Before & After: Painting A Kitchen Island On A Budget

After 13 years our maple kitchen cabinets had become worn and dark, more gold than light maple in tone. I also noticed our light maple laminate floors had taken on a pink cast, while the interior doors and trim were more pecan in color. The different tones clashed making the room look tired and worn and this bugged me. It was time to freshen things up.

I’ve always appreciated the easy on the eyes classic white kitchen, but my husband prefers the look of natural wood.  Thankfully he was onboard with my ideas for change. We agreed on a budget and I called two professional painters for cabinet quotes. Both had different thoughts on how to do the job, and their prices seemed fair for the big job, but way more than we wanted to spend. My husband suggested I paint them and use the savings to replace our old countertops. That got me excited! Still, I had to mull it over because looking at all those doors and cabinets, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and much more than a weekend project. I finally mustered the courage and went for it starting with this island.

BEFORE:  This is the spot where we stood to do most of our food prep. The island was fairly small with no extra counter space to sit and eat, even though we kept a stool at one end. The outdated black, white and salmon laminate top was scratched and dull.

AFTER:  Sanding, priming and painting the island Acadia White by Benjamin Moore made a tremendous difference. A carpenter friend added thick, decorative trim moulding to each end and gave the cabinet a really nice custom look.

We chose a black soapstone countertop with creamy pearlescent waves running through it. This particular stone is similar to granite and very dense and hard to scratch. It’s easy to clean, too. We had the corners squared to give it a more updated look.

Adding six inches to one end of the counter made it much more comfortable to sit at for the kids. And we saved $600 by purchasing a remnant already in stock and ready to cut.

Mouldings give the island the look of a custom piece of furniture now.

I replaced birdcage medal knobs we had on the unpainted cabinets with glass knobs from Hobby Lobby for $2 each when on sale at 50% off. The birdcage knobs sold on eBay for $2 each so the knobs were a wash in cost. Love it when that happens!  To avoid adding holes to the drawers I kept to one knob on the three main drawers like we had before. The cup pull is from Lowes and cost $4.

Kitchen Island Savings: 

SAVED $500 DIY sanding, priming, painting island cabinet and trim moulding

SAVED $600 by purchasing an in-stock remnant top

No cost for new glass knobs

Labor to install wood trim: Priceless. We got a really good price from our friend and he added crown moulding to the ceiling in the room, also.

Total savings was about $1,000 after buying paint, supplies, trim moulding and paying for carpenter labor.

I’m happy with how the island turned out and it has made a huge difference in the look of the kitchen. The room feels airy, light and clean. It has that classic look I’ve always dreamed of having for my kitchen. It was well worth the effort. And overcoming my fears for taking on a big project like this gave me the courage to paint the rest of the kitchen cabinets. I will post about those soon.