First thing is to clarify all the changes you will eventually make. You've mentioned wallpaper and paint changes, cabinet refinishing and new countertops, but is that the whole picture? Do you hope to make electrical, plumbing or flooring changes?

Also, order is not the only thing to consider, but materials when thinking about what will be done later. If you plan to get new cabinets eventully, you might want to seriously consider staying away from granite or quartz counters until then. Do everything else like a floor, refinishing cabinets, maybe new appliances, structural changes, electrical, plumbing and layout changes, and get nice laminate, tile, butcherblock or some other type of counter. Maybe save the granite or quartz for when the cabinets ARE replaced. Just a shame to ruin thousands of dollars worth of counter tops after a few years in order to replace the cabinets.

Sue

We will either paint the cabinets or stain them in a darker color, but we won't be getting new ones. I do want granite or quartz countertops. The walls will be textured and painted. Hubby doesn't know I want new floors, but I don't think what we have now will look good once everything else is redone. It's tile and I'd probably replace it with a different tile. I would love to have wood floors, but our house has flooded in the past. We're hoping we've solved the problem by having the yard regraded, but I'm still afraid to get wood. Is it just a bad idea to do one thing at a time or can this work?

Laurie

You need to make sure your cabinets can take granite or quartz. They need to be sturdy enough and level. If any flooding effected your sub floors, or joists, even a little waviness could effect the cabinets being completely level. In my case, the house had a fire before I bought it and we think the water used to put it out may have caused some cupping in the joists. You will need to check the levelness after you remove the current counter tops. Even being a little out of level or a small difference in height from one to another could cause granite or quartz to crack over time. I was warned about that when I looked into doing the same. I decided my outdated cabinets didn't look right with with the new counters anyway and wouldnn't really give the updated look I wanted. If the cabinets are sturdy enough still, you might be able to level them if they need it. Ask when you go looking for counter tops how to tell if your current cabinets are suitable. My KD wanted to examine them first, before even saying they would do a granite installation on older cabinets.

Thanks for the advice. Luckily, the water didn't reach the cabinets, but I'll still check to make sure they're level. We don't have subfloors here. Just concrete with the tile on top of it. I would actually love to have new cabinets, but I'm not sure it will be in the budget. Just to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with, here's my kitchen.

The water came in where the bay window is.

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honest opinions, do you think painting the cabinets white or staining in a darker color will be good enough? I thought about putting beadboard on the side where the bookcase is so it wouldn't look so plain. Or, should I think of investing in new cabinets?

Laurie

I like your kitchen, and I think what you have planned will be great. Here's the order I would do it:

1. Remove wall paper and paint the walls. This is cheap, though somewhat labor intensive, makes an immediate impact and doesn't take long.

2. Paint cabs white and change out hardware. More work than #1, but makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

3. Replace countertop and sink. Do these together. Since you've got two different countertop runs, you could do them one at a time if cost is an issue. Or, you could use something less expensive next to the fridge like butcher block to save money.

4. Backsplash. It'll be easier to see if you want to do something here after the rest is done. Looks like you've got a laminate backsplash up there now, so you might need to do this kind of quickly to make it look nice. Beadboard might be a great economical choice here.

5. Floor. It won't look perfect with your new stuff, but it won't kill the look either. At this point you can decide on new tile.

Anytime along the way - window treatments, new faucet, accessories, etc.

Kristen

I would really consider the cabinets before spending much on counters. It looks like you have builder grade oak which often has crummy access issues. I had some that looked similar and the drawers started falling apart. You will be really sad if after you spend $$ on counters, you become unhappy with the cabinets.

So, if it were me and I didn't want to buy new cabinets, I would not buy granite or silestone.

Good luck

I'll change Kristen's order just a bit...Take the wallpaper off, then prime the walls. Then prime and paint the cabinets (if you want an excellent primer that does not require sanding click on my name and look at my clippings for one I use all the time).

THEN paint the walls :)

I'd look to replace the countertops with a 2cm granite on a substraite so that you can level and stregnthen the cabinets if necessary. I'd also look at adding several enhancements to the cabinets guts from rev a shelf (things like full extension tray shelfs). Add new hardware (fill holes and start over...yours is in horrible positions) and do the filling before you paint :)

If you can afford it I'd also add a crown moulding to the top of the cabinets to enhance them, and update their look. It's an easy fix since you can paint that as well.

Now if this were my kitchen....and I'm a bit of a design freak (I'm a student designer so I think I know it all but probably won't until year ummm 3 heh heh) anyhoo, IF it were my kitchen and I had a limited budget, and had to work with white appliances (I'm assuming you have to keep them...and forgive me if I've offended but I don't like white heh heh) I'd consider a color paint for the cabinets. I just saw a kitchen in a design magazine with the cabinets done is the very softest of butter yellow's. GORGEOUS! And the white appliances looked fresh and updated, verses dated and cheap (yours don't look cheap, but some really do when you start to pair them with white cabinets or deeper color cabinets). I'd also consider a soft soft celery green. And if you like rustic, I'd go ahead and use a wipe down glaze on them to antique them when you're done. But without the antiquing they'd still be fabulous, and different. I like this idea because it totally disquises the "old oak" look, and it feels warm in a kitchen.

You might even find you like the flooring with a butter yellow cabinet. :)

I'd pull that white into the scheme as well by doing a backsplash in a simple white ceramic tile with gloss. Like a basic subway tile. Again it will make the white work well, and help the butter color pop a bit.

I was just looking at the counter...I see a bread board on it that's a soft (but dark) green. Softer than your chairs. If you took that shade and lightened it by about 80% it would be a gorgeous soft green that would really look lovely on the cabinets. Pair that with a granite/stone in a taupe shade (less expensive but still lovely) and knobs in an antique gold finish and you'd have one gorgeous kitchen to work with.

Be sure to frame an apple and save it to remind yourself not to use wallpaper again (which you'll say to yourself after trying to get rid of it!)

OH BIG PIECE OF INFO! Buy a wall paper steamer from home despot. It's about $50. Get the scoring tool and score the walls. The steamer will pay for itself in seconds. I've loaned mine to half of my neighbors.

I've tried the spray removers and can't understand why anyone would want that mess! The steamer is cheaper than renting one, and it will be available when you want to work on the project (if you don't want to do it all at once, which you won't because it's a LOT of work!)

How is the construction on those cabinets? Are the drawers solid?

I like the idea of yellow. I also like your bookshelf area. :) But beadboard will fit in nicely anywhere you need to dress up.

One thing I'd do is something about the fridge. Why o why do so many fridge cabs not go all the way to the front of the darn fridge? See how much trouble it would be to replace that cabinet with a cheap box from HD or someplace (reuse the doors, but molding will be a pain in the butt) and build that fridge in properly! Might not get it all in (may want to size for a cabinet-depth fridge in anticipation of refrigerator death) but it'll still look miles better. Beadboard the side.

It looks like a nice layout--I think updating it as you get around to it makes a lot of sense.

Kristen - Thank you!

kailuamom - What do you mean by crummy access issues? I would definitely be sad if I put in nice countertops and my cabinets started falling apart, but I haven't had anything fall apart yet. The house was built in '84. How long do cabinets last?

igloochic - It's funny how you can look at something for over 20 years and not notice something is off? Are you saying my knobs should be closer to the edge of the cabinet door or more towards the middle? I just had another thought, but I'm not sure how much it would cost. A friend of my mothers had new doors made for her cabinets and took them to the ceiling so she didn't have that open space anymore. I would definitely like the crown molding and maybe some other decorative wood trim to fancy it up a little bit.

The appliances are actually almond, which is probably worse than if they were white :) I keep telling myself I should consider stainless, but it just seems more high maintenance to me since it shows fingerprints.

I was actually thinking about painting the walls yellow (possibly Concord Ivory), so I'm not sure about the buttery yellow cabinets.

The wallpaper is going to be a big issue. They didn't prep any of the walls in this house before wallpapering. I really tore up my bathroom walls taking the wallpaper off, so when I had the kitchen done, the lady suggested just wallpapering over the old so that's what we did.

Thanks for all the ideas!

Laurie

fori - I honestly don't know about the construction. They seem solid to me. Here's what they look like on the inside if that tells you anything.

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Laurie

Those look decent. Maybe not top of the line, but I've had much flimsier and cheaper! At least you've got plywood drawer boxes and some solid wood fronts. I think they're worth painting (as long as they aren't falling apart anywhere) but do get another opinion or two.

I am in a similar situation with 12 year old builder grade partial overlay 30" oak cabinets (similar to yours) and white formica counters. We kept debating how we could update the kitchen without new cupboards, but in the end decided just to paint the walls, add black crown molding to the cupboards, replace faucet and lighting for now. We are saving to do both cabinets and counters in the future - decided not to waste money putting granite on crummy cupboards. Just my opinion FWIW!

I think it depends on how long you plan on staying in that home. For a "quick fix" and maybe to sell in a few years, paint the cabs and walls, get new pulls and get a new laminate countertop in a fresh color. In homes in certain priced neighborhoods, that'd be all that's economically feasable to do, especially if it's in a starter home neighborhood.

If you're staying, and at all contemplating putting in a higher quality countertop, I'd absolutely toss those cabinets and get better quality and tweak the layout if possible. That'd mean saving more money up front and postponing the reno a while, because if you change the layout any, you will have to start from the floors up. But, there's no way I'd put nice countertops on those cabinets. They don't have that many years left.

I think your kitchen has lots of potential. It's good sized and the table and window area will look great when you take the wallpaper down. Kirsten and Igloo both had good ideas. I especially like the idea of the green cabinets making the white appliances look fresh. I think that'll look really nice. I also think the bead board around the bookcase would spruce up the otherwise plain surface.

One thing I'll add is that it's also possible to get new cabinet doors. I don't know how much they are. I think rectangular panels would be a big improvement, tho you have a lot of doors, so it might be costly. Not sure.

I don't see any problem doing it in stages. We've done our whole house that way. The only problem I've had is that my vision keeps changing, so there's not as much continuity as there could be.

lots of luck.

live_wire_oak - How would you change the layout?

Laurie

My remodel was much like yours, remove wallpaper, re-tex, paint, freshen up cabs & new counters, although I did it over years. :)

Mine went like this:
Remove wallpaper
re-texrure
paint
painted cabs
new floors
new windows
new granite counters
new appliances
added hardware

Next thing will be lighting. Something I didn't think I needed to do until everything else went in. :) The only thing I would change is appliances, then granite! My FD fridge almost didn't fit. It was a lot wider than my old top mount. Again, mine was spread out over years, as time & money allowed. It is not a showcase, but suits me fine & is a HUGE improvement on what once was.

Before:
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After:
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I don't like tiny knobs on big doors...so that bothers me, but the real issue is...if you have one knob it should be lower on the upper doors and higher on the lower doors (did that make sense? heh heh) But frankly, a 3" or more pull would look better, and I'd bet you could use the existing hole on many of those doors and drill one below it for the other hole. You can play with looks in advance and see what works.

The green or yellow would look nice with both white and almond :) The green especially would help the almond blend easily. Now that I know they're not white...I'd be careful about painting in white. You'll immediately make the appliances look very bad by painting white on the cabinets surrounding them. Really...it would be a big mistake.

For that fridge, you could take a sledge hammer to the back wall and poke that fridge back into the framing area by taking out a few 2x4's (if it's not a support wall). You can build a header around the space and push the fridge back, then maybe some trim and you'll be amazed how much better it looks.

The cabinets I just removed from our remodel are the cabinets you have by the way. (VERY CLOSE anyhoo). The previous owner had changed to a corian type countertop and that did help with the look somewhat (but they were still orange oak LOL) and they didn't have any trouble holding up that counter :) I wouldn't put 3cm granite on them (because spending that type of money on counter tops when you need to do other things is silly) but I'd look to some of the prefab granite out there. We're getting a gold colored granite out of asia at $44 sq ft, with finished edges and a 4" backsplash, all installed, $44 sq ft for our new place (rental). I'll be putting that on top of some 1977 cabinets :) and they'll be just fine :)

fauxnecian - Your last picture showed up, but I can't see the 1st two. How old is your house?

igloochic - Glad to know your cabinets are older than mine. The bad thing about our appliances is that we've replaced them one at a time, so each one is a different shade of almond. I was actually thinking I would paint the cabinets an off-white.

Laurie

I have to mention that it is not always necessary to stay with the neighborhood in what type improvements are made. That definitely is the case if you are thinking of selling in a few years. If you are pretty sure you aren't going anywhere, resale is much less of a concern. For example, I am putting in a kitchen that will be higher end than at least 80-90% of the neighborhood. However, I don't plan on going anywhere, I am putting in what I like and want to live with, and the value of the house has gone up so much, I would have no worries about loosing money if I did have to sell for some reason. I wouldn't put a 100,00.00 kitchen in a 200-300,000.00 house, but if it is worth 75-100,00.00 more than what you paid for it, putting in a 20-30,000.00 kitchen so you can be happy there is reasonable, I think.

JMHO,

Well, when we bought this house in '84, we didn't think it would be our forever home and we're still here :) We're not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but you just never know. I know kitchens can sell a house, so I do worry that it would be harder to sell without being updated. If I could afford to spend $50K updating it, I wouldn't hesitate to, but that's just not in the budget.

Laurie

One more thing...I was thinking of also using beadboard on the wall to the left of the table. Would you also put it on the little pieces of wall between the windows and if you did, would you just put it on the part of the wall facing you or inside the windows?

Laurie

Laurie, My home is 30 years old. I can't see the pics now either & I could before. Let me see.

Not a fancy reno, but excluding appliances it didn't cost much over 5k.

What I meant by crummy access issues was difficult to get into cabinets and non-adjustable shelves. It appears that you have stiles between all doors, even when the door is fairly narrow - causing it to be difficult to use the cabinet as you would like. One cabinet that looked like may have an access issue was to the right of your oven.

Your cabinets do look like better quality than mine were. We started having trouble with the drawer fronts falling off and the drawer glides failing.

We're doing a total remodel, and here's what we've done so far:

*Took out the existing cabinets & appliances
*Steamed off the wallpaper
*Patched and primed the plaster/gypsum walls
*Installed canned lighting and fixtures
*Rewired electrical
*Replaced plumbing
*Painted
*Refinished the fir floors
*Installed white shaker cabinets

Now we're trying to decide about the counter, backsplash and appliances. I wish we would've chosen the counter material before painting the walls. Our paint is a buttery yellow that we're having a hard time matching to any granite. This is really holding up the project, and we're even thinking of repainting unless we can come up with other counter options.

So if I could suggest anything, choose your countertop and cabinet color before you select your wall color.