Kitchen Switchin'

Ready for this? Well, I'm not entirely sure you are, but here we go anyway:

The (upper) kitchen cabinets are refinished and installed! That's right, we officially have a completely overhauled and working (upper half of our) kitchen!

Alright so you caught that it's all only truly half complete, but wow, what a half it is. If anything motivates me to do a few more weeks of tedious, take-an-advil-for-back-pain work, it's seeing how successful the first go 'round has been. Here's what we were working with on move-in day two years ago, and save the wall color, flooring, and countertop (oh, we threw a fridge in there too)... Not a ton has changed.

I'll give you as short a version as I can...
First, the usual: Sand. Wipe down with liquid deglosser. Prime (twice) and paint (twice). I sprung for Benjamin Moore Advance paint, which from my research sounded like the best for cabinetry.

Right to Left: Sanded, primed, painted - Used a foam roller and a 2" handle brush.

Ain't no lie.
This stuff is pretty much straight outta Harry Potter: It's self-leveling, which means it figures out how to cover your brush strokes. Plus the word on the street is that although it's a latex paint, it's as durable as an oil-based, which is pretty much the dream in cabinet world.

Top to Bottom: Getting sanded, primed, and painted.

The actual functioning cabinet parts stayed on the wall (with everything still in them, #LazyDIY), and got exactly the same treatment.

Transformation Station!

Lastly, Nate whipped up a paper template, drilled holes, and screwed in the new handles (more on those here).

Bumpers

Back up went the doors, and with the stick of a vinyl bumper to protect the edges and keep the screw backs from banging up the cabinet base, we were..... done!

I'm a teensy bit in denial that we now have to do the entire bottom section, but knowing what we're doing works and looks good almost makes me excited to tackle the rest. Almost.