Lake House Kitchen Makeover

This is the tale of one of the fastest makeovers I have ever witnessed or participated in. Total time from brainstorm to completion was only 9 days! We were at our friends lake house on Hyco Lake in NC for the July 4th holiday. Homeowner and dear friend Annie said, “Hey, I’m thinking about painting these cabinets!” I had already painted them in my mind {anyone else mentally redecorate people’s houses?}, so I squealed in delight when she said the words out loud! I think if she was not entertaining a house full of people we would have been in the car to Lowes 5 minutes later.

Before with Screens

We planned out the project right away. Annie wanted to somehow get rid of the screens that were in the top cabinets. Without a pantry she lacks a place for food storage. The fact the kids could see all the treats in the cabinets were not working too well!! She came up with the idea to put bead board in the centers of the cabinets to close them up.

Where I came in!

Jump forward 5 days to July 9th. I arrived at the Lake House at 9:00 pm and was greeted by this! Superwoman Annie had begun at 2:00 pm and already had all the cabinet doors off and was just finishing up the first coat of “Innocent” by Behr, paint and primer all in one. I grabbed a brush and jumped in while her Hubby was cutting the bead board inserts.

We then made the executive decision that cutting out the screen was going to be a near impossible {and total PIA} task. The screening was mounted in between 2 layers of wood. We scrapped that idea and decided to mount the bead board behind the screen. {Much to Norm’s relief!} We painted until 1 am when we finished up the second coat.

Power Pancakes

Superwoman was back up at 7 am and cranked out some Multi Grain Pancakes {Krusteaz Mix from Costco – super yummy!} and a pot of coffee. I slumbered until 9 {what a friend I am!} and then we hit it again. Executive decision was then made that we needed a third coat. Ugh! But it really needed it!  We munched on these pancakes all day!! Pancakes, Coffee, Blueberries and Water and laughs got us through!

Our View!

We stayed super focused even though we had this fabulous view! We rocked and rolled.  After the third coat was on, we started sanding and glazing!

Painted, Distressed and Glazed!

I of course have done the sanding and glazing thing quite a bit, but it was Annie’s first try. She caught on right away and blew me out of the water with her speed. We used the Ralph Lauren Tea Stained Glaze from Home Depot.  {P.S. The Home Depot paint department verified that they are getting rid of the RL paint, so I will be stocking up on this glaze…it rocked!} Norm then got cranking on attaching the bead board inserts with Liquid Nails and finishing nails.

lower cabinets with new knobs

We put new knobs and handles on the doors and Annie started attaching those! Don’t you love the new look against her wide plank blue floors???

Bead Board Inserts

The bead board inserts turned out great too! That glaze hit those vertical lines so nicely!

After (before clean up!)

At 6 pm we were staring at this scene! Check out my favorite dude Max in this shot. I LOVE me some Max. He is a Yellow Lab on Basset Hound legs! Such a sight.

At 7 pm we “fluffed” ourselves and Norm took us in the boat to the Marina and treated us to a big fat dinner. The pancakes were long gone by then. I was so amazed that we got it done that fast! I’m so used to doing my projects solo. It was so much fun to hang together. The time just flew by!

I flew the coop back to my abode late that Saturday night. {I still had more to do at my home on Sunday!}

Total spent was roughly $175 for paint and materials, including the new hardware!

Are you itching to paint your kitchen cabinets? If you can find a friend to pitch in and help you can get it done in a weekend! I hope this inspires you that you can do it if you dream it!