Our beautiful new cabinets!!

We have been saving for a while to get our cabinets re-done. It has been one of my pet peeves since we moved in that the previous owners put a beautiful granite counter top on not so beautiful cabinets. The cabinets were the manufactured oak cabinets of the 90's, they were water washed and worn out in quite a few spots and the sun had turned them kind of orange-yellow. They just really clashed with the almost black granite. Because the counter top was already glued down we would have had to break it to get new cabinets underneath, and we did not want to do that.

So for the past 6 months I have been looking into getting our cabinets painted or refaced. Anyone who has been over has seen all of the different samples hanging up. I really, really wanted Jon's uncle David to reface our cabinets. He does custom cabinets and he always does such an amazing job. We knew he was trying to be done with cabinets, so we asked him expecting him to say no. But he said he would do it!!! Yay, we were so excited. After I chose the colors I wanted, he got started. I chose knotty alder with colonial maple stain, with dark glaze for the cabinets. And mahogany for the bead board under the bar. I love two tone kitchens and I think both of these colors are classic.

Everything went really smooth except for Jon putting his knee through our glass top stove when he was taking the microwave out. We looked into getting a new glass top and it was $500 and 3 weeks special order, we said "forget that" and went to a used appliance place and got another stove for $300. I actually cried when I bought the stove, I hate spending unnecessary money. I love my old stove, it was top of the line convection oven. Maybe if I can save up I will get a new glass top for it and sell our new one. Our new one is nice too, it is also a convection oven, I just loved my other stove.

All of our boxes stayed in except for the triangle one, I really wanted a flat box above the counter. He made all new doors and new pieces of wood to go over the frames. We even got end panels, custom bead board panels, crown molding, and baseboards. My aunt Bambie was so kind to give us her old hardware that was hardly used to put on our doors and drawers. Uncle David put so much time into making everything look amazing. He glazed everything by hand and the finish is a 5 step process. Thank you uncle David!! We absolutely love our new cabinets. Every time I walk down the stairs I smile because I love it so much. And now the counter top looks fabulous on top of these beautiful cabinets, everyone has asked if the counter top is new too!

(click on pictures to see them larger)

Before:

After:

Uncle David and Grandma Smith working hard.

Without crown and baseboard and missing some hardware.