but what about renters?!

paint tastefully & paint back [when moving out :) ]

I've been renting for years - and I'm looking at my 2nd paintjob for the kitchen this spring...

...they started out off-white when I moved in, they became dark brown about 9 years ago - I'm currently debating between a dark charcoal grey and that interesting red in pic #15.

I've been wanting to paint my boring white cabinets a medium-dark grey. It'd look lovely with the wood counters but I worry that doing so will make the appliances, which are white, stand out way too much. Any thoughts on this?

@tmoore: why not paint them like the first pic here and use white all around but your grey color instead of the aqua? could work...

I love painted wood cabinets. I think wooden cabinets look dated, especially when you have wood floors, too. I guess it's because the feng shui balance is off if there's too much wood.

I saw some old recycled cabinets painted a pale gray, almost white, in a store -- the effect was surprisingly beautiful and modern. They used matte paint, the same as the walls and a white trim around the floor and ceiling. I wouldn't have thought matte practical for cabinets, but it did look nice.

Normally, I am somewhat resistant to gray and black because I think of them as gloomy, but this certainly wasn't.

i'm not a fan of bare wood cabinets at all. white, light green and black are my favorites for the kitchen. kind of classic and soothing - the soothing is key considering my culinary anxieties.

For bepfs and tmoore--try the dark gray! I just painted my lower kitchen cabinets (modest '40s wooden ones like in #5 above) a color called Cracked Pepper by Behr. I used a satin finish which gives an effect somewhat similar to chalkboard paint. I kind of wish I had used semi-gloss, but in any case I love the way they anchor all the white in the room--white tile counters and walls, white upper cabinets, and white appliances.

I have black cabinets and LOVE them!

Oh I LOVE that pink!! I'm sure I'll be one of the only ones to enjoy it, but it's glorious in that space.

I like the idea of painting the bottom cabinets a different color than the top cabinets. I have natural wood cabinets now and am always thinking of how I should paint them. I like all of these ideas except the crazy one in #11.

Anyone who thinks this is an easy DIY should rethink. Painting cabinets to look good, with even surfaces, and all, is hard. Take off all the hardware. Sand, fill, prime, and paint.

Rehang doors. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. And on a rental? No way.

My boyfriend and I did this, and in a rental! Our landlord had installed the cheapest possible laminate/white foil cabinets and gave us full permission to make it look a bit better. The cost was minimal, but it was indeed a HUGE amount of work. The removal of all hardware, priming, painting several coats on both the fronts and a ton of hard-to-reach areas, sanding, retouching, rehanging, re-knobbing... It was a huge pain. I'm still glad we did it, because the difference was truly remarkable and now we seriously love our kitchen.

BEFORE:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3618/3582086100_c9e63ea466.jpg
AFTER:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2440/3895498358_506a6c53f8.jpg

Urbanroutine - Thanks for posting your pictures. I like the after, looks like it was definitely worth it!

Urban--wow--you guys did a great job. And thanks for illustrating what should have been obvious--to make this work, it takes a lot of hard work.

I wish AT bloggers would get people who've actually done some of these fixes to write the posts, rather than just winging it.

urbanroutine-
amazing job! can you tell me the steps you took to paint laminate cabinets? my cabinets are dark brown home depot fake wood, and i would love to paint them white... but didn't know if the paint would stick to laminate.

thanks!

Oof! Those red cabinets in that last picture look AWFUL!

We own, but cannot paint our cabinets because... the ceiling is wood, and the cabinets go all the way up. It sounds weird, but it is actually quite nice. I had always wanted a kitchen with white-painted cabinets, and we seem to have bought the only house where that would look weird.

(Sorry for the terrible quality of the pics)

Ceiling (with light fixture)

View 1

View 2

So... we're in the long and tedious process of refinishing the cabinets instead. They used to have varnish on them... 20 years ago. Add in some new hardware (pulls and hinges) and it should look a lot better.

I do like several of the traditional pics above in white or black. I'm not a huge fan of the colored ones, but to each his/her own.

For renters: if it's a small kitchen, and you are dying to paint the cabinet doors, what about removing and storing the old doors, then looking for inexpensive replacements, painting them however you want, and installing them? Obviously, this is only feasible cost-wise and time-consuming-wise if there aren't too many doors, and you can find really cheap replacements. Or, if you're handy, and have access to a half-decent workshop, you can make some out of ply.