Oak cabinets covered both sides of this kitchen, wrapping around the range, sink, refrigerator, and window. Raised-panel doors and visible wood grain carried the same honey-brown finish from the base cabinets to the uppers.
Instagram creator @pezzottipainting changed the cabinets with two colors instead of replacing them. He used Valspar Bay Waves and Mountain River with Enduro Wood Coatings in a 10 sheen, putting the lighter shade on most of the uppers and deep blue across the base cabinets.
The cabinet layout stayed, along with the pale countertops, gray backsplash, flooring, stainless steel appliances, and original door profiles. Even the tall storage beside the refrigerator remained, but its new blue finish connects it with the lower cabinets across the kitchen.
Oak Cabinets Covered Both Sides of the Kitchen
Honey-toned oak filled the original kitchen from the entrance to the window. Upper cabinets lined both walls, while matching base cabinets followed the counters around the range and sink.
The same stain covered the doors, drawer fronts, frames, end panels, and trim. Pale countertops and a gray mosaic backsplash broke up the wood, while stainless steel appliances added another finish to the U-shaped kitchen.
Raised-Panel Doors Gave the Oak Cabinets Their Original Look
The original doors already had plenty of detail. Rectangular raised panels cover the larger cabinets, while several smaller doors use curved upper rails. Wood grain remains visible across the centers and surrounding frames.
Those fronts weren’t replaced to create the finished kitchen. Keeping them meant the same profiles would still be visible after painting, even though the oak grain and brown stain would disappear.
Oak Continued Around the Refrigerator
The wood cabinetry didn’t stop inside the main work area. A cabinet spans the space above the stainless steel refrigerator, while a tall storage unit rises beside it.
This section later becomes an exception to a simple white-upper, blue-lower split. Rather than painting the tall cabinet white because of its height, the project uses the darker blue here, carrying the base-cabinet color toward the ceiling.
The Existing Cabinets Were Prepped for Spray Painting
Doors and drawer fronts came off while the cabinet boxes remained in place. Plastic, paper, and tape covered the openings, counters, backsplash, appliances, and floor so the exposed frames and cabinet sides could be sprayed inside the kitchen.
The removed fronts were sprayed separately. One sequence captures an oak door during the process, with Mountain River building across the raised-panel face until the brown stain and visible grain are covered by the deep blue finish.
The same approach was used to create the lighter half of the two-tone kitchen. Bay Waves went across the white sections, while Mountain River covered the blue sections before the doors and drawer fronts returned to their original cabinets.
White Uppers and Blue Base Cabinets Replaced the All-Oak Look
The finished kitchen divides the cabinetry into two distinct colors. Valspar Bay Waves covers the upper cabinets, while Mountain River runs across the base cabinets and exposed lower end panels.
The existing countertops now separate the two finishes. Gray backsplash tile remains behind them, and the flooring stays the same, making the new cabinet colors responsible for much of the visual change.
Long metal pulls also replace the smaller hardware seen on the oak cabinets. Their straight profile repeats across the original raised-panel doors and drawers.
Two Colors Changed the Same U-Shaped Cabinet Layout
From the entrance, the U-shaped layout remains intact. The range sits between two runs of base cabinets, the sink stays on the opposite side, and storage continues beneath the window at the end of the room.
Bay Waves changes the upper cabinets from oak to white, while Mountain River runs across the bases in deep blue. The pale countertops form a break between the two colors, with the existing gray backsplash sitting behind the white uppers.
The blue also wraps around the exposed ends of the base cabinets, so the darker finish is visible from the entrance rather than only from inside the work area. White above and blue below give the existing cabinet runs a much stronger separation than the original all-oak finish.
Bay Waves Covered the Upper Cabinets
A closer look at the sink side shows Bay Waves across the doors, frames, and exposed cabinet ends. The original raised centers and curved door profiles remain visible beneath the new finish.
Brushed-metal pulls give the doors another change without altering their construction. Below them, the gray backsplash and pale countertop provide a direct comparison with surfaces that were already part of the kitchen.
Original Door Profiles Stayed Visible Under the White Finish
The range side shows another mix of the original cabinet shapes. Wide rectangular doors sit beside narrower fronts, while the cabinets around the range use curved details carried over from the oak version.
Painting them one light color reduces the contrast created by the wood grain, but it doesn’t disguise the existing door design. The new hardware also repeats across the different door sizes, giving the cabinet run a more consistent detail.
Mountain River Continued Up the Refrigerator Wall
Mountain River moves beyond the base cabinets at the refrigerator end of the kitchen. The tall storage cabinet beside the appliance is blue, as is the cabinet above the refrigerator.
That choice brings the darker finish up one wall instead of limiting it to everything below the countertops. From this angle, the refrigerator sits between the blue cabinetry and the white uppers visible farther into the kitchen.
Before and After Shows What the Two Colors Changed
Side by side, the biggest shift comes from breaking up the oak that once covered both halves of the kitchen. The brown finish made the upper and lower cabinets read as one continuous surface, especially along the long runs leading toward the window.
Bay Waves and Mountain River split that visual weight. White pulls the upper cabinets toward the pale counters, while blue gives the base cabinets more definition against the gray floor and backsplash. The tall blue cabinet beside the refrigerator carries that darker color beyond the main work area.
The raised-panel doors are still easy to spot in the after photo, but the wood grain that once defined them is gone. Would you have painted these oak cabinets, or kept the original wood finish?
Image credits go to Instagram creator @pezzottipainting.