Put some paint on it! Part 1

Ever see the movie 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'? The father used Windex as a cure for everything; have a pimple? "Put some Windex!" I feel the same way about paint, although definitely not for a pimple (then again, makeup has been referred to as "war paint"). Based on the title of my blog and its' contents from my first post I am sure you know by now that I am a savvy shopper. Paint is one of the most simple and inexpensive ways to update almost anything. There are so many different types of paint for every surface imaginable.

Since I have not chronicled every project before creating this blog, I will list a few of the things I have painted and my very basic knowledge on the subject.

We bought our 900 square foot second floor condominium in 2008 and it looks quite different inside now. The kitchen cabinets were my first and least favorite thing and had to go! Here they were:

 I think they are some sort of cheap material and a tiny bit of wood. My guess is press board covered with some sort of white overlay? I just hollered to my husband asking him what they were made of and his response was "I don't know what that's called...crap?" My thoughts exactly! The little bits of wood make even less sense, but it is in almost every house in this small growing city built around the 80's and 90's. Cookie cutter get-it-done-as-fast-as-you-can-build-it condo's.

Basic wall paint did the trick. I think the invention of the primer and paint in one is genius and has saved me loads of time and money. I asked the nice people at Lowe's what they would use over the cabinets, being in this area they knew the surface I was trying to cover well. They advised me to get the paint with primer and in a semi-gloss or eggshell finish. This job was time consuming but very basic: take the cabinet doors off  and paint the doors and the cabinet structures/frames separately. Do at least 2 coats and use sponge rollers instead of the normal ones you would use for texture on your walls. You want it to be flat and not noticeable that you painted them. Attach the doors back on and voila!

About 18 months after this I decided to do a backsplash with mosaic tiles. But I will cover that in another blog. The counter tops are definitely Formica or something similar or a very cheap laminate. That I will change in time, but it will be more difficult and expensive.

Here's funny story: about a month or two ago I began to hate the brown on the cabinets as my kitchen was already so small and it made it very dark. After 3 years I hated it! So I of course said to myself: paint it!

I went all white this time to open up the space and based on HGTV and Pinterest I have been seeing a lot of white countertops with white cabinets and stainless steel appliances. My original thought was that stainless required dark colored features around it, but I was very wrong and I am now loving my kitchen and am in there a lot more... in fact, there's dinner on the stove:

Added some new sleek modern hardware this time and it really made a difference. The cost of paint and hardware with differ obviously depending on kitchen sizes, but I only needed one gallon of paint each time and the hardware was the most expensive at about $3-4 a piece.
*Tip for hardware/cabinet pulls: if you chose a basic design stores will carry them in packages of 10 or more and you save some bucks!

Totals (these are approximate as I didn't keep track for the blog, sorry!):
gallon of paint + primer: $36
supplies: roughly $15
hardware: $70
Fresh kitchen: about $121 ...not bad!

 *See painting part 2 and eventually a did-it-myself backsplash blog...