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Hardware + The Kitchen Mini-Revamp is Done!

June 6, 2014

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Wednesday night, we stayed up late and put all of our new hardware on the newly painted cabinets. A lot of our old knobs were bent or broken so we gave them to my parents since they don’t have hardware on their cabinets now and have about half as many cabinets as we have so there would be enough okay ones for them to use. For our kitchen, we chose knobs for the doors and pulls for the drawers–both from Schoolhouse Electric.

Even though we’ll only be keeping these cabinets in our kitchen for maybe a year more, we plan to move them into the garage and wanted to make sure we didn’t end up with more bent hardware. These are nice and heavy! We went with the 1 1/2″ Chatham knobs which are completely classic looking. I love the backplate, too.

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And for the drawers, we picked the Mission Pull in the same oil-rubbed bronze finish as the knob, but they look more like a matte black–win.

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Chris used a hardware template–(a must have, this one is awesome!) to drill all the holes and I followed behind and screwed the hardware in place on all the doors and drawers, including the dummy drawers by the sink. The whole process took us about an hour total and we woke up to a new kitchen. The hardware ties in nicely with our new stools and chandelier in the dining room, too.

Our style in this home is a casual modern meets classic…and I think if we had a different backsplash/countertop and, of course, different lighting, we could get there in the kitchen. Since installing our new dining room chandelier, we haven’t had to use that eye-sore or a fluorescent light again–but we’re gonna give it a couple weeks to be sure before we take it down and cap it until the remodel. But, alas, we’re calling this mini-makeover done and we’re so happy with the transformation. We started with this (after painting the whole great room):

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And now after moving the pantry over and reconfiguring the island, DIYing a new countertop, installing new floors, removing the microwave and painting the cabinets we have this:

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When we do remodel, we plan to change the layout of the kitchen, so adding new lighting now wouldn’t make sense to us. We have received so many questions about where this kitchen is headed, and although we don’t know for sure yet we spend a lot of nights after the girls fall asleep drawing up ideas and we’re loving every minute of it. I’m sure we’ll change our minds at least 3 more times before we decide on something for sure. There isn’t room for Chris’s dream kitchen, but we’re gonna work out the details and get it as close as we can. We’ll share some of those ideas soon enough.

Happy Weekend to you!

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What do you think?

  1. Kurtis says:

    Looking into painting my cabinets. I’ve read a lot of your posts and comments. Can you tell me what paint you used? Valspar again, just the basic or did you go with the signature line? What sheen? Did you clear coat in the end? I was planning the same primer you list, I just want to be sure that the paint job is durable and will last as long as possible, Thanks! Love your blog

  2. […] did a very cheap nearly all paint revamp since moving in, but in a couple months the real thing is going to start. Here’s what our […]

  3. LOVE the before/after pics! You guys do awesome work :)

  4. my eyes thank you! love all those cool colors :)

  5. cd says:

    Are you planning to paint the walls and change out the counter tops? That would make your top and bottom cabinet colors stand out much more than they do now – they look similar in color but I’m thinking that’s just because of the other white shade on the walls messing with them?

  6. For some reason, the hardware ties the counter/backsplash into the room decor. Great classic look! We’re hoping to do something similar to our kitchen (paint existing cabinets, replace hardware, etc) next year – this is a nice preview of how improved it can look. :-)

  7. Looks good! I love the contrast between the white and the oil rubbed bronze!

  8. Carol says:

    I love the changes! Have you considered painting the tile backsplash as a temporary fix, a la Jenny Komenda? (http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2014/05/painting-bathroom-tile.html)

    • Julia says:

      I did see Jenny’s post on that and a few others, too. The countertops bother me way more than the backsplash and I don’t know about painting tile countertops. I just don’t know about that. Hahaha.

  9. Emma says:

    I love seeing all the changes….looking forward to seeing your ideas for the new kitchen :)

  10. Meagan Briggs says:

    I am missing your old fridge now! It would look sooooo goooood in here!

    I am loving that chandelier. Perfect addition to this space!

    • Julia says:

      seriously! this fridge (and dishwasher and washer and dryer) is on its last leg, but we’re hoping they’ll last a little longer because we have some other big ticket items on dock first.

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