DIY Kitchen Update with White, Yellow, and Black(board) Paint by Andrea Landis

kitchen, paint, diy

DIY Kitchen Update with White, Yellow, and Black(board) Paint

By Our Concrete Home on Jan 28, 2013

Since we are in a waiting pattern on the prison bath and roof, I’ve decided to tackle a bunch of small projects to keep me busy. (Idle hands and all…)

Small Project #1: Kitchen Update

My first project has been updating our most neglected but most used room, our kitchen. Eventually, we will be renovating the kitchen completely, so I wanted to update the room without spending a lot of money or making any major updates. In fact, this project reminds me a lot of my renting days, when I did as many “improvement projects” as I could without major upgrades.

I broke my goals out into five tasks that I could easily complete over a couple of weekends.

Update & touch-up the cabinets
Paint the cabinet knobs
Add a blackboard wall
Deep clean the appliances
Organize the cabinets
Install a water filtration system

I was lucky, my first weekend on the job was the 3-day MLK holiday weekend. One extra day meant I could really dive into the project and check off a lot on my list.

Touch-up the cabinets

Painting the kitchen was the first project we did when we moved into the house. (You may recall the pink and mustard yellow color scheme it originally had.)

Three years later, the kitchen cabinets need some love. The paint is chipped and cracked, the painted knobs are worn, and the room just needs a bunch of sprucing.

For the cabinets, I decided to do a little paint touch-up. I cleaned off all the grime, then lightly sanded and painted the worn areas with a 1″ acrylic paint brush. In some places I had to add a couple of light coats of paint to cover the cracks.

Once I was done I left the cabinets open to let the paint dry and cure for two days.

Paint the cabinet knobs

The cabinet knobs also needed a makeover. I spray painted them a hammered silver, when we first moved in. I have to admit, at that point in my DIY career, I didn’t know how to prep metal for paint. Perhaps that is why the knobs were so chipped. This time around I took time to clean them and deglosser them before I painted.

I wanted to add a little punch of color to the otherwise white kitchen. I perused my spray paint collection, got some feedback from Nate, and decided on a sun yellow color. After three coats on each side, I let the knobs dry for two days before screwing them back on.

Add a blackboard wall

Besides the touch-up work, I decided to add a blackboard wall to the entry way into the kitchen. It’s right next to our fridge and pantry, so a great place to write up our weekly shopping list or anything else I need to remember.

I’ve never used blackboard paint before, so I followed the directions closely. After prepping the wall, I taped the sided and top and bottom, so we would have a 1″ white frame on the left and right of the wall.

Then I painted three coats of paint with a foam brush four hours apart. (I should have used a foam roller for a smoother application, but I didn’t have one on me.) I started this project late in the evening so I just put on Nate’s head light. That way I could see what I was doing in this dark corner of the house!

Three days later, I covered the paint with a light coat of chalk to cure the chalkboard, and it was ready to go. Of course the first writing on the wall is about Pixel. I just can’t help myself.

After the painting was complete, here’s the finished cabinets and knobs. The yellow is a really great punch of color on the otherwise white room. (Please ignore the ugly countertop. It isn’t changing until the remodel.) I plan on adding a few more punches before I am done with this update.