Hey guys! So just like everyone else, in quarantine I have picked up small DIY projects to complete around the house. One being sprucing up our bathrooms.
All the cabinets in our house both bathroom and kitchen are the builder grade oak cabinets. While some people may like them, I personally just do not like the look of them and I wanted to give our bathrooms a face lift without breaking the bank.
When I initially started the project I was planning to stain them to be more on the affordable side and that went terribly wrong. I had bought an “Espresso” colored stain thinking it would darken the cabinet door and it actually had more of a red tone to it which looked awful.
So I changed the plan, re-sanded the door and decided to paint them cabinets. All-in-all this project costed me roughly $50-$60 total for BOTH bathrooms. So I would consider that a win.
The Color…
When I was looking at inspiration for this project, I gravitated towards a blue tone for the paint color. I noticed a common color that people paint their cabinets is white. But with having two messy girls and a cream counter top, I knew it wouldn’t look right.
So once I knew I wanted to paint it a blue tone, I debated between a dark navy or on the lighter side.
I went to Lowe’s and made a game time decision on “Sweeping Rock” by Sherwin Williams. It’s a great center combination between blue and gray.
The Process…
To start off, we removed the cabinet doors and sanded both sides as well as the vanity frame. You can do this by hand or use an electric sander if you have access to one. We used an electric sander and it helped speed the process up!
Next I applied a paint primer to help the paint have something to adhere to. I will say that the primer is THICK so be mindful of that when brushing it on. In the beginning, it was slightly difficult to get the detailed areas covered while trying not to apply the paint heavily. Eventually I was able to get it down!
Once I got the thin primer layer applied and dried to both sides of the doors and the vanity frame it was time to paint.
During my research, it was recommended to paint the cabinets with a foam roller which I did attempt. I tried using one the first couple of times but found that I didn’t like the end result that the roller left.
The process I found to be easiest was to paint the outside frame first, then move on to the middle area which required even and long strokes. While I painted the large middle areas, I would also work on the detail border around it. It also helped to use a small craft paint brush to help get the paint into the hard to reach areas.
On the front side of the cabinets, I applied two coats of paint. The key is to the second step is top make sure the second coat is extremely light handed. Once everything was painted and dried for 24 hours, I installed the doors back onto the vanity.
Before the spruce up, the cabinets didn’t have hardware installed on them. So I bought some cabinet pulls and we drilled them into place.
The End Result…
VOILA! Here are what the cabinets look like before and after. Keep in mind I forgot to take a before photo of our guest bath. But they are identical to the master bathroom, just different flooring.
Click the images below to shop the products I used to transform our cabinets!
