Well, it is finally time for the kitchen reveal! I told you all about my sad “no painting allowed” story on Wednesday. How the Realtor said we couldn’t paint our cabinets because we had chosen to rent the house and that painting them would not be the best choice. And the cabinets are only 10 years old, so they were not worth replacing , cheap though they may be.
Since we chose to rent out our house, we wanted to be realistic about a few things. The house is probably not going to be returned to us in better shape than we handed it over. (Although I do love the actual tenants, so maybe?) But also, there is a limit to how much we can earn each month from the house, so investing in to a new kitchen would be pointless, (at least until we decide to sell – and I doubt we will do it then either).
Once, I accepted the fact that our kitchen was going to stay this color, I had to decide what small changes we could make to improve the look of the space and ideas to update oak kitchen cabinets. Besides a few of the things I showed you that we did just to live in the space, I also tiled the back splash including a half wall as an accent for more interest and lastly adding some architectural character to the existing cabinets. I found out that I can, in fact, update a kitchen without painting the oak cabinets! Take a look at what we were able to accomplish:
In addition to the items mentioned above, here are few other things that I did to make the kitchen look a little better in itself and in our space.
1. Added some hardware (I went for the color black to match the grout and appliances)
2. Add orange to the living room. This was a HAPPY accident. We received our new family room rug the same day that we had the carpets cleaned, so while waiting for the carpets to dry, I rolled it out in our living room. All of a sudden the tile in the kitchen was not as offensive, because it matched something else… WOW!
3. Use a complimentary color to help the orange pop. This was not that much of a stretch since turquoise and blue are a main color way in the last home, but bringing that color into the kitchen really helped the orange look nicer.
Okay, so what, can it be a good “before and after” with out a hideous “before”? Okay, this is not super hideous (although you need to see how truly disgusting it was…)
Before:
During:
Cleaning up the mess after buying our house:
Small repair and updates over time (before the actual makeover):
Installing a subway tile back splash (and tutorial):
Updating the Cabinets Tutorial (without painting of course):
After:
Well, what do you think? It is a much better space if you ask me! I love the ideas to update oak kitchen cabinets that we came up with! And I think when and if we update, when we are ready to sell, we might try staining the cabinets a dark chocolate to match the living room floors, or just go ahead and paint them, but for now we are happy with the changes we made…
FYI, here is a link to when we were building the columns in case you want to see how we did it.
Looking for more kitchen ideas?
Check these out:
How to Design a Budget Kitchen + Island, Farmhouse Style
Hi, I love your tile and the cabinet updates they make a big difference!
THANKS! We were really happy with the results too!
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is great, the articles is really nice : D. Good job, cheers
You are so lucky to have a hubby that likes doing this stuff. I would add a small island to the kitchen, too! Looks fab!
I know I really am lucky! He is such a great worker!
Looks great – I am interested in the corner bookcase you have built in next to the stairs. Is it black paint behind? Did you build it from scratch? Have you ever done anything with a laundry room/mud room? I have a smallish laundry room that is narrow and the main entry for the family to come into the house from the garage. I am trying to gather creative ideas for easier entry and exits with 3 school age kids.
thanks again for sharing your projects.
Yes, Cassity painted the back black and we did build them from scratch. You could put something like this anywhere in the house if you wanted. This is how we built ours here.
Love the cabinets! Did you do anything to them so they don’t look so shiny? I have oak and I hate the shine. Thanks!
We just cleaned them really well. Thanks for the comment!
I love it!! I would prefer this kitchen over painted cabinets, which I think is getting a little overdone to be honest. I generally don’t like oak but need to make it work in our new house, and it’s nice to see such a bright and updated oak kitchen!
Thanks Courtney! We were very pleased how it turned out. We weren’t sure what kind of response we would get though.
Great job! I think the details make an amazing difference. You have to think about money in your pocket! I like the dark stain idea for down the road…Thanks for sharing.
This is great! We are doing a minor update to our kitchen and this serves as great inspiration. What color are your countertops? We plan on replacing ours and are considering a light grey tone laminate. Do you think that would work with a kitchen look similar to yours or are we better off sticking to a neutral beige like color to go with the honey oak cabinets? Thanks!
Brooke, our countertops are like a rosy beige. We couldn’t replace them, so they stayed. We think that a gray countertop would look just fine. Beige might be too much! Those are just our thoughts.
Hi Justin and Cassity,
I love your remodel of the kitchen with oak cabinets. I, too, have the same color of cabinets and while I would love a white kitchen, it is not in the cards for us. I was wondering if you could tell me the color or the walls in your kitchen? I’m trying to repaint ours, so it doesn’t clash as much with our cabinets.
Thanks so much!
Lindsey
Lindsey I don’t know the name of the paint, but it was a neutral tan color that was in the house when we moved in.
I love your cabinet hardware – where did you buy it from and what is the product called?
Allison,
I bought it at Home Depot, but I don’t know the name of it. It was just in the bins available at the store.
I can’t even tell you how much I love the fact that you didn’t paint your cabinets white…It’s actually refreshing. I have the same color scheme going on in my kitchen and I think it really compliments the wood. Well done on the back splash too! It’s so inspiring!
Thanks Jenae!
Love love the update. I was thinking of painting my cabinets but you Reno gave me hope that you don’t have to. My kitchen have the same cabinet color and I cant seen to find a wall color I like. Are you able to maybe suggest similar paint colors to the kitchen wall color?
Augustina, I don’t know the name of the paint that was on our walls, but it was a neutral tan color that was in the house when we moved in. It seemed to work really well and look nice. You could try for some warm neutral colors.
Wow! The cabinet extension and backsplash made a HUGE difference!!!
Wow! I wish our landlord had done updates like that! We rent a cute little house that has so much potential, and I’ve tried doing what I can to “update” it without going crazy and spending too much of my own money since it isn’t our property. I love that you take such pride in your homes. This is beautiful and I’m sure the tenants appreciate it! 🙂
Thank you, Amanda!
You did a good job laying the tile, but why did you go so high on the one wall between the cabinets and sink? And I don’t think the subway tile goes with the southwestern floor tile. But that’s just my opinion.
It’s not my ideal pairing either, but we did what we could with what we had 🙂 and we went to the ceiling because we like the full-height tile look, rather than stopping the backsplash a few inches up the wall. Again, not everyone’s taste and that’s fine 🙂
Wow, this is wonderful. I never thought I’d like oak cabinets again but you made them look fabulous!
Thank you, Trisha! I would still have rather painted, but it was nice to get a new look even without paint!
If you do decide to paint…. We used the rustoleum kit. Rented our house out for 2 years after painting and they held up great.
Thank you for the feedback, Valerie!
Your remodel looks sooooo good! I’m considering doing something similar and just trying to get ideas because a full remodel is so EXPENSIVE!!! May I ask how much the total overall cost was to do all of the updates to your kitchen?
Thanks for liking it so much. As far as the cost I beleive it was under $200 or so. It’s been a while since that project. Mainly it was tile and oak for the trim on top. Good Luck!
Kitchen updates look great!! So looking forward to doing some of these. How did you get the bottom of the stove black. Have the same one and would be grateful to get it up to date without spending the money.
It was just paint! That was years ago, but you can find a bit more info here: https://www.remodelaholic.com/kitchen-updates-over-time/
Great Job … I was wondering about the counter top. It appears you cut off the back part of it …. did you end up with a gap there. This is something I have been thinking about for awhile but thought it may not be possible. Looks like you were able to do it and have it look okay … was there a gap and if so how did you remedy it? thaks
Hi Wendy — yes we removed the backsplash part of the countertop and patched up the gap. You can see all the details here: https://www.remodelaholic.com/white-subway-tile-back-splash-tutorial/