You can take one of the white doors with you to the paint store and have them mix a match.

I agree.

If possible invest in a professional paint job. It will be money well spent. DIY will not be easy here.

Consider removing the scalloping around the windows.

I agree, matching the white of the lower cabinets would be best. I kind of like the scallop, but the kitchen will look more contemporary without it. Don't paint the window trim, if the rest of the house has it. Also, a little bit of wood looks good with the bamboo blinds.

remove the scallops around the windows and the doors on the sink walls. dishes and glassware would normally go there and you can see if you like the look of open shelving or consider placing glass inserts in them.

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I agree. Do not paint the cabinets.
Remove the scallops. That will change the whole look.
Do some sort of backsplash if you can.

its funny isnt it. I'd leave the scallops [very cool] but I'd paint the scallops ..along w cab frames a medium to dark gray. [look for shade from counter/floor] then I'd source new doors ...some doors or many w glass fronts ... frame color : same as base cabs. but maybe some of the cabs just be voided of door and paint the interior? whats the situation inside those cabs? then I'd remove the bamboo blinds then I'd search for a bit arts/crafty or handmade looking backsplash tile. Lastly..new ceiling fixture . a couple projects from this existing situation but things can be done as you find the time, as your kitchen is fully useable. Leave the wood window trim. the ceiling fan and old rattan blinds are the things that are downgrading your " style to be" here.

I would take off that wood skirting/valence that surrounds the windows--too many fussy curves and very old fashioned. That will immediately update the kitchen. To find the correct white, get a paint deck from your local paint dealer--Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, etc.--and get as close to the white on the bottom cabinets as you can to paint the uppers. Get some new cabinet pulls and you're all done.

I would paint. I don't know why people are saying that DIY painted cabs are worse than those. That's not true. They may not hold up perfectly, or they may. But they'll look better than what you have.

There's a nifty device called the Color Muse that does perfect paint matches and connects to an app on your iphone. I think it's $60, but that thing has paid for itself many times over for me. And the color matches are perfect. I would buy that, do a color match, remove the scallop and paint the upper cabinets. Will your kitchen look like a $75k dream kitchen? No? But will it look neutral in a charming old kind of way? Yup!

I would leave the scallops, the way they are built, its not an easy job to remove them and I kinda like them too. Have the white color matched by taking a drawer or door to the paint store with you. To diy them, please clean them very well, and when you think you have them clean, clean them again. Years of finger oils, cooking fumes, and oils, take a lot of scrubbing. Once the scrubbing is done, sand them so they are nice and smooth. Use a quality primer on them (sealing bonding type). Buy your paint in a cabinet formula, with the correct sheen to match your lowers. Do not use regular house paint. There is a several hour wait between coats, with cabinet type paint. Please read all the directions on the can, they are important. It also takes about a month for cabinet paint to totally cure, so you will need to be a bit careful, even after they are dry to the touch, and you can put stuff inside them. Its not a hard job to diy cabinets, but, it is a time consuming job, to get them done correctly, and its worth all that time, when you have done a good job.

Have you priced new uppers in the same line that the PO did on the bottom? Uppers are relatively inexpensive. I'd take down what's there and do the bare minimum of uppers for now. Maybe put up an open shelf or two. Leave the cab over the fridge and paint it.

Another option is to look for used. We redid our whole kitchen at our lakehouse with cabs we found on craig's list and habitat for humanity. Most of them had never been used. They were brand new that someone had ordered too many and couldn't return. Others were from a showroom.

“I would paint. I don't know why people are saying that DIY painted cabs are worse than those. That's not true.”

She always says that, and its never true. Lots of people have painted their own cabinets and they turn out great.

Congratulations !!! I’d take the tops down and do floating shelves. I don’t have upper cabinets and love it - but I know this is a polarizing piece of advice. Enjoy your new home!

Thank you all for the suggestions!! I’m new to Houzz so I’m not sure if there is a way to directly reply to a comment, so here’s a general one!

A couple clarifications:

• the “pantry” I mentioned is just another set of cabinets in the other side of the fridge that look the same as the ones above it.
• since the home is still being lived in by the previous owner, I can really only go by pictures and what I saw when I last visited the home. I haven’t had a chance to get dimensions or an inside look.
• all of the other door and window frames in the home are white, the kitchen is the only room with any wood like that. It just looks out of place in comparison to the rest of the home.
• I own no wood furniture like that currently and that look is not a part of my interior design plans, which is why I’m so keen on changing it.
• I actually kinda like the scalloping so I’m leaning towards keeping it versus ripping it all out 😅
• I don’t know the exact cost it would be to just replace them, since I can’t get in there to get an estimate, but I don’t have a ton of money to spare at the moment. The amount I’ve seen through general online searches is a bit much, so getting them totally replaced will likely be a “down the road” project.
• If we decide to paint them in the meantime (either diy or getting pros) it’s going to be as soon as we can get in the home. I’m a teacher and will be working while moving/remodeling, and I would like to get the remodel plans out of the way to avoid working around kitchen items and boxes, and our four pets 😂.

However- I love so many of the suggestions you guys have given me and I’m open to more if my above comment clears some things up for you!

The glass doors/ open cabinets, the paint matching tips, the idea of adding a backsplash, getting used cabinets to replace them with; so many ideas I never thought to consider because I was stuck on the paint!

I can’t wait to get in there soon and start working on it! Thank you all!

You can work with your real estate agent to go visit the house and bring in contractors for estimates. We did this when we recently bought. We had a GC, electrician, plumber, hvac, all meet us there and spaced appts out about every 15 mins. or so. We spent about 2 hours asking them about updates and repairs, etc. and then had a good idea of what we wanted and needed to do and cost estimates.

It's difficult to find examples of kitchens with white lowers and different colored uppers, but I found this one that has a subtle gray on the uppers (if you like gray). It's different enough to look deliberate and won't look like a mismatch, which the wrong white might. I love the color of the door - you could also do something bold along those lines if it suits your style.

But I would try to get the info about which cabinets the owner installed and see just how much a few new uppers to match might cost. You could fill in with open shelves. I don't think the scalloped piece is going to enhance an updated kitchen at all. If it had all been left original and you love it, maybe, but it's a mishmash of styles now and that's the most glaring miss.

Hi

Congratulations on the new home. First i would remove the dated curved moldings. Then i would paint them a different color and update all of the cabinet hardware. Good luck

I like the bamboo blinds, do keep the stained wood trim. I can see painting or replacing the upper cabinets. Glass fronting will look really nice, IF &ONLY IF you have dishes, mugs and glasses that match, and depending on what else you would store there. I'm not a fan of open shelving in the kitchen for most storage needs. Unless you like dusting often.

Ask the seller what brand the cabinets are, and if she already has an estimate for upper cabinets, then you can plan for eventual replacement (before the manufacturer changes the colors). Oftentimes sellers are quite happy to talk about the work they have done on the house.

Exactly what apple_pie_order above says!!!! Find out the brand used and see if they are still available. I would live with what you have and not do a thing until you can do it right, but my concern is that the cabinets will be discontinued before you get to this project. A temporary solution might be to remove the uppers along the sink wall, etc. and replace them with shelves and brackets Not even terribly expensive ones. A new house is ALWAYS expensive. Things will pop up that you had no idea would cost a lot! Good luck to you!!!

visual for you

@ Melissa, what app did you use to create that?! I downloaded the Sherwin- Williams ColorSnap app, but I couldn’t never it get it to work and had a hard time getting the paint to show up in the spots I selected!

It is so few cabinets left to make it a complete kitchen- I would save until I could do it right. It looks like 7-8 cabinets plus side panels for the fridge (hint hint). Is the sink as small as it looks?

@Taylor Baxley I used the Sherwin Williams app.

@ Hallett & Co., I’m probably going to have someone come in at some point to redo them in the future as long at the cabinets they used on the bottom are still available that far along! I was hoping painting them would be an easier, cheaper short term alternative, but I won’t know until I can get in there and get some cost estimates for everything!
And the sink is small, but not impossible to use. Replacing it will probably be another future project!

@Taylor Baxley, I would remove both scallops around the windows, paint the trim, add open shelves between the windows, and just add new cabinets on both sides of the range. To the right of the sink window, you could add artwork.

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wilson853 has my vote!!!

I love the scallops and if the cabinets are in decent shape, clean them well and get an area rug with some orange.

The top and bottom cabinets are so different, painting them the same color would look like a huge failure. But painting them contrasting like Herbflavor suggests could be pretty nice. Aqua. :)

Hey! Congratulations on your first home! I would have to agree with half the comments above. Paint it. You can use a Benjamin Moore self leveling paint, A deep moody gray or blue would look great. Don't match the cabinets below. You can use self adhesive tape and glue on the back splash at the moment. My personal taste also goes against the scalloping, but if you like it, keep it, its your home and it should be the way you like it! Until you can afford a complete kitchen remodel, this is a brilliant idea.

Additionally, change out the knobs and handles to perhaps a brushed gold or Nickle.

You could also keep the frames and just get the cabinet fronts to match the trim below, but stick to a different shade.

A third option is to sand down the cabinets, see if its real wood and stain it a lighter colour. For those who say DIY looks shabby, this will prevent that.

PS. Ive heard a lot about mussel bound double skin adhesive mat for back splash!

Check the images below for references!

Contrasting kitchen cabinets are 2021. I say go gray or blue, hardware can be unique too since the colors will be different. I would defintely remove a couple of those upper cabinets and add a floating shelf or two. you can get inexpensive stain samples and wood at your local supply store; always check the clearance section for deals. You will be surprised what you find there. good luck

I'm less worried about the upper cabinets and more about the amazingly small sink. It's a prep size sink, not a kitchen sink. Mine is 23 wide (I have a small urban kitchen) and most people consider that too small! The original sink would have been much bigger but I imagine what happened was that space was sacrificed for a dishwasher and the owners decided to go for a so small to be useless sink in the remainder space.

Was there flooding and that's why the lower cabinets were replaced but not the upper?

All in all, the upper cabinets have simple lines other than the scalloped woodwork, so painting them white should do the trick in harmonizing them with the lower cabinets. It's probably not worth spending money on replacements until you can redo the bottom to get a better sink.

I am going to venture a guess that the bases were probably so bad that the homeowner got new cabinets for that at a minimal cost since they were going to be selling.

I would wait til you can get your hands on the existing cabinets and see what condition they are in - how good are the hinges , can you get them clean enough to paint or store your stuff inside. If they are ok, then paint them yourself ( hiring someone can be costly ) .

If they are not worth it - I'd bet that getting new uppers won't be as much as you think.

Just don't rush into anything until you really can get in there and see what you need to do to get settled.

Congrats on the house!

Good luck!

Yeah that sink would be a deal breaker for me.

There was no flooding, and no kitchen accidents were mentioned so I have no clue why only the bottoms were updated. I don’t like the tiny sink, but I can make it work for now- all of the positives about the home far surpassed the few kitchen fixes!!

Take down yhe upper cabinets and hang floating shelves instead in black. Either paint the wall white behind them or put in a fill backsplash.

I just scrolled through the replies so this may have been mentioned but... there's a private fb group run by professional cabinet painters from across the country. They have a TON of resources for refinishing your own cabinets (or what to look for from a pro) and are very helpful. I've seen some amazing DIY painted cabinets that look like your original ones. It's "kitchen cabinet painting experts" https://www.facebook.com/groups/PaintingKitchenCabinetsforProfit/

Open shelving are great for photo shoots. They’re a terrible idea in reality. All the storage loss, the continual dust and visual clutter. Add another vote from me for removing the surrounds over the windows. And of course, scrubbing the uppers well before proceeding. You can take a door off and bring it in to be optically scanned for a color match. If you can afford a little work on the uppers, I would try a couple things. Find cabinetmaker who might be able to modify those doors by cutting down the trim around the doors and maybe applying a faux shaker trim to match. Also look into taking out the panels of at least a couple ad adding glass panes. Though I suspect that may start adding up to the same as replacements. No harm in discovery, though. You could keep the two tones, but I think I would paint to match (or even paint both a different color) despite the difference in doors. I would paint all the interiors bright white. If you take any doors off and leave shelves exposed or add glass, a colorful wallpaper or fabric in the backs would be pretty! Be sure to get the maker and style from the previous owner for future reference. A colorful backsplash will draw attention away from mismatched doors. Finally, change hardware for all to add cohesiveness. The knobs on the doors are visually awkward. They should all be pulls (get the same size as are already on the drawers) and they should be repositioned. Wood filler and touch up paint done well should disguise the poorly-placed knobs. Good luck and congrats!

Ps, really basic white shaker cabs from Home Depot are affordable enough that you may be able to afford to replace them cheaper than some of these other temporary fixes. Granted, they aren’t high quality, but might tide you over for a few years. Check measurements (fillers can help fit) and browse the stock cabinets online to see if they could work for you.

@ Spagano and Theresen, thanks for the awesome advice! I feel a lot better about taking on this kitchen project than I did before I got all of these great ideas!

I love the idea of taking the uppers downs and putting up floating shelves. The scallop is pretty but it feels disjointed with the other style of cabs on the bottom. Maybe if you took the doors down painted them to match like this....

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