How to change the colors of these kitchen cabinets?

DIY paint them. Save you loads of $$$. There are plenty of how-to videos on how to do it on YouTube. We did it our old house and it turned out great. It's all in prep and careful painting.

Wow that's ugly to you? Do you want to trade kitchens?

Some kitchen and washroom cabinets are not actually painted and they are thermofoil. If you sand it, it'll just rip. Painting the doors isn't even the hard part, it's all the other bits.

chances are we'll never hear back from the 1-post OP, but hey, never know.

There's nothing modern about a glossy white kitchen, unless it's slab style doors mixed with wood panels and in a hard loft.

Eggshell / matte finish is what you want in a nice off-white like Benjamin Moore Cloud White. Will complement the earth tones elsewhere in the room. Only reliable way to do it is hire professionals to come in, remove the doors/drawers, prep and spray the cabinets, take the doors offsite for finishing and re-assemble with perhaps new hardware.

Likely thousands of dollars. Rip out the counters and backsplash while you're at it and replace with something else.

Or live with it and learn to love it till you have the $50,000 to redo the kitchen properly.

Paint over wood that is stained? I'm dying...

OP have you thought this out well? I hope you have visualized how the white cabinets will look with your current flooring and backsplash.

Hi, thanks for the response everyone. We are also planning to redo the countertop, backsplash, and flooring.

We plan on using white colors for all of the above. Except we may leave some darker cabinets on the bottom.

I know this is not a small project, its almost re-doing the entire kitchen.

We were thinking of white quartz countertop, regular white backsplash, some big 24x24 porcelain floor tiles, etc.

So this might run us north of 50k, right?

When you say gloss white do you mean like the high gloss ikea look? Thats thermofoil not paint.
You wont get that look even with painting because a) painted cabinets are not gloss and b) your door profile is not modern.

For what i think you want, and paying all that money for quartz, tile floor and to just paint the cabinets? The painted cabinets will last 5 years at most. Basically its a waste of money.

Either
a) at minimum spend the money for new doors/sides. You can get thermofoil high gloss white then if you want. But be careful with doing a white kitchen like this, it can look out of place with the rest of your house or the era of your house.
b) do everything you say and leave the cabinets as they are. They would look great with what you have planned and be nice contrast. Just change the hardware. If money is tight you could do LVT porcelain look tiles if you want that are grouted.

With both options be extremely careful with choosing and matching the different white elements. As someone who has done a white kitchen this is can be harder then you think. You could easily end up with a back splash that looks bluish, or yellowish for example, or a counter that looks that way.

Also i would suggest you live in the house for a year before doing this. we did this and am so glad we did.

davidmr wrote: ↑

If money is tight you could ...

Do you really for a moment think that money is tight here?

Holystone wrote: ↑ Do you really for a moment think that money is tight here?

He is asking about refinishing cabinets rather then just replacing at minimum the doors. yes actually i do.

Its best not to assume

Frankly I quite like that kitchen as is, as least from the pics.

Sure it's all personal preference, but I really dislike these "new" trends of having everything bright shinny white, it's just awful. It's especially common in those newly reno-for-sell houses.

A few things to consider, painted white cabinets (DIY or professional) will eventually lead to chipping, etc. especially accidental knicking with utensils - any dirt and marks are also more noticeable. Also, the fact that 'everyone' is going with a white kitchen these days indicates it's a fad, and fads don't often last long so your attempt at a 'modern' kitchen may be futile. Therefore, go with a look that you like, not because it's all the rage. Also having your cabinets painted professionally (especially with the many you have) is EXPENSIVE. If you're considering an all white kitchen - I would leave the countertops as is to have a bit of contrast, I really don't think having everything white (floors, cabinets, countertops is going to look good unless you get them all the same colour ad are going for a sterile, clinical look).

hierophant wrote: ↑ Therefore, go with a look that you like, not because it's all the rage.

I agree, but also - go with what you like, not with what you think is good. Meaning, don't avoid doing something just because your current kitchen is "good quality" or "someone else would like it" if that's not what you want. Someone else is not you, OP, and you're the one who has to live with it. I've been there, I've had a home with a really high quality kitchen, solid cherry cabinets, etc. - though I really didn't like the colours or style. We put off doing anything about it because clearly someone had spent a ton of money on it and it's "such a waste" changing and trashing something that's in great condition and meant to last a generation blah blah. In the end it basically made us hate the place. I wish we'd just torn it out and replaced it with even an Ikea style that we liked; going with something we wanted to live with rather than the more valuable, more high quality option.

Manatus wrote: ↑ I agree, but also - go with what you like, not with what you think is good. Meaning, don't avoid doing something just because your current kitchen is "good quality" or "someone else would like it" if that's not what you want. Someone else is not you, OP, and you're the one who has to live with it. I've been there, I've had a home with a really high quality kitchen, solid cherry cabinets, etc. - though I really didn't like the colours or style. We put off doing anything about it because clearly someone had spent a ton of money on it and it's "such a waste" changing and trashing something that's in great condition and meant to last a generation blah blah. In the end it basically made us hate the place. I wish we'd just torn it out and replaced it with even an Ikea style that we liked; going with something we wanted to live with rather than the more valuable, more high quality option.

Completely agree.

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ “Fixing it” by painting it white ... is pointless
And more than anything else could very well do exactly the opposite of what you want to achieve

It could CHEAPEN the entire thing
And make it look entirely out of place in this home

Only way you can fix this properly is to remove this current kitchen
And install another HIGH END ONE (which will be an investment of at least $ 75 K )

I think it's unnecessary to get rid of these cabinets and painting will not cheapen them if done right. I can only think of a few situations where it make sense to replace them (they're severely damaged, you want to change their placement or it costs more to paint them than to replace them).

OP you are better off getting a different house that either had a kitchen that you like or a cheaper house with a bad kitchen which is really due for a Reno and you can make it your own.

If you want white, then you can hire someone to do it, it'll be a few grand (I'd guess 6k?) and they'll do all the work, including door removal and professional spraying with a catalyzed finish. It'll hold up fairly well. You can also DIY, which will save you most of the money, but you have to be careful to do it properly - use high quality products and take your time. I recommend a final topcoat of a poly to really improve durability once the underlying paint's cured. I recommend against full gloss - it's easy to clean, but it's a pretty intense look for a transitional style kitchen, opt for semi-gloss instead (or even satin). Don't go below satin as you'll run into durability and stain resistance issues relative to the high-resin finishes.

Given your kitchen leans on yellows and browns, and yellowish colours don't look nice next to untinted white, you'll probably want to redo the countertop, backsplash and floor as well or it'll look bad. Or just don't change the cabinets, they are actually really nice.

ProductGuy wrote: ↑ OP you are better off getting a different house that either had a kitchen that you like or a cheaper house with a bad kitchen which is really due for a Reno and you can make it your own.

Thanks. We are not fond of these brown colors and the house price is very high (for us). Our thinking is that for this much money, it should be a house that we really love. Will take some more consideration ! Thanks everyone.

If we just replaced the Black countertops with some nice white Quartz, do you guys think would it brighten up the look?

lolbeast wrote: ↑ Thanks. We are not fond of these brown colors and the house price is very high (for us). Our thinking is that for this much money, it should be a house that we really love. Will take some more consideration ! Thanks everyone.

I also agree on taking this route. If you're replacing everything why stop short of the cabinets? They are not that expensive compared to the countertop, tiles, etc.

This kitchen is obviously renovated to fetch a high sale price. Buying this house just to redo it is the wrong way to go about this, the owners might have only recently finished it this way in order to fetch a higher price.