic Red" for the stenciling. The stencil was from Hobby Lobby, for $3.99.  I did have to take down all the cabinet doors to paint them.  That wasn't that bad - all I needed was a screwdriver and they came down and went back up fairly easily. I did two coats of "Canvas" on everything, and when that dried, just painted the "Exotic Red" over my plastic stencil.  I let that dry, then re-hung the doors.

The backsplash was a huge bargain - I found these chocolate, tan and cream glass tiles for $1.99 a square foot on sale at Lowe's one day. I hadn't even planned to re-do the backsplash at that point, just found these tiles for SUCH a good deal!  Keep an eye out for sales on tiles - you can get SUPER cheap ones to buy now and use for a project later.

 I also made sure to get small tiles with plastic backing - this made it SO much easier to put them up because I could just cut off one of the rows of plastic-backed tiles to get them to fit instead of having to rent or buy a tile cutter. The middle, decorative element isn't even tile. Those decorative tiles are SO expensive - like $4 for a 6'' piece, and my area here is approximately 13', so that would have been over $100 just for that little decorative strip down the middle.  Here I used an $8 piece of crown molding, and spray-painted it with a metallic bronze shade. I just stuck it to the tile grout between the two rows of tiles. ::shrugs:: It's worked out great!

 Next, my super-boring white cabinets were spruced up with some fancy black and white floral cabinet paper from Target. It took about an hour and $15 to re-paper all the cabinets and drawers. They look SO much cleaner and organized.

Lastly, I changed up the plain, round, white knobs for these bronze oval and rooster knobs that my mom had leftover from when she changed her knobs out. These things are expensive - like $2-$5 APIECE at Lowe's and Home Depot, so if you can get some new ones for free or off Craig's List, I highly suggest it. 

I didn't really think different knobs would make that much of a difference, but they really do. 

Altogether, these 4 projects together cost about $150, a massive bargain for how much better the room looks!