Sleek Dark Chocolate Painted Cabinets!
I am really excited to share this kitchen with you! I get a lot of requests for kitchens of a different color… (meaning not white) And I love the transformation of this kitchen from light maple to dark chocolate !
-Cassity
Submitted By Decorating Cents
Hi my name is Andrea. I am a wife and a mom on a mission to create a beautiful home for my family. We recently moved into a bigger house with more space. We are loving all the space but it will be challenging decorating it and keeping within our budget. We are doing as much DIY as possible to make this house our home.
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Dark Chocolate Painted Cabinets
First remove all the doors and drawers from the frame. I laid the doors out in the garage and kept the drawers inside. The kit comes with a deglosser that takes the finish off the fronts. You want to take as much shine off as possible for the base coat to adhere well. The kit comes with scrub pads but I bought more since we used the previous ones in the bathroom.
During this step I also filled all the nail holes with nail filler since I was changing the hardware.
The next step is the base coat. I wanted the backs of the doors painted as well so I started with the back. Apply first coat and allow to dry a couple hours before applying the second coat. After the backs are dry, flip and repeat first and second coats on the fronts.
I removed the drawers and sat them on the counter. I just allowed the face to hand over the counter so I could apply to all sides. Since I still had to feed the family during the week, I placed the drawers back in the frame and just left them pulled them out slightly they could dry. You can see where I did this on the drawers along the window side.
The next step is the optional glaze. The glaze makes the paint a little darker and allows you to add a wood tone to the finish instead of just the brown paint.
Here’s the brown paint dry.
Using the supplied cloths, wipe away as much glaze as you like to create the look you want. I wanted the cabinets darker so I left more glaze on and the wood tone looks deeper. Allow the glaze to dry 12 hours before applying the final clear coat.
Extremely well done – very nice transformation!!
What an incredible transformation! For such an open kitchen, darker cabinets were the right choice.
Very pretty! You do good work!
Can you please come to Boise Idaho and help me with my place???
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing! I had to do a double take when I saw the picture, because your “before” looks at lot like my kitchen!
I love the transformation! We are planning to use the cabinet transformation in our new house. Where did you find the back splash? It matches perfectly!!
Thanks!
I just redid my cabinets in a chocolate color and I am in love with your backsplash! Please tell me where you got it!
Was wondering how the Rustoleum paint/finish is holding up with wear and tear? Is it nicking at all? I am considering doing this but have 2 small kids who tend to beat things up a bit and I don’t want to waste my time if the finish is going to nick or chip off easily.
how many kits did you end up using ?
Looks fantastic!
Dilan, This was a guest post so I can’t tell ya, but if you click on the link at the top of the post, i am sure they can help ya out!
Good luck!
Cassity
Cassity, Awesome transformation!!
We just got our cabinets, stairwell, and bathroom painted dark chocolate semi-gloss (Dunn Edwards paints). When I picked the color I thought for sure my cabinets would look like your after picture (my kitchen cabinets were the same as your before) well, long story short I cried because the color did not came out the color I wanted. The painter did really care becaus I PICKED the color. So after $1500 I have an ugly accent brown its absolutely horrible and IS nothing like the color I had in mind. They didn’t glaze it so I am thinking if maybe my husband can do that so the color could be darker or is too late? Please please contact me, I would really appreciate your advice.
Vio, I would try glazing them. Or test a spare painted board before you do them all to be sure. I think it could really help. Good Luck!
Looks AMAZING! I love the rich chocolate color. My husband and I were looking at the Rustoleum Countertop and Cabinet Transformation kits. Do you mind if I ask how many kits you used to do the cabinets? Our kitchen is a little bit smaller than yours, but we have a decent sized island like you do too. Thanks!
I have been wanting to paint the kitchen cabinets for a long time now. I have one question for you, what material are your cabinets? Unfortunately mine are laminate, I am hoping yours were too, that way I know I dont have to go through the process of sanding them, then applying the paint. Congratulations on this transformation, it looks great! And thanks for sharing, it inspires the rest of us who want to do the same.
You can use this product on pretty much any type of cabinet including laminate. We are currently doing the same thing to ours in the same Chocolate Brown color. Such a difference!
Thanks for the input, Brittany!
Wow great job! How does someone know how much of the glaze to remove? I want to buy this kit but I would be afraid to ruin the look of the cabinets by messing this step up. How much time do you have before glaze dyes the paint? Thank you.
James, you might want to try a small scrap piece of wood just to get the hang of the glaze, but technically the amount you take off is really up to you. It is a personal preference. You wipe on the glaze and then wipe off, it doesn’t give you a ton of time, but a friend of mine ended up using a wet wash cloth to wipe it off and it gave her a little more time, but just check the manufacturers instructions, I know they will help you out!
Hi Cassity!
I love this before and after! It turned out so well! I’d love to pin it to the Home Depot Kitchen Ideas and Inspiration pinboard if you don’t mind!
Cheers,
Caroline
Senior Editor, The Home Depot
Hey Caroline, PIN away! And thanks for checking out the blog!
Hi! I found your blog after researching the best way to paint cabinets. Not only did you paint your cabinets the same color I want to paint mine, but yours looked exactly like ours do now!
Can you tell me- how long ago did you do this project with rustoleum and has it lasted? Any problems or recommendations?
You have a great DIY blog and I will be liking on fb and sharing!! Thank you so much for any input you may have!!
Amanda
O’fallon, MO
Oh! I am just realizing that this was not your transformation. I’d love to know how rustoleum holds up!!
I was trying to read your post about painting cabinets, but the page is so busy and the text is hard to read. I’ll bookmark your site and come back some other time.
Love how your cabinets turned out! Great job. I also wanted to know, what company is you tile backsplash from?? It looks like the exact color combo I need. Would mind emailing me with the company name and tile name/style? I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks so much.
Michelle
Michelle that is a good question. It would be best to ask the author at Decorating Cents.
awesome job…an awful lot of prep and painting, but the end result looks like it was worth it!
I would love to know what color your walls are… love those too!
Hi
Just wanted to say what a fabulous job you did very impressive, can you tell me how many gallons of paint was needed for your size if kitchen, also my kitchen is white and I would like to paint it beige would I still need to apply the deglosser to remove all the old paint.