When I bought my condo a little less than two years ago, I immediately fell in love with it. It was hard to keep a poker face in front of the realtor because I absolutely knew after looking at more than 100 places and feeling a little jaded, this was it, this was the one I wanted. I kept my face straight and my friends, a realtor and a broker took over. I tell you these two women could rule the world. Within five weeks I was the owner of my fabulous little home near Castle Island.
Photo from the day I got my keys! Such an exciting day!
Before moving in I did some necessary painting to get rid of the baby owls on the guest bedroom walls and the terrifying orange terracotta bathroom, which assaulted your eyes the second you put the lights on. After that, my depleted savings account couldn’t handle nothing more. Well, except for my amazing California Closets because just like me, my shoes needed a very nice home.
My idea for painting the cabinets
As time went by I started to get seriously annoyed and I mean irrationally annoyed by my bathroom and kitchen. I am not sure how I can describe the bathroom. It has horrid pink and blue confetti tiles, a 1980s broken whirlpool bath that no matter how much I clean it, it never looks clean and a wall that is a mirror. The whole wall… every single part of it! So I can only imagine the previous owners used to have a little Jacuzzi and then look at themselves naked in the gigantic wall mirror that shows every flaw you have. The bathroom is an undertaking I am not quite ready for. The whole thing needs to be gutted. So far I have received a quote for $37K, $31K and the latest is $24K. Ahem, need to save a little more. The good thing is no-one regularly sees it as it is in my bedroom.
The kitchen I knew would be running at about the $30-40K or more depending on fixtures and fittings and that was going to take a few more years or more to save up for. I kept sitting on my sofa staring at the kitchen cabinets and feeling actual animosity towards them. The orange country kitchen wood doors had to go!
6am Saturday morning and the guys are filled with coffee and underway. I, on the other hand, was feeling less than fabulous!
I spoke to the guys who painted my condo and asked if they could do cabinets. They told me it wasn’t a problem and they could get the work done for me over a couple of days. The whole thing only took 2 full days and a few hours the following Saturday to do the tiles.
By the afternoon, I was feeling more excited about what they were going to look like
I googled kitchen cabinet repainting, I scoured the paint stores and I eventually settled on something I couldn’t find but had an idea would work. I wanted the cabinets a slightly darker color than the walls and I wanted a much darker trim on the inside to connect to my furniture in the dining and living room, which is an espresso brown. I shared my idea with many of my friends, who thought I was a bit nuts. To be honest, my first idea didn’t quite look right but the second with just a hint of a different color and not a big pronounced line looks amazing. At least I think so. I like the fact that you can still see the wood grain in the cabinets and I like that they look a different color when the sunlight hits them than when they do at night when my under-cabinet lighting makes them look grey.
Lower cabinets prior to the blue tile being painted
The tiles, as you can see from the first photo were a cobalt blue that probably belonged more in a Mediterranean spa than in a Southie condo. I thought I was going to have to have them ripped out and again that would be too much of an expense for me. Not the case, we painted them using the same color paint as the trim but with a matt finish, which makes the whole kitchen look so warm and rich.
New cabinet handles from Home Depot – just $3.25. Paint: All cabinets and island base – Behr Espresso Martin N210-4. Inside trim – Behr Havana Coffee N210-7
I replaced the round dated handles with these streamlined modern ones, just $3.95 each from Home Depot.
Instead of $40K~, I spent $1800. Not a bad deal right? And, I now sit on my sofa looking towards the kitchen and smile. I LOVE IT! It’s like a brand new kitchen.
BEFORE
AFTER
