Kitchen cupboards

On to the cabinets! This has been so much work we're taking baby steps. Actually, more like four huge ones. First the floor, then the countertops, now the cabinets and lastly we'll put up the backsplash. We have saved SO much money by doing this all ourselves. I can not even begin to tell you how cheap this project has been. Cheap, but SO much work. Phew. For the cabinets, we refaced our plain laminate ones by adding molding around the edges and and beadboard wallpaper to the center. 

Here they are to begin with:

See that ugly wood lip at the bottom? We ripped that right off. See ya! That gave us this:

We were able to borrow a miter saw from Jeff's uncle, which saved us the expense of buying one. Thanks Todd! Jeff then cut the molding to fit the doors, and I glued them on with liquid nails, and then cut the beadboard wallpaper to fit the center:

Once the pieces were all cut, I used wallpaper paste to adhere it to the board and removed any bubbles. This took a good 8 hours of our day from removing them to this point. LOTS of work.

Jeff used the foam remains from our window seat as a knee pad while cutting the molding. He spent the whole day bent over that saw. He must love me, right? :-)

Here we are after a full day of work, cabinets framed and ready for paint:

We took a break the next day, it being Sunday, and got back at it Monday. So grateful for the break in between, because we are old and our backs were sore from being hunched over working on them all day. Monday started with paint. I wanted the cabinets to have an antique look to them, so I chose an off white color. The exact color was cottage white from behr in semi-gloss.

Once dry, we were ready to glaze. Antique glaze that is. I was so scared at first, but it ended up being easy! Anyone who doesn't know that is,  it's a dark glaze you brush on, then wipe off to highlight the little nooks and crevices. Did I really just use the word crevice? Anyways, here it is with the glaze brushed on:

Ahhhhh! Scary, right? Yeah. After letting it sit just a few minutes, I wiped it off with a damp rag, and here is what it resulted it:

Thoughts? I didn't think I'd like the "dirty' look, but I am in love! I am so excited with how they turned out!! Next up, we applied a coat of varathane polyurethane to protect everything. I rolled it on with my handy dandy foam roller. We hung them, added some beautiful handles and knobs (in oil rubbed bronze obviously! ;)) and voila! The whole process took a good 3 days work, with Jeff and I both hard at work. 

Ok, here are the pics: