DIY: Painting Interior Kitchen Cabinets

 
I have been on a DIY kick lately.  This Saturday, I had the morning free before the kids' soccer games kicked in.  My husband was at a day conference so I knew I had a very tiny window of time to get the project underway before he got home to put the kibosh on it.  (He's very tolerant of anything I want to do around the house, but my recent project of painting my mudroom interior door has turned into "50 Shades of Turquoise."  Every time he walks through the door, it's literally a different color.  What better way to deal with that never ending process, than to start another project!!!)
 
The mission...paint my interior kitchen cabinets.

 
We pseudo use this cabinet in our kitchen.  We regularly access our wine glasses from here.  And I recently scored the coffee mugs on the left from Home Goods with well intentions of really using them.   But this space is not styled.  And nothing pops! 

 

 
My idea to paint the cabinet came from Emily Clark's blog.  Not that this is a new concept.  But I loved her post about turning her cabinet into open shelving.   And I also loved that she painted the back of her cabinetry a dark charcoal color so the items on her shelves popped  with flair!  So, I decided to use the exact same color as Emily, Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze.
 

 
While the kids were busy doing crafts projects and having a silly morning dance party in their pj's...

 
I took every last item out of that cupboard.   Whew, by the time that was done, I was ready for a glass of wine.  Only it was 9am so I thought I should probably hold off a bit. 
 

 
I was a bit nervous about how the Urbane Bronze would adhere to the bead board...I'm sort of a half a$$ DIY'er.  I'm not one for prepping and priming.  I'm sort of a jump-right-in-there  doer.  So if this thing needed to be sanded down to loose some of it's finish, I was NOT the person that was going to be doing it!  Instead, I dabbed on one coat.  Two coats.  Three coats....well, by about 2-3 dabblings, the paint started drying and then I was able to properly brush the coats of paint onto the board. 

 

 

 
I think this is coat fifty or sixty...teasing. 
 

 
One soccer game, two PB&J's, a few quick naps and one trip to Marshalls later, the paint was dry and the styling began. 
 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
I removed most of the wine glasses and stored them elsewhere.  There were so many in there previously and we just didn't need them in there.  We're healthy drinkers but, I mean, between my husband and myself we STILL only have four hands.   I added mostly white items so there would be a real contrast between the charcoal and the white.  I still tried to keep some of the functional items in here too.  I'd love to start using these coffee mugs as my every day mugs so I tried to make them easily accessible.  (I also used an organizer that's used for soup cans to give them some elevation).   The plates on the second shelf are cookware plates that my husband likes to use for our steaks.  He can heat them up to about 400 degrees in the oven (and he does) and then he plops the steaks on them and they continue to cook and sizzle.  That's all great and nifty but my main concern every single time is what that little cookware plate is doing to our table underneath!  We pile about 6 heat resistant place mats under each place setting to prevent damage to the tables.  Ah, I guess we each have our "things."  I paint cabinets charcoal black.  He just about turns our tables charcoal each time we eat a steak!
 
  

 

 

 
And I just love when one DIY project spawns another.  I've had these lanterns for about a year now.  I got them from Home Goods and love them. .  I usually use them for outdoor parties.   I just love them.  Only they've always been mismatched in color.  Until now...I dabbed a lil bit o Urbane Bronze on those baby's and now they match. 
 

 

 
I scored this chair on Joss & Main and I love the bit of red it gives. 

  So now, here's the moment of "true blue" as my kids say...that's where I'm sworn to be completely honest with ya'll...I just did all this work on these cabinets and I know they'd look so much better with the doors off, but I think that would be more than my husband, EG, could stomach right now.  The doors are on that 'soft close' mechanism and I'm not sure I even know how to just unscrew them from the hinges.  So for now, the doors will stay on there...but oh, you just wait until the next weekend day conference when the hubby's away (those suckers are goin down!)  

  Thanks so much for following.  And don't forget, the give-away is still going on until October 5th!  Please spread the word!    xoxo Heather