Painted Kitchen Cabinets

As soon as I saw the gorgeousness of Emily A. Clark’s painted kitchen cabinets, I knew I had to do the same thing to ours.  She took off her cabinet doors and painted the back wall Urbane Bronze by Sherwin Williams.  You can read her full post here.

Doesn’t that look great?!  I chose to paint the cabinets in our kitchen that already have glass doors.  I’m not sure what you’ve got going on at your house on Friday nights, but two Fridays ago, after James went to sleep, this was what I was doing . . .

I taped the sides, applied two coats that night and a third coat in the morning.  I used the same paint color as Emily- Urbane Bronze by Sherwin Williams.  I used flat paint (because our cabinets are flat) and she used satin (that’s what she had on hand). The picture below was taken just after the third coat was painted, while it was still wet, and it dried darker than that photo depicts. The photos with the dishes in the cabinet show a truer representation of how the color looks dry. 
After putting everything back in, I realized I needed all white dishes and pottery, because the cream and olive green dishes I previously had in there didn’t look too good with the dark grey background.  So, I ended up relocating those dishes to another cabinet and added in more white.  You can read more about the “before” HERE.
I love how the white pops against the dark background.  Too keep it from being too stark, and to add a touch of fun, I brought in a couple mini potted boxwoods. (I also cleared off the area underneath to keep the focus on the pretty cabinets). 
I bought the tall pitcher at Target and the two smaller pitchers at Homegoods.  You can also get them really cheap here.
I’m terrible at eyeballing how things will look, so I am one of those who purchases, tries it out at home, then returns.  (I originally had three tall pictures, but liked the balance of one large and two smaller, so the two large ones went back to Target). 
The two large bows were also from Homegoods and the coffee cups are from Target- nice and tall so you can see them with the doors shut.  We already had white plates, small bowls, and the cake stand.  I could have just spray painted some off-colored objects, but I didn’t have the size and shape I wanted. 
Because we have doors on our cabinets, I had to keep the items inside centered so they looked nice when the doors are closed.  
I love how the cabinets turned out and only wish I had painted them sooner!  Thank you Emily for the inspiration.  
I know it’s back to school for many of your households- hope you and your kiddos have a great week!
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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

81 Comments

  1. I also loved her post about painting the back ( that fantastic color), totally made me want to do the same thing. Unfortunately I have too many other projects i'm trying to finish, so I haven't done it yet.. but I LOVE yours!! They came out great 🙂 And I like how the white 'pops' against it, totally grabs your eye! Great job 🙂 ~Bre

  2. This is gorgeous! I love the color. I also love how the white dishes look with the dark grey background. I would like to say that my husband and I are partying it up on Friday nights, but that doesn't happen here either, don't feel too bad.

  3. Megan, this looks fantastic!! I love the color and white contrast is perfect. Yesterday I was just thinking that I need to add glass fronts to my cabinets, and now this seed has been planted along with it. 🙂

  4. Love it. I've been contemplating painting our kitchen cabinets for years. Just haven't gotten up the nerve to do it. I tried painting the guest bathroom cabinets and it turned out horrible. I'm hoping that over time and reading a ton more tutorials that I have honed the technique but it still makes me nervous to do it.

  5. Wow, what a difference! The colour contrast really makes your pretty dishes stand out, it looks gorgeous!

  6. Crap. This makes me want to paint all of our cabinets white 🙂 I love the way yours turned out, and I think I need to add a little green to mine, now, too.

    (Thanks for the link, btw.)

  7. I like the way you styled the cabinets! Love the idea of painting the backs that dark color. Emily has such great ideas! Such a party animal on a Friday night lol. Sounds like fun to me!

  8. Omg this is fabulous! I love the color with the white dishes, BEAUTIFUL!
    XO
    Kristin

  9. Omg this is fabulous! I love the color with the white dishes, BEAUTIFUL!
    XO
    Kristin

  10. Megan, Absolutely beautiful! I'm a big fan of Emily's (she designed my kitchen, which I'm in the process of implementing now), and I love that you used her cabinets as inspiration. 🙂 Yours look amazing!

  11. So the tall middle pitcher from Target isn't cut off when the cabinet door is closed..why not bring that pitcher down one shelf and add the cake stand in the top middle shelf? Or maybe you tried that and the tall pitcher doesn't fit in the middle center shelf? Other than that..it looks great!

  12. Wow!! This look absolutely incredible. I have one open cabinet in my kitchen and considered painting the back a dark navy, but was worried it would look like a black hole floating above the gray cabinets. You are proving me way wrong here!

    Camille

  13. That is gorgeous. I have one glass double cabinet like that in my kitchen too. I am DOING THAT. Can I ask a question? I love the look of flat paint, but how do you wipe down the cabinets? Is it a special type of flat paint?Everything I've read says to use semi-gloss or eggshell at the very least in a kitchen as flat paint will wipe off. Any info you have would be great!

    1. I use any kitchen cabinet cleaner or dishsoap and water. The paint hasn't wiped off, but we only used flat because our builder recommended it as more modern?? I think semi-gloss or eggshell in the kitchen would be fine too.

  14. Do you mind sharing where you got your chevron dishes?! I am completely OBSESSED with them! I love them more and more in every post that they are pictured 🙂

    Stephanie

  15. Looks great! I loved the chevron ones but I can't ever resist a lot of white, either. I really like the contrast. Also, you look great – you're so in shape! I've been working full time and going to law school for four years so I've got 20 lbs to lose after the Feb bar exam 🙁 I'll def be revisiting your post about your meals and workout at that time, and probably again whenever I decide to have a baby in a year or two. Haha.

  16. Oh my! Those don't even look like the same cabinets! Such an incredible difference, I am always impressed what a little paint can do. The white dishes really make a statement now. Consider my jaw dropped!

    xo,
    Jen

  17. it's so timely that I've come across this post! I follow Emily too but missed the color she used. I've been wanting to paint the backs of my glass cabinets a grey color too and I'm going to steal the exact same gray ya'll used (in flat as you did). I'll let you know how it turned out!

  18. It looks really nice. What about adding the chevron mugs at the bottom where the white ones are? I think it will help to break up all the white. Just my two cents.

  19. Love this DIY! Gray is one of my fav colors to work with now so that is awesome to see! Love how is came out and it really makes your dishes stand out.

  20. Megan, I love the color you chose for the back of your cabinets. Especially love with your white dishes. So classy and it makes everything pop. I featured them over at my blog today. Thank you for the inspiration and have a great day! Oh and so glad to see you are going to be at Haven. I have my ticket and am hoping to be there too! 🙂
    http://www.favoritepaintcolorsblog.com

  21. I was looking for white color kitchen cabinets and wanted to know, what color did you use for your kitchen cabinets. They look beautiful.

  22. Love these! I'm building a home and trying to make sure I like my paint colors. I am thinking of using Divine White and Kilim Beige as the trim and wall colors. I love the coastal look when people do the walls one shade lighter than the cabinets, but I cannot decide if I'm brave enough to do that. I'm used to my walls being saturated with the color Latte. I love this post b/c my designer told me to use Urbane Bronze for my shutters and stuff outside. I have built-in cabinets in the living room and she suggest I use Dorian Gray on those and the kitchen island.
    I wonder what your cabinet color is in the kitchen? What is your wall color?
    This post is such a blessing to me. I just typed in the color Divine White hoping to see what it looks like on cabinets!

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