Custom Kitchen Cabinets Painted with Milk Paint

My Mom has a brand-new kitchen.  And I am so in love with it I can’t stand it!  Isn’t it gorgeous?!  I love the white – I’m sure you knew that – and I’m so happy my Mom picked white for her kitchen.  I have to chuckle just a little because she’s always been a wood lover, and has refinished some beautiful antiques over the years.

But when it came time to decide what she wanted for her new, custom-built kitchen, thanks to my influence and Pinterest, she chose white. 🙂

When she decided she wanted them painted I was thrilled because I love white painted cabinets.  One night when I was unable to sleep the thought hit me that if she wanted those cabinets white they should be painted with milk paint.  The cabinets would be custom made in a cabinet shop and the wood would be raw wood.  Milk Paint is PERFECT on raw wood.

I pitched the idea to her and after she thought about it awhile she agreed.

And so not only does my Mom have a new kitchen, she has Custom Kitchen Cabinets PAINTED with Milk Paint!

My cousin is the cabinet maker.  And he was a bit intrigued with the idea of milk paint.  And he was rather impressed with it when I started using it and showed him how you mixed it up and how it went on.  He was kind enough to clean out his garage that is attached to his cabinet shop, move the cabinets in there and let me paint them there.

I spent 50 hours painting and used approx. 9 quarts of milk paint.

I used Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in Ironstone.  I painted the cabinets and inside of the doors with 2 coats of paint and the outsides of the doors got 3 coats.  The doors were made at a different shop and the wood seemed to hold the paint different, plus they had much more surface area and I just felt like at least some of them needed more than 2 coats.  Some of the larger areas of the cabinets, like beside the refrigerator, also got 3 coats.

When I was finished painting, the cabinet maker sprayed them with the finish he uses on all his cabinets.  I wasn’t about to wax or hand finish all those 🙂  Besides, that sprayed on finish just can’t be beat for durability in kitchen cabinets.

Here is one before pic I managed to dig up.  I will get some pics from my Mom that show more of the before and also get some old snapshots and scan them to show you what it looked like while I was growing up!

I stenciled her soffit with a prayer Mom chose.  You can see the details on how I did that here.

 Beyond this wall, window, and the door to the right of the cabinets there is some construction going on – my Mom is getting a new room added on and it’s going to be pretty cool too.  My Dad is doing all the work so far (he did have the basement floor underneath poured by a concrete guy) and he’s having so much fun.  Being retired suits my Dad really well.

 The other side of the kitchen features that painted brick wall I shared a few years ago.  It’s holding up well and still looks great.  My parents never use the fireplace anymore so I can’t tell you how the painted brick would do if you were using the fireplace but I can say that after over 2 years this one still looks just like it did when I first painted it.

 I love this area.  This is where the old cooktop was with counter on either side.  I really must find some more before pics and post some before and after comparisons.

These bowls.  I love how they look in the new kitchen.  They are both family heirlooms and are antiques.  The blue bowl on the left belonged to my paternal Grandma, Pearl King.  She used it to take potato salad to people when they had a death in the family or some such thing that called for ‘taking over a dish of something yummy’.  The bowl on the right was my Mom’s Grandma Mildred Bussey’s bowl.  The salt and pepper shakers also came from a family connection that holds memories for my Mom.  I really like how these items reflect in the countertops.

The counters are Corian in a solid pale grey.  I love them and would take some just like them in a heartbeat.

Do you love how my Mom had her dishwasher raised?  Let me tell you this is a wonderful feature if you have the counter space for this.  It’s so much easier to fill and unload the dishes.  ( believe me when I say that getting older does not lend itself to leaning over and bending down)

Mom saw the idea of the raised dishwasher in a magazine several years ago and remembered it and asked for it to be incorporated into her new kitchen.  When ordering custom cabinets you have the luxury of these kinds of details 🙂

Mom’s glass front cabinets are filled with things that have meaning.  The maxwell house mug was her Dad’s, and he white bowl under it is one almost like the one he ate his morning oatmeal in.  (I remember eating oatmeal with my Grandpa a few times for breakfast!)  The orange fiesta pitcher was her Mom’s.

The appliance garage is so cool – and she actually has 2!  The lowered counter area is where I learned to bake – on a bright yellow counter 😀  This area is still a baking area but now everything can be hidden from view when not in use.

I love that Mom picked stainless appliances.  The ones I grew up with were ‘harvest gold’ – anyone know exactly what I mean by that? 😀 😀 😀

This island.  Mom chose to make her island oak to contrast with the white.  They decided on a butcher block top, and my cousin, the cabinet maker, ended up making it for them.  I’ve never seen such a wonderful butcher block counter.  This thing is so slick and smooth you wouldn’t believe it.  Seriously.  

This vintage stool was in the basement at Grandma Pearl’s.  Mom decided to keep it when we were cleaning things out.  I think it goes well with her kitchen and adds a fun pop of red – I always have liked red with aqua and white.

The tall door at the end, beside the 2 drawers and under the last top drawer, is actually a trash can drawer.  If at all possible – ADD ONE OF THESE TO YOUR KITCHEN!  You can give it a nudge with your foot or hand and it pops open.  Every kitchen needs this.  It is also deep enough for two trash cans – another must.

See the before pic I posted at the beginning of the post to see the light that was here.  I waited to do the final photo shoot until they got a replacement.  Mom picked out this awesome schoolhouse light from build.com

I really like how this light looks with everything else in this room.  And it’s just perfect for my Mom too.

Staging for the photo shoot was fun.  I bought some cabbage roses from The Ivy League flower shop.

The glass cloche also came from The Ivy League – my girls and I gave it to my Mom for Christmas a couple years ago.  The old spring was in my Grandpa’s stash of stuff.

The aqua stools (I think they were called peacock) match the inside of the glass front cabinets almost perfectly.

I’ll bring you another post with some pics of the process and talk a bit more about using milk paint soon.  I just couldn’t wait any longer to show you this beautiful finished kitchen.

Jill