To Paint or Not To Paint.....?

Cabinets.

I'm talking about my kitchen cabinets.

I have a FABULOUS kitchen....

if you are into 1990's kitchens.

Realistically, we are not going to have the money to completely gut it for quite some time...
with two kids currently in college and six more right behind them,
any kitchen remodel is going to have to be on a serious budget.
I am talking SERIOUS budget.

If I had an unlimited budget, 

here are a couple of pictures of my dream kitchens...

Swoon....

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and another...

be still my heart...

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I don't want white cabinets, but I want light ones...

and I want it to have a slight French feel to it.

With topiaries on the counter....I LOVE topiaries.

My kitchen is fairly small and there really isn't any logical way to change the layout...
taking the island out would make it seem more spacious,
but we use the island every day and I don't want to lose the extra seating...
but I would love to change the cabinets, appliances, counter tops, back splash, and sink.

Here are a few pics of my kitchen as it is now...
and I mean now.....as in backpacks on the table and shoes on the floor now...

D and I met with a kitchen designer just to get a ball park of what a kitchen re-do would cost us.

We only looked at replacing the cabinets and counter tops...

didn't even consider the back splash or new appliances...

and that alone would be a chunk of change much larger than we can afford right now.

Sooooo...

I started thinking about painting our existing cabinets.

More specifically I thought about HAVING them painted professionally.

I am far too much of a perfectionist to try and do them myself.

While I probably would not pick the same style of cabinets I have now,

I don't hate the style and they do have a slightly "French" look if they were a different color.

What do y'all think?

So I started searching the web for pictures of painted kitchen cabinets

 and I found a fabulous blog, Evolution of Style

with wonderful pictures of her gorgeous kitchen

after she painted her cabinets.

These photos are from her Kitchen Reveal...

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Before

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After

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Look how nice and smooth the finish is!

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Jenny painted her cabinets herself and she truly did a fantastic job.

She has a great tutorial on her blog, Evolution of Style

if anyone is contemplating painting their own cabinets.

I know my limits, however, and would definitely pay to have mine done professionally.

There is one small issue about painting them however....

See the lovely microwave above my range?

(yes I am being sarcastic)

Well this lovely microwave is on hospice...

and I cannot find any manufacturer that makes microwaves this size anymore.

Any new microwave we purchase will not leave enough space

between the cook top and the bottom of the microwave.

So once our microwave has moved on to appliance heaven,

I will have to get a counter top microwave, not have a microwave at all,

or get a new cabinet custom made to match our old cabinets

in order to accommodate the new larger size microwaves.

I am not loving the idea of having to custom make a cabinet

to match cabinets that we may get rid of some day.

Thoughts?

I REALLY want a gas range....

you know....one like this....

Drooling....

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I digress....

that is for another post.....

when I win the mega millions.

Sweet D is less excited about having the cabinets painted...

he really wants to hold out for a total re-do

 but I am thinking along the lines of 

"something is better than nothing"

and then we could get the counter tops and back splash done after the painting...

and come in at a reasonable budget.

I am thinking quartz counter tops...

subway glass tile back splash...

stainless sink...

Do I want to live with my lovely 1990's kitchen for another 10 years?

Nope.

Thoughts?

Have y'all painted your cabinets or seen a kitchen where they were painted?

New appliances are out of the question....

so what do y'all think about light cabinets with black appliances?

I think I'll scour Pintrest and Houzz for pictures with that color combination.

I'll get back to y'all...