When we bought our house I had several projects in mind. Painting each room was the main thing we wanted to do before moving in but the first big project that I tackled once we moved in were the cabinets that were on the fireplace. I say they were “on” the fireplace because they literally were just placed on top of the hearth. As you can see in the before picture, they were a light wood color which I didn’t think worked with the brick and light color on the walls. Things were blending together and looking very blah. I also thought they looked unfinished.
Here’s what it looked like before…
And after…
With the help of my dad we continued the crown molding around the bookcases to give it a more finished look and tie it into the rest of the room. We also added the mantel that goes straight across under the tv. We pulled this from our basement fireplace, which we had another plan for. It is simple but pulls everything together and creates a visual separation from the fireplace and tv.
I also wanted to paint the cabinets white. The rest of the woodwork was white and I thought it would give it a more cohesive look. This process was a bit tedious but well worth it in the end.
I used liquid sander, which is meant to prepare varnished cabinets for paint without stripping and sanding. It worked pretty well but I think it caused me to have to do more coats of paint. I suppose it balances out since stripping and sanding would be a big job. I ended up doing 3 coats of the white semi gloss paint. I removed the doors and shelves and placed them on paper cups on the ground to prevent the edges from sticking to the drop cloth.
After I finished painting, I added these silver door pulls to the cabinets to match the ones I used in the kitchen.
We also painted the vertical wood paneling in the room with Rainy Afternoon from Behr. I love the color. It reminds me of a foggy day on the beach.
I love how it turned out and like the shelving it provides. With a little styling, they’ve added a lot of character to the living room. It’s a comfortable space that has little pieces of each of us in it.
Here are some more after pics…
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the transformation as much as I do.
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