I Painted our Kitchen Cabinets Red!

Hello and Welcome again to yet Another one of my Kitchen Makeovers! This is the 6th Time that I have made over our kitchen in the 8 years that we have lived here (See the previous 5 looks HERE) Now That may sound a bit crazy, 6 Kitchen Makeovers?! But hey, I say, why not? I just really enjoy changing up the whole look and vibe to the rooms in our home with the power of paint.

Today I’ll be sharing a ton of pictures of our kitchen along with all of the details, so continue reading if you’re interested in seeing more.

Now, I have to tell ya, I was totally planning on painting all of our kitchen cabinets in a denim blue color. I had narrowed down my paint samples to just three blues that I liked and all that was left to do was to pick one, buy the paint, and start painting. But then out of nowhere I got this idea……. Or I could paint them Red?…. Like Hello, where did that come from? …….Red?.….Well truthfully, I’m sure it had something to do with the Red sectional couch that once was in our basement but now is up in our living room. But that’s a whole other story, and you can read the story about the Red Section in THIS BLOG POST. So ya, I guess the idea of painting our cabinets red must have been inspired by the red sectional couch. When we brought the couch into our living room I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed having a touch of red in our home. So once the idea of painting our cabinets Red was planted into my head, there was no going back, I had to follow through with it. So it’s almost like you can say, I didn’t pick the red paint the red paint picked me. ❤️

Picking this red was so Easy; I found a few red colors that I liked, asked my husband, Jake which one he liked best and BAM Just like that we had the color! This Color is Called CALIENTE by BENJAMIN MOORE. This color was even the Benjamin Moore 2018 Color of the Year! I had the color mixed at True Value and I went with their Easy Care Cabinet Paint and it worked great! The cabinet paint is made to hide brush strokes and since I painted my cabinets with a brush, it really did work amazingly at not showing any brush strokes.

I chose not to edit my pictures today so that you can get a real honest look at this color. Photography presets and filters have a way of changing the colors and this red is such an awesome red that I didn’t want it to look any different in my photos.

I have also painted the walls in our kitchen in a light grey color. The wall color is Called Titanium by Benjamin Moore and it is the same color that I just painted our living room and dining room with. I love this wall color so much because it is subtle and doesn’t call any attention to itself, and it looks really pretty paired with a super white trim. For my White Trim, I just use the White straight from the can (not colored). This time I used the Easy Care paint from True Value, but in the past I have also used the white paint – straight from the can from Sherwin Williams and from Olympic Paint and they all seem to be the same, They all have that Bright White, Clean, Crisp, look. Just make sure to get the lightest base option, sometimes straight from the can white comes in different base colors. So maybe ask the paint store before you buy.

Since I had the white paint out, I gave all of the trim, upper cabinets, windows, and backsplash a fresh coat of paint. I get asked about our painted backsplash often and so I wanted to address it more today. I originally painted our kitchen tile backsplash about 5 years ago. See the post HERE. It really has held up great since, although there were a few spots that were showing some wear, especially behind the stove top, as you can see in this next picture, but by adding some new white paint it really freshened it right up.

I debated whether or not to paint the upper cabinets Red or leave them white, and in the end I decided to leave them white. Leaving the upper cabinets white makes our kitchen feel larger and offers a bright and airy feel. Painting the upper cabinets Red would most likely close the room in and make the room feel smaller.

So with only the bottom cabinets and range hood painted red, the red is more of an accent color in the room, which feels more like my style. Too much red in the room would probably feel a bit overwhelming to me. The rest of the room is still decorated with a lot of the blues that were in here before, like the curtain panel and the fabric on the stools.

If I come across a new fabric that I like that has some red in it, I may re-cover these stools again, or change out the curtain, but for now, I think the blues still look great in the room.

The combination of the colors red and blue give me a nautical feel, and so my nautical decor seems to play nicely in the room.

I have already blogged about These Steel Ledge Shelves In THIS Blog Post. They are from Amazon and they are perfect for this wall here in our kitchen. I currently have this large model ship on the top shelf and I think it’s a fun added touch to our kitchen.

Decor really owns the room’s style. Like for instance the ship says this room is nautical, If I were to switch the ship out for say a rooster figurine, then the room would feel more farmhouse, a row of vintage plates would make the room feel cottage, and adding some colorful bottles would make the room feel more boho. So it really is That easy to switch out the style of a room. But Nautical always has my heart and so that is the direction I was led to go in here.

So what are your thoughts about the pop of red? Would you paint your cabinets in this color? I know it’s not for everyone but I really like it and so does my husband and boys. They were all very happy with my choice to add red to our kitchen. My boys always complain about all of my white in our home, so I’m happy that they approve of the red.

As you may already know, the lower cabinets were a really dark blue / black color before, and that’s when I realized how much I liked having darker lower cabinets in a kitchen. White cabinets get so dirty and I always found myself scrubbing them down often. Once my cabinets were dark they no longer showed off all of the dirt. Now don’t get me wrong, I still clean them often, but it’s nice to not have to always be reminded to clean them. So this red is still a great color for hiding dirt. 😉

We recently took a trip to the Oregon Coast and I found this cute Crab Shack metal sign in one of the gift shops. As soon as I saw this sign I knew that it would be perfect for our new Red kitchen.

Now let’s take a look at what’s on our countertops. In this area we have our coffee maker, cutting boards, and large utensils.

And then in this corner, we have our air fryer and fruit stand. I actually just blogged about this air fryer. If you are interested, you can learn more about our air fryer in THIS POST. I actually took these pictures of our kitchen at dinner time so as you can see I have some rice cooking, and something in the microwave. Just Keeping it real!

I really like this little “Fruit Stand” that I created. Before this was our “Bar” and full of bottles, but we are living a healthier lifestyle these days and so having fruit out in the open is a great invitation for healthy eating.

Our fruit stand also adds lots of color to our kitchen.

And lastly we have this hutch area. I’m showing you a cleaned up version of it. This is the area in our home where we keep our phones, keys, chargers, chrome books, ipads, mail, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc….. ya, we all have a spot like this. Right?

Now I could have tried to decorate this space to show you how cute it could look, but that would be a lie. HA! And I really just want to show you our home in a Real life- Lived in way.

So there you have it, Our New Red Kitchen cabinets Makeover!

If you want to see any of my Previous 5 Kitchen Makeovers, then be sure to check out this POST. Like I said, I find it so much fun to totally change the rooms in our home with just Paint. And my blog post, One Kitchen 5 Different Ways is a fun one to see how much paint really can change the whole look and vibe of a space.

Please let me know if you have any questions about our kitchen that I did not mention.

And Please let me know what you think of today’s blog post in a comment below or come find me on Facebook and/or Instagram. And remember you are always welcome to Pin any of the pictures from this blog on Pinterest. Find a PIN IT button by hovering over any of the images.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Emily

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