why didn't you keep the wooden spindles? jk. nicely done.

Holy 1981 indeed. The horror, the horror! *hand flutter before forehead*

But really, that reno is fantastic. What an incredible update. Love the shiny beautiful countertops with the white!

I could not breath while looking at the "before" picture. Yikes. Wonderful upgrade!

WOW!!!!!!! WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!;)

Wow. can't believe it's the same kitchen!!! Very, very nice job. I love that you used the same cabinets.

I do think the yellow stove was pretty cool, though :)

Wow, wonderful job! And so simply done, without waste.

That is amazing. I read pretty quickly, but I don't think there was any information about how they got rid of the hardware on the front of the doors. They kept all of the doors and painted them, but in the original photos, the doors clearly have hardware on the center panel. I wonder if they just spackled over the holes and painted.

wow, that's amazing. The schoolhouse pendant lights look great

something about the old curtains make me sick to my stomach.

Where are the "oh that's ashame to remove the wood" people, usually they've chimed in by now.

@daylight - They've been stunned into silence by this amazing kitchen.

But really, I don't know how anyone could defend that horrible 80s cabinetry and bad wood paneling. It's just UGLY.

Lovely! I think the "before" version was more like 1961, though.

WOW!

I want to do this to my kitchen, but the cabinets have acquired an odor after almost 50 years. Is there any way to get rid of the smells within a cabinet? Should I sand them on the inside?

Amazing! How great. What a good job!

@Michael W., what kind of odor? If you have good weather and space, you can take them down and let them sit outside for a while.

oh man that before was amazing, I'd have been tempted to have kept it a 70s gem. After looks great.

1981? That kitchen would have been about 10 to 15 years old in 1981.

The results are great. Once again we see the power of paint to transform decently built cabinets. It's gone from dark and dated to light and timeless.

It looks like they made really good decisions. Unrecognizable!

Back in the day, people would have been drooling over that old kitchen!

I love the new one!

I'm thinking they must have spackled the holes in the cabinets. (I was wondering the same thing.) And who knows, they're crafty -- maybe they repurposed the removed wood elsewhere in their house?

I like that they didn't gut everything. Seems like on every home improvement show I watch, people feel like they have to gut, gut, gut.

Also LOVE those pendant lights!

FANTASTIC - also brava for not just burning the house down with that original kitchen

A great example of when wood should be removed/repainted/refinished.

Don't blame poor 1981, that kitchen was already ugly by then. But yeah, amazing transformation, for sure. Kudos to the owners.

Wow... just love that they kept the cupboards. What an incredible before/after!

laughing at the first comment...

Absolutely fantastic!!! Love, love, love!

I can see how a lot of people would think that kitchen needed a complete gut job - what a daunting room. I applaud Darby & Justin for having vision and imagination, and doing it themselves. So inspirational. :)

Just. Incredible.

I too had a hard time breathing looking at the first kitchen.

Was that color called Harvest Gold?

What an amazing update. I always admire projects that keep most of what is already there and simply improves upon it and transforms the space. My only, and I mean only desire would have been to see you use white hinges on the cabinets. But other than that small detail - congratulations!

Yeah to KaBOOMbox...this looks more like 1971 to me. In any case, the renovation is amazing (although for both before and after I'm salivating over the amount of counter space...)

meh..looks dated already..very hgtv

Oh my GAWD! I love it. Can I move in? Please?

Gorgeous, but is it weird that I like the yellow over?

@ Pi:
I don't think it's any one particular odor...just 50 years or so of absorbing cooking grease, dust, what have you. My mom's cabinets smelled exactly the same way when we replaced them a few years back. Just an old smell, really. But the fronts don't look nearly as nice as the ones pictured here. I don't think taking them down would be an option--they're too built-in.

That's just awesome.

WOW, hard to believe those are the same cabinets! It's absolutely gorgeous!

this kind of update makes me all teary... lol j/k. it's so nice!! really really well done!

Aside fro noting there's no microwave :) They are very lucky that their door style lent itself to updating. I had a 70's kitchen -medium/dark wood, harvest gold, chocolate counters and rust/chocolate/white backsplash.

Unfortunately someone routed stripes on all of the doors so they were completely unusable. Just this year, I completed round 3 of the renovation. Same cabinets, new doors/drawers/hardware. We were actually able to match the cabinet wood color! You would not know they were the same cabinets but the updated door style makes all of the difference.
I also had the centered knobs originally - what were they thinking back then! Like Darby & Justin, I removed a set of overhead cabinets and they just open up the space. That alone brings the kitchen into the 21st century.

I opted for granite counters and backsplash. I actually have granite surrounding the kitchen window. Added a modern Futuro fan and wall mounted TV. Also put in a solatube. Same room size but looks twice as big and much brighter. Paradise!

What a great redo, can't even tell its the same cabinets!

How could you paint over all of that gorgeous wood? /snark

One of the best Before and Afters, yet! AND without replacing the cabinets!!! Love it, very inspiring.

MichaelW -- try TSP. You can get it at your paint store.

please tell us how you managed the hardware being in the middle of the doors!!

I have to agree with pkyc00. White is so stark and stainless steel is so surgical. I really like the 1960s-1970s (this does not look 1980s to me) dark wood, interesting doorhandles, and color appliances.
It was refreshing to see someone keep the cabinets instead of laying waste to everything, tho.

@mdorothy: Thanks, I'll try that!

This looks similar to a ca. 1974 kitchen in my first house, except mine had brown carpet on the floor and a DIY ceramic backsplash with fruit on random tiles. I suffered with it for 10 years. I'm glad the homeowners took action now so they can enjoy their kitchen. This is beautiful.

Nice, especially the photos from the same angle/perspective. Impressive changes!

Wow!!! Looks fantastic! I just made my husband come over to my computer and look. Great job!!

that kitchen is more 1971 than 1981.

The original kitchen doesn't date from the early 80s - it is older than that.

Fabulous re-do, though, and great they were able to rehab the cabinets instead of having to replace - so much less expensive, and greener to boot!

The 80s would be country blue with be-ribboned geese in bonnets.

I love it too !! Can you come and renovate my kitchen ? Although, I have to warn you, mine is nowhere near the original condition of yours. Less ugly, but destroyed by two generations of careless owners. We'll have to gut :-(

On a side note, I loved that you took before and after photos using the same angle ! It's great to really see the changes !

Perfect!! Congrats....

i'd be interested to know how much this cost vs. a total re-do. my guess is that the costs are very close, with the re-do maybe costing even more than a total gut might have. hence the reason so many people just purge & start over again.

It looks great! My first house had those very same cabinets (the countertops and backsplash were already updated with cheap laminate at some point though). We also painted the cabinets and spackled the middle holes in the doors, and left off the upper doors on the sink wall. We didn't add any new hardware to the doors though. It's neat to see how amazing those cabinets can look with everything else updated too.

Wow!!!! Fantastic, just freakin' fantastic! It's gorgeous.

The space even looks so much larger.

Sorry, but that's

"Holy 1973!"

NOT Holy 1981! (been there, seen that).

same, just paint? - genius !

Fantastic job! I love how they kept the cabinets. The truth is when they are white and don't have the ugly hardware I like the lines quite a bit!

Beautiful and a really high quality job!

hoynotmanana.blogspot.com

I love this, my kind of makeover, definitely! I admit to thinking that the before stove was kinda cute, though. ;)

Had I never seen the before photos, I would have never suspected that the after once looked like that. Great job!

Who cares what year?! That's not the point! In 1981, paneling aside (we had wallpaper!), my childhood kitchen was all dark wood-like laminate and Harvest Gold EVERYTHING (all appliances and even the rotary phone, which I still have). This was an amazing reno -I am a fan of the clean-lined modern look, but this isn't TOO sterile at all. The molding on the cabinets really give them interest when painted white. I was wondering whether the holes from the old hardware were just spackled over. Way to save $ & the earth w/ keeping them! I mean yeah, there's a few things not exactly to my taste (no cabinet doors=dust for us -we are not that on top of things), and yeah, it's a lot of stainless & black granite, which is what was standard in our condo, but to each his/her own, and wow what a transformation. I cannot BELIEVE I am now saying that I find the yellow oven charming, but I would have replaced it as well. Bravo, Darby & Justin!

I actually really love the before... i know i must be in the minority, but I'm not ashamed!

Kitchens were so DARK in the 1970's (and yes, it is very 1973, all it needs it the Sears Mushroom Canister set on the counter).

I'm surprised people are surprised at spackling the center hardware holes. It works fine if you're going to paint, and if there are any dents or odd spots, you can take care of those and skimcoat to make the whole thing smooth. It takes an extra coat of paint to cover it, but that's necessary anyway.

My question is about all the painted cabinets we've seen lately: my condo came with painted-over cabinets very similar to these (original equipment from 1978 BTW) and the paint showed fingermarks and needed cleaning to the point of affecting the paint's finish. How do you clean white painted cabinets without messing up the finish around the handles or where greasy kitchen dust collects?

From a harvest gold hell to a heavenly hearth. Good job.

And yeah, 1971, not 1981. Really, folks...

Wow! You must be Really enjoying the transformation! I'm with Sunspot 4 - I would definitely say this is a left-over (no pun intended) from the 70s but with 1980s 'almond' appliances! Yikes! what were we thinking?? It makes me wonder what we will look back at in 20 or so years and ask the very same question...I still cringe when I see photos of me from the mid to late 80s!! Bon appetit!

Therese Z, I had white painted cabinets a few houses back and I used Mr. Clean eraser sponges if they needed anything more than a damp sponge wipe. Maybe it depends on the finish/gloss of the paint? If they're in really bad shape you could scrub them, lightly sand any mars and paint them out with a foam roller pretty quickly if you're not changing the color. My mom helped paint our current cabinets with shaggy wall rollers instead of the foam rollers I left out for her and the finish was atrocious, had to sand them all down and redo it after she left. Painted cabinets can be divine or hideous, depending on the skill and care that goes into them :)

Fantastic! Can't believe those are the original cabinets.

i liked the before... not most people's taste, i know, but if you're going to change it don't turn it into the most boring thing possible...

All that wood paneling is too much, but I would much rather have harvest gold appliances to the new stainless steel stuff. Whoever came up with that idea needs to rethink it. The upkeep on those is very high maintenance.

Great Redo - Bravo for reusing the circa 1971 cabinets!

Someone was looking for the name of the wall paint. I found it on their blog: Benjamin Moore: Camouflage.

Thank you all for your comments... I'm apparently late to my own party! The most common question was about the center hardware on the cabinet doors... we removed the hardware, filled with wood putty and lightly sanded before priming and painting. The wall color in the kitchen is Misty Air by Benjamin Moore. We do have a microwave, you can see it in the last picture on a shelf to the right. And yes, you are correct that this kitchen is more 1971... not 1981, but either way it was really old and dark. For those of you who were encouraged by the renovating the cabinets rather than gutting them would probably enjoy our orange bathroom that was also featured on apartment therapy a couple years ago...

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/bathroom/before-and-after-darbys-bathroom-makeunder-083759

Thanks AT for featuring our kitchen and encouraging your readers to use what they have! I always say it's amazing how far a little hard work & paint will take you!

I love Darby's blog. I love her kitchen, too. My favorite part is how they really opened it up to the living room and made it feel nice and clean--while I love the open-shelving-style cabinets, I wonder how easy it is to remove the vertical strip that isn't necessary post-doors? That thing could go.

And if you haven't seen their fridge, you should run to her blog, that thang is amazing.

love Darby's blog and her sister's! wonderful renovation ... any details on costs or timing on a project like this?

I had that exact kitchen! Same cabinets, same paneling. I updated mine in a very similar way. Now it's my favorite room in the house.

Very nice!

Have to say, the after is GORGEOUS but I think there is probably someone out there that could have rocked that yellow stove! LOL.