The inspiration came from the Lettered Cottage and the pictures to the left. They started with cabinets almost identical to mine so I figured I could do the same thing since I love the look of Shaker cabinets.

I knew the kitchen had to be greatly improved if I was going to sell this house for a decent amount so the cabinets had to look better. They were well-built, solid cabinets, but ugly. I wanted to keep the cabinets, but lose the ugly while not spending much money.

Many, many hours of work that required a lot of patience. This kind of project just isn’t going to be done in a day — not when you’re using a paint with a minimum 16 hour drying time and applying multiple coats.

I was able to go cheap on hardware — Overstock.com sold knobs in packs of 25 and pulls in packs of 10 at great prices. Since it needed 20 knobs and 8 pulls this worked perfectly for me. I used one of the extra knobs on a bi-fold pantry door. Some people spend hundreds on hardware. I spent $85. I wanted much improved — not exorbitantly expensive. I did have to go out and buy longer screws to put the hardware on since I had added 1/4″ to already 3/4″ doors. That was an extra six bucks.

I spent a lot more for the MDF than others on the net, especially when you factor in I had to rent a truck to get the sheets from the specialty wood store to Lowe’s where an employee cut the 4′ x 8′ sheets into strips for me. If you live in a larger city you would be able to get it much more easily and cheaper, especially if you have a pickup or van.

The primer and paint from Benjamin Moore wasn’t cheap, but when you go to this much trouble you want to end up with a surface that will last while being bumped and cleaned. What I found surprising at Benjamin Moore was how reasonably priced their supplies were — their paint trays were of much higher quality (awesome paint trays) and were cheaper than the big box improvement stores.

Item	Cost
knobs for doors and pulls for cabinet drawers from Overstock.com	50.93
Hinges for cabinets	34.27
paint supplies for kitchen cabinets, primer, deglosser – Benjamin Moore	46.91
sandpaper for cabinets	6.78
Paint for cabinets, tray, tack cloth –  – Benjamin Moore	52.73
trim for above cabinets, sanding block	15.35
sanding block, misc	25.13
2×4′s for saw horses (work surface for painting cabinet doors)	17.97
rent truck to pick up MDF	21.33
2 sheets 1/4″ MDF	36.96
sawhorse brackets	18.09
liquid nails	6.75
liquid nails and white caulk	4.48
sanding block	4.89
1 1/4″ screws for knobs on cabinet doors	6.10
TOTAL FOR PROJECT	348.67

I had someone give me one of the rollers at the left and I liked it better than the wool rollers Benjamin Moore recommended because it left a smoother surface to the paint when it was rolled and then dried with a smoother finish.

Hardware and hanging

I was PAINFULLY careful while drilling the holes for the knobs and pulls. After all the work I’d put into them I did not want to screw up one of them with a hole in the wrong place. I bought a template that was useless and ended up meticulous measuring and double checking before drilling. Somebody must have been looking out for me because I got them done with no boo-boo’s.

I hate doing hinges. Five screws for each and every one and two hinges per door. I was worried about getting the doors level and even and was again meticulous in measuring before drilling for the hinges. The doors had been crooked when I took them done, so I had filled all the holes and had to start all over again when doing the hinges.

It about broke my heart but I put a couple small scratches in a couple of doors while I was hanging them. Happy to report I touched them up and you can’t tell. So far the paint is holding up really well and food stains wipe right off.

Posts of what I did

Here are links to all the posts I did along the way that provide all the gory details of each step:

Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update Plans
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – painting prep
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – adding trim
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – painting boxes
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – painting tips
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – the materials odyssey
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – applying the MDF strips
Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update – Painting the doors and drawers

The cabinets look awesome so my $350 cabinet update really paid off. I almost can’t believe I did this all by myself.