We recently renovated our kitchen from a dark green space to a bright and white DIY Farmhouse Chalk Painted Kitchen and we are so thrilled with how it turned out!
We moved into our home just over a year and a half ago and and the kitchen was a great space – I loved the size and the location of the cabinets. But it felt very dark. The cabinets were painted a dark sage green, the counter was a greenish granite and the flooring was a dark, almost black wood. It was very pretty, but it showed EVERYTHING. We really wanted to lighten up the space, without spending a ton of money on a kitchen renovation.
I did a lot of research into different ways to paint the cabinets and decided that a chalk paint finish was the way to go for us! I wanted to be able to do a slightly distressed finish that would hold up great and be easy to do.
I have used the Plaid FolkArt Home Decor Chalk Paint several times – it’s a great paint that goes on well and is so easy to distress and finish. It also holds up great to use and that was important to us too, with all the wear it would get in the kitchen.
I’m not going to do a tutorial for the renovation – there are so many great kitchen renovation tutorials out there already. But I’ll give you some tips I learned along the way!
Chalk Painted Kitchen Tips:
- Plan on it taking some time. :) It’s a huge money saver to redo your cabinets by painting them, rather than replacing them, but it does take quite a bit of time to do it right. We worked for almost a month on the process, and our kitchen isn’t huge. It was so worth it in the end though!
- With the chalk paint, we didn’t have to do any sanding or refinishing. Our cabinets were already painted, so the new paint went on easily. You will want to make sure the cabinets are clean and dry before you start.
- Do several light coats instead of trying to do huge heavy coats. You will find that the coverage is better and you will keep the details of the cabinets this way. It also helps to give the cabinets a nice clean coverage without brush strokes.
- Have plenty of surfaces on hand for setting up the cabinet doors. You don’t want to be painting on the floor so I’d recommend a lot of cardboard boxes to set the doors on. They are much cheaper than using saw horses and you can easily move them around.
We have lived with the renovation for a few months now and are still so happy with how it looks and how it is holding up! I am still amazed with how bright the kitchen looks now!
We also painted the walls and redid the flooring. We chose a pretty light turquoise for the walls and you can find all the details on the flooring here.
I love how the cabinets look with the furniture in the room as well – they go so great with the hoosier cabinet and all our other vintage touches.
I redid our barstools as well – they were covered with a boring red fabric so I recovered them with a couple vintage napkins. They turned out so fun!
We are so happy with how it turned out!
I’d love to answer any questions you have about the process – if you have any leave them in the comments!
You might also like these farmhouse style projects. . .
Vintage Floral Mod Podged Ladder Shelving
I do have one question. I want to use chalk paint on an unfinished stool what are the steps to this process ?
What a wonderful painted kitchen.. You shared. It was amazing. Thanks for sharing it.
What a great finish! Love the look of you new kitchen.
I just love your ‘new’ kitchen! I have been thinking about redoing our kitchen since the day we moved into our house( almost 6 years ago). It has one small window and dark cabinets and dull, lifeless beige backsplash tile and countertops. The one thing that has stopped me from painting them is that we live in a bit of a posh neighborhood and I am worried if we go to sell that my painted cabinets won’t go over well…
I live your new kitchen with the chalk paint, however, the bar stools are great. Where did you get them? Or are they a flea market find?
I meant to say I Love your kitchen!!
Looks great! It all flows well and accomplishes your purpose of increased light.
Great job! Love the vintage touches
Amazing, what a beautiful transformation!
Love the red touches, especially your bar stools with the vintage napkins added to them!
Hannah x
It looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing with us at #OvertheMoon Link Party. Have a great week and see you at next week’s OTM. Pinned and shared. :)
Lovely! Our neighbor did this and it does work. I am sending this link to my daughter. Thank you!
Love what the paint job did for your kitchen . And I like those bar stools too. The red touches offset it well. Thanks for sharing at Family Joy Blog linkup!
Hey Bev, the transformation is flipping brills! I adore your hoosier cabinet. I’m gearing myself up to do the same to my kitchen cabinets too, but in the mean time we’ve been drawing murals, shopping lists and recipes on them with chalk markers. I won’t lie it’s a lot of fun x
I absolutely love your kitchen renovation. And I love all the vintage touches in it. Nicely done!!!
Your kitchen is so fresh and inviting. Love your projects. The stools are adorable. Vintage and so sweet. Thanks for sharing at DI&DI.
Your kitchen looks wonderful! In addition to the painted cabinets, I really like the lighter floor and the vintage décor pieces. It looks like a fun and cheerful space, now.
You did such an amazing job! Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMatters link party!
We need to do our kitchen cabinets. Did you wax your chalk paint after? Love how it all turned out. We are at the mid point of our renovation. I’d love to wrap it up this spring/early summer.
This is wonderful! Thank you for sharing this with us at Funtastic Friday link party.
Your kitchen looks really beautiful. Chalk paint idea is very amazing. I have also updated my kitchen recently. I have added some new decoration pieces in my kitchen such as Himalayan salt lamp and candle light holders. They give such a beautiful warm glow. Himalayan salt lamp is also a natural air purifier which makes it an amazing decor item.
Excellent combination of colors, perfect match of retro style farmhouse kitchen. Highly appreciate your skills & creativity.
Thanks for sharing such amazing information with us. This is wonderful.