Kitchen cabinet reveal

So, remember 2 and a half months ago when I blogged about my kitchen cabinets almost being done? Yeah, they've been done for a while but I've been too lazy to take pics. Which is awful cuz I'm soooo outrageously proud of how they turned out.

I've got a smorgasborg of pictures to show. And FYI peeps-these are all taken with my iphone as I am still without a new camera (RIP). Forgive the quality.

I am head over heels in love with the way they look. I think it brings so much more of a sophistication to my kitchen and, since I couldn't monetarily upgrade anything this really helped make this room more welcoming to us. Let me point out though that I don't know what peoples obsession is with cream in this house. I mean, is it a builder's thing? Is cream just cheaper than white? I have had to paint every God forsaken peice of trim in my house (including those lovely pantry doors above) a crisp white from that awful cream. And they continued it with the microwave and fridge. Off-white. UGH. It.looks.dirty.people. I refer to this cream color as "smoker's yellow". Since it looks like something that might have been white but a smoker has lived in the house forever and turned everything yellow. Anyhow. I'm stuck with the cream fridge/microwave which really throws off my vibe but whatevs. We'll upgrade when we can. Luhvah wanted to gut everything and has hated the kitchen since we moved in (especially the laminate counters). But since painting I think Luhvah has accepted it a little more.
Remember before the Honey Oak color:

Okay, awful pic but I couldn't find another (forgot to take before pics like a bozo!). And yes, my house is a mess. Whatevs.

Anyhow. The after is much better:

Like I said, brings a whole level of sophistication to my kitchen that it lacked before. And the knobs and pull helped too:

The kitchen cabinets were bare when we moved in and just adding hardware I felt it helped them so much. I've vowed to never go nekkid again (at least in the kitchen hardware department).

When I painted I decided I wanted to try an open shelving area to make it more interesting. After deciding where I wanted the open shelf I just took down the cabinet door that was on it (I couldn't possibly do all open shelves  cuz 1) all my dishes aren't that pretty and 2) I keep a hell o' a mess behind those closed doors!) I painted the inside all black as well. Peeps, this is how lazy I am...I didn't even fill in the holes where the hardware went. Ssssshhhh don't tell. You don't even notice unless you're studying real hard. And if you are then you'll find plenty wrong with my house so git out!

I had all the dishes already to make it pretty. No need to buy anything.

Everywhere else I left the insides the original color:

While we're talking kitchen let me also point out that I would have loved to add white beadboard (even beadboard wallpaper) below the cabinets as a backsplash but I was going cheap so I didn't do it. I didn't mind the backsplash that was put up by the previous owners but they only put it on one side.

Weird.

And now it looks to dark and not at all what I want anyway for the kitchen. Maybe down the road I'll get that beadboard wallpaper and do both sides.

More shots of prettiness:

Also, let me point out the new wall color:

It's Revere Pewter color matched to Behr paint/primer. I love it. I'll be showing you more pics to come of the finished product in the whole house. (See, that's my excuse for delaying so long on posting the kitchen-been too busy painting our whole house!) Here's a picture of the color on the walls before with Monkey helping (Revere Pewter is the color in the lower left corner you can barely see):

So, there it is. Finally done. And to keep it real- here was the other side with my sink:

Look, even though I have dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter all I can stare at is the pretty cabinets and hardware (and so should you!). Le sigh. It was tedious work but I am sooooo glad I did it (and I can't believe it took me this long to do after 7 years at this place-I've been wanting to paint them since we moved in!)

Here's the breakdown of what I did monetarily and physically:

1) Primer -Before primer I didn't bother sanding or anything (unless it was super rough). I just slapped primer down after cleaning very well with soap and water (and magic cleaner for really tough grease areas). I already had a quart which I barely used for my front door project so I finished that off but it wasn't enough so Luhvah went and got a gallon. We could've easily gone with another quart though and been fine. I did 2 coats of primer (1 Gallon-25.00? I think)

*****EDIT: I found the primer I use online by chance and wanted to share. In fact the blog that talked about it had some interesting points about not having to sand (YAY!) with this primer. You can read about it here. Here's the primer I used.

2) Paint- after primer I went straight to the paint. FYI peeps- I didn't sand really at all. I know this is a huge step in painting cabinets--sand, sand, sand between each step! But I just didn't have the patience. I got Gripper paint from Glidden I believe (I have to look and report later). I just hope that helped with the many coats of paint and the sealer.

Anyhow.

On to paint- I did basic black (Onyx I think from Behr? Maybe Glidden? I totally suck at these breakdowns). I had to do 3 coats of the black paint to get  good even coverage and I used a foam roller to cover. (1 Gallon- 30.00)

3) Poly sealer- I used a Polyuethane sealant on the cabinets and did 2 quick coats on them with a quart of poly I had already for my stairs project.  (15.00/quart- but I already had it)

4)Hardware- The pulls were from Overstock and were 18.00 for 10 of them. The knobs were from ebay and were 25.00 for 20.

I'm not counting the wall color because really it was put all over the house so it goes into the budget from that other project.

In total I spent 98.00 (if you don't count the poly I already had or the wall color). I think that's an amazing number considering how much of a change it made in my kitchen. $98.00!!!! That's it. Wish I'd done it sooner.