Husband: “Why is there a white painted door on our doorstep?”
Me: “Umm, I don’t know, maybe it’s a sign from God to paint our cabinets?”
Husband: probably rolls his eyes.
When I had first talked about painting our cabinets white about a month ago in this post, I think that same day I called the paint contractor I have used before to see if he would make me a sample of what our cabinets would look like if painted. He said he would and I made sure he knew to clean, sand, prime and paint with a sprayer so I could get the full effect. But then a month goes by and I figured he forgot about it, and so did I until it showed up at our house.
When I first saw it I was in love. Then after a few days I didn’t love it as much. Now I don’t really like it at all. I think it’s the whole painted oak thing. I’m not crazy about the woodgrain showing through, but I liked it at first. I would just get tired of it. Or maybe I just don’t love white cabinets like I thought I did? There’s no telling.
Here are a few more pics so you can get the full effect too.
I swear I’m done talking about painting our cabinets white because it’s not happening. It’s good to get it out of my system.
And in other non-related news, Silhouette has a few promos going on right now if you’re interested. You can buy the machine for $225 and it will come with 2 rolls of their new premium vinyl, 1 roll of transfer paper, and a home decor cd. It’s a $395 value so that’s a good deal. The second promo is that you can get 25% off any of their new premium vinyl. Use the code DECORCHICK at checkout for both promotions. Both deals are good through January 22.
What’s new with all of you? Have you visited some of the links from the mess party? They are awesome!! I’m still making my way through them all, but wanted to say thank you all SO much for participating and showing us your mess. It’s freeing. And if you noticed, I didn’t even move the pop-tart wrapper off of the counter in the above picture.
I appreciate you and this was such a fun party! There’s still time to link up too if you’d like. :)
xxoo,
Decorchick!
Such a great idea to get a sample first. I never would have thought of that. I’ve been wanting white cabinets forever but now I’m not so sure. Would I really love it? Would I be sorry? Thanks for the post! (My husband is an eye-roller too)
I think I commented when you first mentioned painting the cabinets, but I think you’ve made a good decision not to paint. Maybe you could save up for a snazzy new countertop instead? That’s what I was doing until the kids came along…they’ve somehow drained my ‘granite fund’ (=
i honestly dont like the white at all! i didnt like it before when you blogged about it. I’m a natural oak type of girl. I love browns! Your kitchen is so beautiful as it is right now! don’t ruin it! :)
I think not painting them is the way to go! Your kitchen looks absolutely gorgeous from the pics, it’s fun to dream though right?!
I love seeing whites practically on everything on different blogs, but I’m not brave enough. My whole house is in different shades of brown and it would mess the “vibe” of the house. I think the white is nice, but I do prefer what you already have. Your kitchen is beautiful, so I don’t think there is a need to change the color of the cabinets :)
-Angelica
I love white cabinets, very happy with mine… BUT I do not like painted oak — the grain is too wide and funky to work with the paint. So I’m with you on this one :) You have a lovely kitchen!
That certainly was good thinking on your part to do the test run. I had white cabinets in our last home….I would never have them again…I love wood and the grain of it. Have a great day.
I’m so glad you decided that you didn’t like the white cabinet idea! Your cabinets are so beautiful as is. Yea for you!
If it were honey oak like my cabinets I would be on the paint side, but your cabinets are gorgeous! I’m sure glad you contacted the painter and had the sample made rather than full speed ahead!
I love your cabinets and I am so glad you aren’t going to paint them. I don’t like the look of the grain showing through either when the wood is oak. You cabinets are stunning. Keep them. Hugs, Marty
Brilliant to ask for a sample! You know I’ve been right there with you with wanting to paint my kitchen white. But now that I have my new paint color on the walls and am working at making it feel more like “me” I’m accepting my wood too. I’d love to have a white kitchen someday, but perhaps in the next house.
We finally finished painting our cabinets! They were dinged up like something awful! Still have to shop for new countertops. But if you get a chance check it out! =)
http://hanlonfamilyo4.blogspot.com/2011/01/light-and-bright.html
That is hilarious! I so bad want to take the carpet off my steps but my husband does not want to. I had my mother in law come help me and we pulled up the carpet and the steps are nice and wouldn’t be a lot of work! I even wrote a blog entry about it! I want to do it so bad, but he is so against it!
It is probably a good thing you did that, now you will feel good about your decision. I am not one for painted doors where the woodgrain shows through either. Ours are white, but no woodgrain. I love you dark cabinets with your counters and backsplash much better too!! Sorry I didn’t get around to posting our “messy” basement, but I can assure you…it’s still messy!!
well at least now you know! better now than after you had them all painted!
I am not a fan of oak and the grain showing either. I recently refinished an oak dresser and I used wood grain filler. It worked like a charm.
I like some white cabinets as far as looks go, but I had white cabinets once and the maintenance…what a pain! They were hard for me to keep clean.
I have white cabinets. I hate them! I would much rather have the color you have. It’s seems so much warmer. After seeing your cabinets I’m so glad you’re rethinking doing them white. Trust me, if you painted them white you would have to re-do your entire kitchen. You said your cabinets were oak. What color stain is on them? I really love that color and have been wanting to take my white cabinets down and find a way to change them to a color more like yours. I saw an episode on DIY showing how they change white laminate cabinets to ones like yours by sticking an oak veneer on it and then staining them. I figured that would be much cheaper for me than installing new cabinets altogether. Thanks for the inspiration!!
Smart idea to get a sample! I inherited my white painted cabinets from the previous owner, and yeah the wood grain you can see at certain angles does kind of bother me.
I don’t like painted oak either. Need to use some gesso to fill-in the grain. That would smooth them out and it’s a lot easier than wood filler, although it does still need some sanding, just less. Usually used in art/painting.
Girl, I’m telling you! You do not want white cabinets! I have them. They came with the house. Another thing to think about is just get new door fronts or maybe add hardware!
Take care!
Jennifer
Good decision! My vote on the cabinet painting was NO. Yes, I have visited the messy house links. Wow. I had to stop looking. It made me want to get up and clean and my house was clean. lol
I love a white kitchen. I’ve had two houses with oak kitchens and couldn’t wait to have a white kitchen….it’s so light and bright. I never attempted to paint my oak kitchen cabinets but I did paint the oak spindles on my staircase white. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do…I had to do numerous coats(oak isn’t very porous) but was very happy with the results-an oak banister with white spindles. If you still want white you could always just replace the doors. I agree the idea using of using jesso as a fill in sounds good too.
I love the dark cabinets or white if the only other options is light oak. But painting them myself…..eh! not so much! :)
I kinda love the white. :)
I think your decision to leave them the way they are is the best. You have a lovely kitchen. 12 years ago, we re-did our kitchen and chose white vinyl clad cabinets. Our kitchen at the time was so very dark that In “rebellion” we chose all light colors and white appliances. Now I think it is too cold and sterile feeling. <3 Paula
You have pretty cabinets to begin with -it’s a darker oak , not the orangy oak we see so often, so i’m sure it’s good to be able to see the white and feel good about the beautiful kitchen you have. My cabinets, on the other hand, are the pickled cabinets so popular in the late 80’s! Since we can’t afford to redo them, painting is our only option – plus I have wanted a white kitchen since we built the house ( builder said he couldn’t get white????and we listened to him!?!) So grain or no grain, I am going white. Wish me luck!
i’d paint ’em and tell him the paint fairy came! love my white cabinets…and everything else that’s white. i can’t wait to meet you at blissdom!
Maybe you could try glazing the cabinet to see what that would be like? Then you could have the painted and custom look.
Oh, I love how the white turned out in that sample, I may be the odd one out, but I like the look of the grain showing through on the white! I have a brand-new house and I wanted white cabinets, but they didn’t offer them, so I had go with with honey oak, with the plans in my head that I am going to paint them this spring/summer. I may do the uppers a creamy white and the lowers black, this house just has too much oak and I can’t wait to lighten things up! All the trim is honey oak, too, I hate it, but don’t know if I can even think about painting all of that! I had white cabinets in my old house and while the upkeep is a little bit more, I still loved them!
You are too funny!
Our new farmhouse has all brown cabinets, even though I begged for white. I’m still trying to decide if I should paint them or not.
Wonderful idea to get a sample!! It served it’s purpose quite well!
A couple of years ago we wanted to renovate our kitchen, but didn’t want to live through a complete gut job. Our old oak cabinets were awful when we moved in and we painted them white just to brighten up the space. Since we had already painted the cabinets white we hired a cabinet company to add crown moldings and repaint. This time the cabinets were painted a lovely cream color and glazed with a mocha glaze. The oak grain gave the glaze some place to “stick ” to and actually added to the high end look. We added granite countertops and backsplash and new stainless appliances and our kitchen looked gorgeous!
I think you made a wise decision , not to paint. We painted all of our trim white several years ago. I liked it not loved it the first year, now I am sorry we did it. I wish we had the wood back. I love seeing the grain of the wood.
I repainted my oak cabinets myself and love them. My cabinets are sandstone with a chocolate glaze. Once I put on several thin coats of a sealer the wood grain was not as noticeable.
A little late, but this is the first time I have read your blog and thought this might be relevant. It is a post from “This Old House” on painting cabinets. They use “brushing putty” as a primer and to fill in the grain…
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/step/0,,20315665_20696218,00.html