Lower Cabinets

So, after several days of painting and flipping, painting and flipping, the lower cabinet doors and drawer fronts were all completed.  Mr. Alex was kind enough to put a few of each up as they finished to help encourage my progress and get the space back into working shape.

To paint the doors, we used Sherwin Williams Multi-Purpose Primer, and as a rule allow a minimum of four hours between coats.  We picked up two sets of Hyde painter’s pyramids (Amazon link is an affiliate), for up to five doors or a combination of doors and drawer fronts at once.  They allow you to paint, maybe get a drink of water, and flip without waiting to dry the full amount of time and we highly, highly recommend them for two-sided painting jobs.  I followed with two coats of Sherwin Williams Emerald Semi Gloss in Extra White, which we over purchased in our last place for a built-in update.  This is my new favorite brush for small-handed folks, and I used a small roller as well.
The doors were just not living up to their full potential before, and some simple updates were definitely worth it in the long run.  We’d considered the option of purchasing new doors or altering our existing ones to include glass panes, but felt that this early project could be done inexpensively and we could see where this left us.

When reinstalling the doors, we chose to add soft-closing hardware to the frames.  Our cabinets were new enough to have Euro hinges, but slammed OFTEN and this has already been a worthwhile endeavor for our time.  I found a package of 25 soft-close adapters on Amazon for $75, which will handle all of our kitchen cabinets.  We were also unhappy with the hardware, which included small knobs on the drawers and was left off of some doors, so chose to update that as well while we were at it.  On a Home Depot run, we narrowed our preferences to modern pull shapes, and confirmed that we had enough steel/nickel and didn’t like brass.  Unfortunately, nothing in store was viable pricewise and I took to the internet.  After sifting through, I chose something similar to what Alex and I had seen and ordered enough to cover all drawers and cabinets, three sets of 10 for about $75 as well. 

So far, we're pleased with the cabinets in relation to the countertop, wall color, appliances, and near the white backsplash.  The room feels much lighter and bigger, and we're happy with the results thus far.