Help with updating our kitchen

[AlisonCO]

Hi. Our current kitchen is orginal to the house (1983) and we want to update it without spending tons of money. Currently we have real hardwood in there that is a medium color and in great condition. The cabinets are yucky dark wood with old knobs. The appliances are all newer and white. The counters are laminate in a light brown. Wall are a dirty white.

Here are my ideas - please let me know what you think:

Keep floors, appliances and counters
Paint cabinets - white??? light tan
Put up new hardwear - simple maybe brushed silver
Paint the walls - sage green
Install new more modern sink.

Do you think that white cabinets and white appliances will be too white? What else could I do with the cabinets? Maybe paint them a light tan? We would like to replace the counters at some point - maybe in a year. The dining room wall that joins the kitchen is a cream/light yellow color.

Thanks

[citrus619]

I just downloaded these to put in my journal, but I came accross you here and thought you'd like to see what we did...

We painted our cabinets Dove White By Benjamin Moore (a creamy white)
Changed hardware to brushed nickel.
We got a new dishwasher and refrigerator because we had too, but kept the white stove & microwave (so you can see what that looks like with white cabinets)
and used Formica laminate as a cheap way to upgrade the countertop. (I think that cost less than $100)
My father built the cabinet around the fridge to make it look "built-in".


Here is kitchen BEFORE (previous owners stuff):
Sorry for the bad scan...http://images.snapfish.com/34456%3C2%3B23232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2329%3D%3C85%3D%3B 3%3B%3DXROQDF%3E2323994%3B47648ot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/34456%3C2%3B23232%7Ffp3%3B%3Dot%3E2329%3D%3C85%3D% 3B3%3B%3DXROQDF%3E2323994%3B47654ot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/34456%3C2%3B23232%7Ffp54%3Dot%3E2329%3D%3C85%3D%3B 3%3B%3DXROQDF%3E2323994%3B48835ot1lsi

AND AFTER:
http://images.snapfish.com/34456%3C2%3B23232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2329%3D%3C85%3D%3B 3%3B%3DXROQDF%3E232397997%3B89%3Aot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/34456%3C2%3B23232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2323%3D%3A86%3D436 %3D3232%3A86345%3C43nu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34456%3C2%3B23232%7Ffp3%3B%3Dot%3E2323%3D%3A86%3D4 36%3D3232%3A86345%3C59nu0mrj

[AlisonCO]

OMG - that looks amazing! Thanks so much. Can you tell me more about the formica laminate? Where did you get that? Your old kitchen looks alot like mine and I love the white cabinets with the wall color, wood floors and countertops! Did you also replace the hinges on your cabinets with the brushed nickel? Did you sand the cabinets forst or just prime and paint? Thanks again!

[Pink_Converse]

citrus-I just posted pretty much this same question in the BEFORE AND AFTER thread but-How in the world did you find Formica that cheap? Did you install it yourself? Do you remember which one it was?

[citrus619]

Thanks for the compliments!
Here are my responses from the "Before or After Thread"

It was a lot of work, but worth it. My Dad was a big help (he is a contractor/builder), but we did all the labor ourselves, he just "managed" the job.

Pink-Converse ~Countertops are just Formica. We don't plan on staying in our house for too long (maybe another 3 years or so) and we didn't want to spend the money on granite.
We actually covered the countertop that was already there with the Formica laminate.

AlisonCO~ We got the laminate through a local supplier, but they do sell it at Home Depot. They just didn't have the one we wanted in stock, so we went somewhere else. It comes in huge sheets. We just measured it and cut it and glued it down with special formica glue. They sell all of the stuff at Home Depot. We used the countertop that was already there, we just sanded it down before so that it would stick.

The cabinets are painted Dove White by Benjamin Moore.
We painted them ourselves. They really came out awesome.
We sanded them down and then did 2 coats primer and 3 coats paint, with a light sand between coats to smooth out bumps and minimize brush strokes.

We searched high and low and could not find brushed nickel hinges that would fit our cabinets. We used the old hinges, but you honestly cannot tell at all they aren't brushed nickel.

[tenofcups]

Our plans are very similar to Citrus619 too!

We have all white appliances and plan to paint our 1970s wood and faux wood cabinets a creamy off white. I've done one door so far to test and it looks great! With that door, I sanded lightly, one coat of primer, and two coats of the paint. I think that will suffice for our doors.

We also bought new Formica for our countertops. This is not our "permanent" home and we just couldn't justify the cost of anything else. We ordered the Formica for our very large center island from Loews and will put the new formica on top of the old. For our counter, we actually ordered a new countertop (take the old one off and put the new one on) in the same formica. Each element cost about $100 (I think the whole new countertop was about $90; the sheet of formica about $110). We can't figure out why the sheet is more money than the whole countertop but we're not complaining!

We're still debating colors for the walls. I'm sold on a sage green but FH isn't. So we've tested a few colors and are going to keep looking...