Faking a Built in Refrigerator: Before & After

I did it!  After *months* of painting the kitchen cabinets, they are finally finished!!  This was a long, slow process, mostly because I kept getting distracted by other, more fun projects along the way, I'll admit:)  The painters who gave me an estimate for this job suggested that I use oil based primer and paint to help prevent scratches and chipping in such a high use area, which meant longer drying times, messy cleanups and plenty of fumes-- but I'm happy with the result.

We have spent a lot of our remodeling energies in this room, which houses both the kitchen and our small den/TV area (with the built in bookshelves-- check out that post here).  Since here is where we spend most of our time, we wanted to make it a space where we could really enjoy lounging, cooking, and entertaining. There are so many projects that I'm excited to show you from this room!! For now I'll choose just one or two...

Here is a before photo of the space how it was when we bought the house.  One change we knew we wanted to make right away was to paint the heavily grained, oak kitchen cabinets to lighten up the room.  The original light fixtures, two huge hanging circle things, were woefully inadequate for the size of the kitchen, so the whole place felt dark and dated.  Thankfully I didn't mind the rubbed bronze drawer pulls and knobs that came with the kitchen, so we were able to save money by reusing them.  Every little bit helps!

We changed the layout of the cabinets around (more on that later) to free the refrigerator from its tight corner spot.  In an ideal world we could have had the wall bumped out behind it to create a counter depth look while preserving the full storage space of a full sized appliance, but that wasn't in the cards for several structural and budgetary reasons:)  So we set out to try to create the look of a counter depth by encasing it in plywood frame and bringing the upper cabinet forward, flush with the refrigerator door.  

Stay tuned for more before & after photos of the kitchen (my favorite kind of post!)

xo

Liza