Painted Cabinets Inspirations

I don't know about your house, but mine is plastered with Honey Oak.  Trim. Cabinets. Railings. Doors.  You name it...I probably have it in honey oak form.  It drives me crazy when I see all of these beautiful homes with clean, white trim and GORGEOUS custom kitchens.

My house?

 None of those glorious things.  

I guess I should just be thankful that the inside of my house isn't covered in fake wood paneling.  Childhood memories!! Anyone else grow up with that? Or was that just a Northern Minnesota thing? 

I decided after reading a few other fantastic blogs that I could pull it off for the cost of a gallon of paint and some primer.  Now, remember how I said Mr. Serene isn't too fond of painting oak? 
No?? 

I hadn't mentioned that?

 Well...He wasn't.  It took a lot of convincing for him to be OK with me painting our trim. 

(which by the way, is still only half way done after 1 1/2 years!) 

But, I have to say that once he had seen how clean, crisp and updated the rooms became, he jumped on board with tackling the Kitchen. 

So began the endless search for the perfect paint color.  Pinterest here I come!  There are so many people out there that had already experienced what I needed to do that I was definitely able to get an idea of how ours would look once painted.  

The trouble came with the final decision: white or gray?

Check out Audrey over at Oh So Lovely and see her cabinet transformation.  AHHH!!-inspiring, don't you think? She really made me love the white. She also has a great tutorial on her blog about changing your current counter tops to concrete. You have to check it out.  It's really an amazing transformation for a tight budget.

Oh So Lovely

Or how about this one from Cristina at Remodelando La Casa.  GORG!!!! I was practically frothing at the mouth over her range hood. If you have a  range in your kitchen, check out her tutuorial for building a custom vent hood. It looks sooooo fancy!

Remodelando La Casa 

 And those bubble lights?! MEOOOOWWW!!!

Remodelando La Casa

I'm pretty sure there isn't one thing in those kitchens that doesn't make me a do a happy dance inside!

I love the look of a white kitchen.  It's so classic and clean looking but I really worried about how ours would stay clean with our three little munchkins rubbing their mits all over them. 

Gray was the other love of my life.  I love gray on everything! When I came across Chris's painted kitchen cabinets  I knew I'd have a problem picking our cabinet colors.  She completely changed my outlook for what I wanted. 

Chris Kauffman

She even has a baking area! How cool is that! 

Chris kauffman

The floors, the hardware, the Carrera Marble counter tops? I wanted them. I wanted them all!!

I have to be honest, even walking into Sherwin Williams, I was still not sure what color paint I was going to walk out with. But I did know that the honey oak was on it's way out!

Which color would you have picked? 

(a special thank you to the wonderful ladies from the blogs mentioned above for allowing the use of their photos!)

Stay Tuned for the complete series of our Kitchen Revamp!