Shocking cabinet makeover! Wait until you see how chalk paint transforms wood cabinets in jaw-dropping before and after pics. DIY magic under $500!
Chalk paint is one of the easiest ways to update your kitchen without breaking the bank. Your kitchen is the heart of your home, and it deserves to look its best. If you’re tired of your outdated or worn-out wooden cabinets, there’s a budget-friendly and creative solution: chalk paint.
Chalk paint has gained popularity in recent years for its ease of use and ability to transform furniture and cabinetry.
Today, I’ll guide you through the process of painting wood cabinets in your kitchen with chalk paint, helping you achieve a fresh and charming look that will breathe new life into your cooking space.
Learn how to chalk paint kitchen cabinets with these simple tips!
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Before and After: Transforming Kitchen Cabinets with Chalk Paint
It’s truly incredible how a few cans of paint can completely transform a space. These wood cabinets were in great condition but totally outdated. It was time for this 90’s dated country kitchen to go!
This kitchen is located on the north side of our home and receives very little lite. To brighten it up, I wanted to paint my kitchen cabinets white. Here’s how I did it.
Why Choose Chalk Paint for Your Kitchen Cabinets?
With the confidence to paint these wood cabinets, I needed to figure out how to paint cabinets white. What kind of paint should I use to remodel the kitchen?
After much consideration, I narrowed it down to using milk or chalk paint but ultimately decided to paint the wood cabinets with chalk paint. While I preferred a chalk paint finish for my cabinetry, both are very good options.
Why? Because there’s no need to pre-sand! Painting cabinets without sanding sounds very appealing, doesn’t it? Since I am all about doing a little less work to get the job done, chalk paint it is!
Chalk paint is an excellent choice for kitchen cabinets many reasons that include:
- No Sanding Required: Unlike traditional paint, chalk paint doesn’t require extensive sanding or priming. This means you can skip the laborious sanding process and get straight to the fun part: painting.
- Matte Finish: Chalk paint dries to a beautiful matte finish, giving your cabinets a rustic, shabby-chic look that’s perfect for kitchens with a farmhouse or vintage aesthetic.
- Easy to Work With: Chalk paint is forgiving and user-friendly, making it ideal for beginners and experienced DIY enthusiasts alike. Its thick consistency minimizes drips and provides excellent coverage.
- Versatile Color Options: Chalk paint comes in a wide range of colors, allowing you to choose the perfect shade to match your kitchen’s decor and your personal style.
Comprehensive Guide to Painting Cabinets with Chalk Paint
Chalk paint is an easy way to give your kitchen a new look. Once you decide that you want to paint the cabinets, it’s time to choose the color. If you are unsure what color chalk paint to use, pick a cabinet door you do not regularly use and test the colors on the inside of that door.
Selecting the Perfect Color Palette
Before you start painting, decide what kind of kitchen you want. Do you prefer traditional or modern? If you have a kitchen island, should it match the rest of the kitchen cabinetry or do you want it to stand out?
Finding Quality Chalk Paint Suppliers
There are lots of great chalk paint suppliers out there. Technically, chalk paint is a registered trademark of the Annie Sloan brand. But there are several other companies that make chalk-style paint so there are a lot of brands to choose from. And there are DIY recipes for making your own chalk-style paint. I chalk painted my kitchen cabinets with Annie Sloan. for this project, I used Annie Sloan Old White.
Essential Supplies List for Chalk Painting
- De-greaser
- Sandpaper (light grade if you choose to pre-sand)
- Sanding Block (if you want to distress cabinets after chalk painting)
- Chalk Paint
- Small, Medium, and Large Chalk Paint Brushes – You will need different sizes for different areas of cabinetry. I mainly used a medium brush.
- Polycrylic finish
- Painter Pyramid Stands (4 per cabinet door)
- 1″ and 2″ Foam Brushes
Step-by-Step Painting Process
When chalk painting kitchen cabinets, the biggest thing to keep in mind is that it’s easy to do but takes some time from start to finish. I assure you the time and effort you spend will be well worth it.
- Remove doors from cabinets. Mark each door so you know where to put it back when you re-hang them. If you have external hinges like we have, set them aside. Our hinges were brass, so we sprayed them with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint.
- Remove items from cabinets if you do not want to risk getting paint on anything. It is very important to wash and de-grease all cabinets and doors well. If you use the same de-greaser I did, follow the directions then wash and rinse the cabinets and doors.
- It is not necessary to pre-sand cabinets and doors before painting cabinets with chalk paint, but you can if you want to scuff the surface up painting with chalk paint.
- Paint all the cabinet bases first, then do the doors. Use the painter’s pyramids to keep cabinet doors off the ground.
- Start with the inside of the doors first and if possible, start with the doors of the cabinets you don’t look at as often. When doing projects like this, I find it takes some time to get into a rhythm so it’s good to start with doors you don’t normally look at until you get a feel for it.
Do you have to do it that way? No, but doing it this way built up my confidence that the kitchen would turn out great and I wouldn’t mess it up!
I did two coats of chalk paint on the bases and doors. You may need three if the color paint you use needs it. After the chalk paint is fully dry, it is time to distress the cabinetry. If you don’t want the distressed look, you can skip this part.
Techniques for Distressing Chalk Painted Cabinets
Know what you look you want before you start distressing. Do you want a light or heavily distressed look?
I distressed the edges of the cabinet bases and the doors. Where the pickled oak veins showed through on some of the doors, I lightly distressed those areas to hide the veins because they looked like stains.
Go light on the distressing at first because you can always distress it more. If you distress more heavily than you want, you can easily go over it again with paint. Keep in mind this process is very forgivable so if you make a mistake it is easy to fix.
Protecting Your Chalk Painted Cabinets
After distressing, it is time to apply the top coat to protect the color. I chose polyacrylic over polyurethane because it yellows less. That said, polyacrylic does still yellow the paint a little more than wax.
Different poly finishes yellow more than others so test them before applying. You can use wax if you want, but the poly will protect the color better in a high-use area like a kitchen. Follow the directions on the can of poly and allow it to fully dry between coats. And use the same process as chalk painting kitchen cabinets. Start with cabinet bases first, then the doors.
Refinishing Cabinet Hinges: A DIY Approach
Before putting the doors back on, we sprayed the hinges, allowed them to dry, then re-hung the doors. We upgraded the handles to drawer pulls and knobs from Restoration Hardware. From start to finish, this part of the kitchen renovation took about two weeks.
If you have wood cabinets and want to renovate your kitchen, I highly recommend painting them yourself. It was time-consuming but very easy and inexpensive to do and I am very proud of the result.After the Shocking Makeover
Maintaining Chalk Painted Cabinets: Tips and Tricks
Maintaining your chalk-painted kitchen cabinets ensures they look great and last longer. Here are key tips and tricks:
- Regular Cleaning: Use a soft cloth and mild soap to gently clean the cabinets. Avoid harsh chemicals that can damage the paint finish.
- Apply Wax or Sealant: Protect the paint with a quality wax or sealant. This step should be repeated yearly to maintain the protective layer.
- Touch-Ups as Needed: Keep some paint on hand for quick touch-ups. Chalk paint is easy to sand and reapply, making it perfect for fixing chips or scratches.
- Avoid Moisture: Prevent prolonged exposure to moisture by using dehumidifiers or exhaust fans, especially in kitchen areas prone to dampness.
- Use Gentle Cleaning Tools: Stick to microfiber cloths and soft brushes to avoid scratching the paint surface.
Implementing these simple care steps can significantly extend the life and beauty of your chalk-painted cabinets.
See the Stunning Aftermath of Chalk Paint on Kitchen Cabinets!
My kitchen is lighter, brighter, and has a more updated look! It’s hard to believe what it looked like before right?
Considering I did a large majority of this project by myself, let me be the first to tell you that I would totally do it all again! It took me two weeks from start to finish and was tiring but so worth it in the end. And it only cost me a few cans of paint to achieve the look!
Long-Term Review: 5 Years with Chalk Painted Kitchen Cabinets
It’s been almost five years since I painted the kitchen cabinets with chalk paint. And it has held up really well. When things drip on them, I am able to clean them off with no stains. The finish still looks great and there is minimal yellowing.
I am still very happy with this DIY and am so glad I did it! If you are even considering painting your cabinets, I say, GO FOR IT!!!
It is a very achievable DIY and you can totally do it too. I’ve been asked a lot about how to chalk paint cabinets so check out my FAQ with lots of answers here.
The Hood Vent
Oh my gosh but you gotta see the hood vent! Isn’t that finish amazing? Click here to see how I used General Finishes gel stain to refinish the wood hood vent. Doesn’t it all look awesome!!! I love how it turned out and can’t believe I waited so long to do this total room makeover.
More About Painting Kitchen Cabinets
Have you ever painted kitchen or bathroom cabinets before? If so, what was your process? Let’s chat about it in the comments below.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today!
Enjoy your day! xoxo
The Backstory of This Kitchen Makeover
It’s been about almost four years since I decided to paint the wood cabinets with chalk paint. And do I regret it? Absolutely not!
When we bought our house twenty three years ago, we loved the kitchen the moment we walked in. The former homeowner, who was a cabinet installer who recently updated it so it was all new when we moved in. He gutted the whole room to install someone else’s “garbage” cabinets and built that awesome hood.
At that time, we were so impressed by how much time and craftsmanship went into the remodel, that we left this room as is. About ten years after we purchased our home, we ripped the roof off of our small three-bedroom ranch and added a second floor.
The kitchen was the only room we did not touch during that renovation because we still liked it and couldn’t afford to do a kitchen remodel. Over time, the kitchen really started feeling old, outdated, and dingy.
The cabinets are still in great shape, so I wanted to lighten them up. To keep the project budget-friendly, I looked into how to paint the kitchen cabinets white.
After doing a ton of research, I pulled the trigger and did it. The result is amazing and it was totally worth the effort. Wait until you see how easy (but time-consuming) it is to paint wood cabinets with chalk paint!
Before I Painted the Wood Cabinets with Chalk Paint
The kitchen is situated on the north side of the house so it does not get a lot of bright light. Our cabinets are pickled oak and were in pretty good shape so painting them was a no-brainer.
That said though? I was a little nervous to do it. Because well, they are kitchen cabinets and I didn’t want to ruin them. While I had experience refinishing furniture pieces, the kitchen is a much larger and riskier project. To take something like that on was very intimidating.
Building Confidence
Once the decision was made to paint the cabinets, I spent months on Pinterest researching every how-to article I could find on painting kitchen cabinets.
I consulted with friends who are experts at refinishing things. I studied how to refinish wood cabinets, and poured over different techniques while picking up tips and tricks. And I was looking for all sorts of painting cabinet ideas.
To build my confidence with cabinetry, I practiced on smaller items to get a feel for what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to do it, and to understand the supplies needed. When Chris gave me the green light to go ahead with the kitchen remodel, I was totally ready to go!
Yes, there was that little voice in my head saying “Stacy are you sure you want to do this? This might not be a good idea, cabinets are a big deal, blah blah blah.” But I’ve learned that voice sometimes needs to be told to zip it!!!!
Because you know what?
It’s just paint! What’s the worst that could happen? I’d have to paint it again?
If my options were: to keep the kitchen as it is or buy a few cans of paint – I was buying that paint!
My Renovated Kitchen Decorated for the Seasons
And now that the kitchen remodel is done, I LOVE decorating it for the seasons. Click here to see what it looks like in spring. And I love how it looks for fall. It looked so good last year for the holidays, that I tweaked it for this year. And I love how it looked!
