For the past few years, our kitchen cabinets have been in a STATE. They’d accumulated weird stains during the pandemic, when we used the kitchen nonstop, and no amount of scrubbing could get them clean. The doors under the kitchen sink were particularly awful.

But I was worried about painting them — I didn’t want to dull the sheen from the factory. Many people warned me that I’d regret painting them, but recently I just got so fed up with the stains that I was ready to jump in.

After doing some research, I bought a gallon of Sherwin Williams’ Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel. (I took a door to the Sherwin-Williams store so they could do a paint color match.)

I removed the cabinet doors and laid them on the floor (balanced on soup cans so drips wouldn’t accumulate on the edges). Check out those weird stains and the peeling on the door pictured below!

I removed the cabinet pulls, sanded the doors very lightly with 400 grit sandpaper and wiped away any dust. Then I applied two light coats of paint. For each coat, I started with a paintbrush to get the inside edges, and then I finished with a small cabinet-grade roller to cover all brush marks. I let the doors dry for at least 8 hours between coats. After the paint cured for a few days, I reattached the doors to the cabinet, and I’m happy to report that they look great! There’s no noticeable difference between the doors I painted and the ones I left as-is.

But, there was one more problem. If you look closely at the “before” pic above, you’ll see that there’s a gap between the bottom of the window and the wall tile. That gap had been there since I tiled the kitchen in 2017, and I was so tired of it!!

First we measured the distance between the bottom of the window and the electrical outlet so we’d know how thick the trim could be.

Then we bought a piece of trim that would fit, cut it, and attached it to the window sill with nails and to the tile with glue. I held it in place with painters’ tape while the glue dried.

After the glue dried, I used paintable caulk to cover the gap between the window and the top of the trim. And then I painted the whole window and the new trim with a trim enamel from Sherwin Williams in Snowbound. That part was easy-peasy!

Later, I replaced the yucky cord supporting my hanging plant and gave the whole area a good clean. It looks so much better!!

I wish I’d taken the plunge and painted my cabinets a few years ago! But at least now I have a beautiful spot for cleaning up after dinner and gazing out at the trees.

Would you ever paint your cabinets? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!