Photos: Red Cottage / Farmhouse "Antique" Kitchen Cabinets *FINALLY* Complete!

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I didn't think I'd ever see the day where I could officially say..."The cabinets are finished!". This cabinet makeover was a tedious, major project and I'm so glad that it's behind me now. (If you'd like to see photos of all the steps involved, please see this cabinet progress entry.) It feels great, though, knowing that you can take any ho hum item, be it cabinetry, furniture, or even a knick knack of sorts, and completely revamp it into something totally different and unique. Our cabinets were standard oak, early 1990's cabinets...nothing special about them. Now maybe they look as if they belong in the early 1890's:)

Here is what our kitchen cabinets looked like before the remodeling work began.


And now after the cabinet facelift...



















I treated myself to new white dishes after completing this project! I'm so glad aI painted the inside of the cabinets, too:)











My favorite part...I bought these little scrolled carvings at Lowes and hubs nailed them on to the false drawer fronts:)











Now that the cabinets are completed, we'll be moving away from the whole cabinet area for a while and will work on putting beadboard halfway up around the kitchen and dining area. Then we'll put up our pine ceiling up! We'll come back to installing the new countertop and backsplash after all that:)

By the way, if you are contemplating painting your own cabinets, be sure to check out these helpful pointers courtesy of RemodelMySpace.com before you begin. Enjoy!

UPATE! The countertop is in and the brick paver backsplash is installed and painted! I couldn't be happier with the results! What's next? We have to add the finishing trim to our new tung and groove ceiling, intall crown moulding, paint the ceiling a creamy white, install beadboard 4 feet high and paint it, and then install our hardwood flooring...so much yet to do but it's getting there!







2008 Update: To see the latest kitchen photos with completed ceiling, moulding, paint color, and lighting, click here.

2009 Kitchen Update photos:

Y ou all left such lovely comments in my last entry about our new hardwood flooring. Thank you! It was a backbreaking job as you may well know, but we are very pleased with how it turned out. I'm glad to hear that some of you have the same flooring and have been happy with it! For those of you who are eager to rip out your old linoleum or carpet, I understand! It will happen, and even if it takes much longer than you prefer to get to that point, it will be well worth the wait! {You'll be kissing your new floors, too, I'm sure!}

I was disappointed to see just how grainy the photos were in my last entry as I looked at them in theFor now, the kitchen is my playground. morning light so I rephotographed them and replaced them. I spent some time, too, capturing some little kitchen vignettes. {I know it seems like the kitchen is really the only place I photograph vignettes, but that's because the rest of the house is pretty much a great big embarrassing "before" that needs a lot of work still.} For now, the kitchen is my playground as far as decorating fun goes, though the studio is getting there...

Last week I shared with you some photos of the kitchen floor "surgery" we had to perform recently in order to prepare for the laying of the hardwood, along with some additional history about our kitchen. In short, I've been waiting for this flooring for a looooooong time.I feel like the hardest parts of the kitchen remodel are behind us It has been a slow, labor intensive journey getting to this point with our kitchen. We've been working on it little by little for over three years now, but when you're on a budget, slow progress is better than none at all, right? We still have to tackle the trim work, install/paint beadboard, and work on a few other small projects I've been dreaming about for a while, but I feel like the hardest parts of the kitchen remodel are behind us. We've knocked out walls to install windows and french doors, installed a new plank ceiling and lighting, added trim to and then painted our standard honey oak cabinets, installed a new countertop, backsplash, and faucet, replaced the appliances, and finally over the course of the last two weekends, laid the hardwood flooring.

Just about all the accessories you see in the photos came from Goodwill or yard sales. A couple of things were purchased from Ebay. I think my favorite recent finds are the old mortar and pestle {it was $1}, the cake plate and dome {$5!}, the antique cookbook {$1}, and the Morton's salt tin {.50}.

I hope you enjoy these random shots of our "kitchen in progress". Can you picture it with white beadboard around the entire perimeter? Can you picture the dining area with a fireplace? {More on that in the future!} Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for this space!

First a "before":



And now a few million "afters":











































I wasn't going to show you this side of the room since there are boxes of flooring stacked up, but I wanted to tell you that I'm making plans to put a fireplace on the wall that the map is on. The kids LOVE this giant, laminate map and they all want it in their room. One map, three kids sharing two rooms. That still leaves not enough map to go around. Hmmm...




And a before and after taken from the same angle. {Maybe there is potential for the rest of this house afterall?}:





If you like this project, I'd appreciate your vote in a contest I've entered at Repair-Home.Com. Just scroll to the bottom and click on "Rollover to rate this".

Also, you can rate my kitchen now on HGTV's Rate My Space...Thanks so much for your support!