Kitchen Cabinets Refinished: Part Uno

So, a while back I posted about how we had decided we were beginning to refinish our kitchen cabinets....that was in March.  Well, we finally got around to moving forward with the rest of the process on the other cabinets.  And when I say process, I mean PROCESS- there was much sanding and/or applying of liquid sand, several coats of paint and lots of use of our dehumidifier because all that paint made it super hot upstairs!  I choose to do this reveal in a couple of posts because I hate bombarding one post with a bajillion pictures.  So tonight, just the upper cabinets. 

 Our laminate countertops are this gray/black speckled granite-looking beauties, and I knew I didn't want white on the bottom cabinets because of dirty little hands (I won't name names.....Cailyn), but I did love the idea of contrasting colors on the top and bottom cabinets.  So white went on top.  We bought this liquid sand stuff that was supposed to take the sheen off the varnished wood of the cabinets- I won't say it didn't work, but I won't say that it did for sure.  I think the best way would have been to sand with sandpaper, but I wasn't up for the mess, so I guess we'll have to see how they hold up as time goes by. 

 Those cabinets in the corner and on the left were the worst because the shelving is built in, which meant nooks and crannies galore!

When all was said and done, we were ECSTATIC with the results of the uppers, it brightened the whole room instantly and just looked so clean.  We'll explore the bottom cabinet refinishing in the next post- but let's just say they were a little trickier even though there was less area to be painted.  Ugh!