Holly Thompson Homes

kitchen + bath + interior design showroom

  • Home
  • Holly’s Blog
    • Holly’s Blog
    • About Holly
    • Never miss a post!
  • Kitchens & Interiors
    • Kitchens & Interiors
    • Products + Services
    • Why Hire A Designer?
    • Our Retail Location
  • Custom Homes
  • Press
  • Contact
    • Our Retail Location
    • Contact
  • Design Ideas

Kitchen Cabinets…Should You Paint or Replace Them?

September 3, 2019 By Holly Thompson Leave a Comment

Painting kitchen cabinets brings me way back to our days of renovating our first home, a 1925 bungalow we owned in Spokane, WA. It had original cabinets, which had been painted pinkish-beige by the previous homeowner. I chose a new color scheme for the kitchen, which I had found on an inspiration card at Sherwin Williams. The only problem was that it was an exterior color scheme meant for a Victorian house. Somehow my love of it caused it to slip my mind that it wouldn’t be an appropriate look for a Craftsman-style interior.

We spend several days painting walls, cabinets, and trim, only to realize that I hated it. Thankfully, we had painted the cabinets white (the walls were a dark bluish green and the trim was painted brown) so the disaster was rectified with less effort than it could’ve been.

Then, we bought a 1948 house with a kitchen that had been redone to the nines in 1990. We had no money to rip out the kitchen and it was done so nicely (it had tons of big drawers and pull-outs, though I can’t say the beige-laminate-with-wood-trim look from Full House was really my style). So, I decided to paint them. You’d think I would’ve learned from the 1925 bungalow and painted them white. But I thought that was boring, so I picked pistachio).

Then we built a house, thinking all our problems would be over (since our “problems” were the constant projects of old houses). I got my first brand-new kitchen. I was excited. Then I found out it was builder-grade, dressed up with a pencil glaze to look like it wasn’t. Ripped. Off. Thankfully we sold the house before the finish started peeling off.

Fast-forward to our current house, and our 1990 builder-grade cabinets were too junky to paint. After all, you could tell. The uppers had that 1980’s cathedral arch, and were only 30 inches tall. We ripped them out and found used cabinets at ReStore that we painted to match. More about that here, here, here, here and here. It looked great, and then it didn’t. More about that in my article at American Farmhouse Style (link below).

The moral of the story: there are some really good reasons to paint your cabinets, especially if you’re doing the work yourself. There are also some really good reasons to rip them out and get something better.
Read all about painting or replacing kitchen cabinets in my article for AFS!

Enjoy!

Filed Under: kitchen, magazine, update Tagged With: DIY, kitchen cabinets, kitchen design, kitchen renovation, kitchen update, painting cabinets, replacing cabinets, Starmark cabinetry

« When to Hire a Contractor, Designer, or Architect
Are Barn Doors Too Trendy? »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Holly Thompson


Nationally-featured designer specializing in kitchens and whole-home design. Regular contributor to American Farmhouse Style magazine's online content. Expert at making clients' dreams a reality through exceptional interior design and highest-quality products. Visit her uniquely-curated showroom in Historic Downtown Franklin, TN. ASID/NKBA industry partner. Master's in Interior Design student.

Search Holly Thompson Homes

Recent Posts

  • A Little Recap of 2020
  • Well, HOME it is, then!
  • How to Survive 2020 at Home

Recent Comments

  • Are Barn Doors Too Trendy? - Holly Thompson Homes on How to Use Barn Doors. Well.
  • How To DIY Without Cheap Results - Holly Thompson Homes on DIY Painted Checkerboard Floor Tips
  • Holly Thompson on My Newest Project

Archives

Categories

hollythompsonhomes

Holly Thompson (HTH)
Working at home today alongside this kitty because Working at home today alongside this kitty because our showroom and offices are in disarray...We are moving to Main Street in downtown Franklin at the end of April! This is the week where my workspace gets dismantled. If you're familiar with main street, we'll be across the street from Starbucks, right next door to Finnley's!
#hollythompsonhomes #interiordesign #downtownfranklin #historicdowntownfranklin #franklintn #franklin #mainstreet #kitchendesign #interiors #smallbusiness #husbandandwifeteam
Lucy is enjoying her (my) favorite vintage turkish Lucy is enjoying her (my) favorite vintage turkish rug!
#relax #kitty #catsofinstagram #vintagerug #turkishrug #interiordesign #interiors #colorful #vintage #cat #ruglove #franklintn
This pretty English kitchen is turning out to be o This pretty English kitchen is turning out to be one of my favorites. Wallpaper is from @schumacher1889 and cabinetry is @starmarkcabinetry. Both are classics!
#hollythompsonhomes #englishkitchen #kitchendesign #newkitchen #interiors #constructionzone #interiordesign #interiordesigner #nashvilledesigner #brentwood #kitchenremodel #kitchenrenovation #schumacherwallpaper #designer #highend #starmark #classic #franklintn
Getting to borrow this fancymobile from @andrewsca Getting to borrow this fancymobile from @andrewscadillac today while my car is getting a recall part fixed. This thing drives like a racecar and seems to have some sort of heated cupholder, which is #1 on my list of important features I didn't even know were invented yet. What are your favorite car features? 
#cadillac #cupholders #nicecar #fancy #features #brentwood @cadillac
Happy Easter! This was taken in front of our new o Happy Easter! This was taken in front of our new offices on Main Street in Downtown Franklin...more info coming soon!
#happyeaster #easter2021 #spring #downtownfranklin #hollythompsonhomes #franklintn #visitfranklintn #historicfranklintn #historicfranklin #eastersunday #familypic #interiordesign
These fine people have been helping us with constr These fine people have been helping us with construction projects since they were born.  So thankful for their can-do attitudes (helped by pizzas and slushies, of course!). It's not always easy being a Thompson kid but we manage. They're taking over demo on this space and it's nice to have the extra hands.
#hollythompsonhomes #franklintn #visitfranklintn #historicfranklintn #historicfranklin #downtownfranklin #kids #cutekids #dayinthelife #construction #demoday #interiors #interiordesign #interiordesigner #contractor #husbandandwifeteam
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 · Holly Thompson Homes · kitchen + bath + interior design showroom

Copyright © 2021 · Hello Trending On Genesis Framework · WordPress ·