Honey-colored oak cabinets covered nearly every wall of this kitchen, from the refrigerator and stove to the sink and a separate storage area. Orange walls, brown countertops, and gray floor tiles surrounded the wood, while stainless steel appliances filled the spaces between the cabinets.
Reddit user u/romanticheart had spent around ten years living with oak cabinets in different homes and wanted a change. Rather than tear out the existing kitchen, the homeowners removed the cabinet doors and drawers, sanded the wood, and used Sherwin-Williams Alabaster to replace the oak finish with white.
The project kept the cabinet layout, countertops, appliances, and floor intact. Sprayed doors, painted cabinet frames, new hardware, and a softer wall color changed the room without replacing its fitted storage.
Honey Oak Cabinets Filled the Original Kitchen
Raised-panel oak doors ran above and below the countertops, with matching drawers beside the stainless steel range. Dark metal pulls stood against the warm wood, while orange walls continued behind the upper cabinets.
Gray floor tiles, brown countertops, and stainless steel appliances were already in place. The homeowners planned to keep those surfaces and change the cabinetry instead.
Another Wall Had the Same Oak Finish
Matching upper and lower cabinets covered a separate wall near the exterior door. Three base cupboards, drawers, and a long countertop provided storage outside the main cooking area.
Painting this section meant the new finish would extend beyond the sink and stove walls, connecting both sides of the kitchen.
Every Door and Drawer Front Came Off
Cabinet doors and drawer fronts were removed, leaving open cabinet boxes and exposed shelves across the kitchen. Drawers sat on the floor while the homeowners prepared the wood for paint.
The work began with TSP cleaning, sanding, vacuuming, and tack cloths to remove dust. The same preparation was repeated on the fixed cabinet frames.
Removed Oak Doors Were Prepared for Spraying
Rows of oak cabinet doors leaned against a wall, with their raised panels and molded edges exposed for sanding and cleaning.
Keeping the doors separate from the cabinet boxes gave the homeowners access to the recessed areas around each panel before primer and paint went on.
Primer Covered the Cabinet Doors in the Garage
Sherwin-Williams Wall & Wood Primer covered the detached doors, which were arranged across supports on the garage floor.
The homeowners used 120-grit sanding blocks and sanded between coats. They worked on one side per day, allowing 24 hours between stages rather than turning the doors over before the finish had dried.
Alabaster White Replaced the Oak on the Door Fronts
Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Alabaster went over the primer with a paint sprayer. The raised center panels, outer frames, and molded edges received the same white finish.
The doors received one primer coat and two paint coats, with light sanding between stages. Working on one side per day made the spraying sequence take at least six days.
Cabinet Frames Received Paint Without Being Removed
With the doors and drawers removed, the kitchen exposed rows of cabinet openings around the stove, sink, and refrigerator. The oak face frames, crown molding, and outer panels remained attached to the walls.
The homeowners applied Alabaster White to the fixed cabinet frames with a foam roller, working around the openings and along the trim. Green painter’s tape protected the countertop edges, window frames, and adjoining surfaces, while the cabinet interiors remained unpainted.
Wall Paint Changed the Color Around the Cabinets
Paint samples appeared above the brown countertop as the homeowners chose a replacement for the orange wall color.
Sherwin-Williams Likable Sand became the new wall finish, adding a softer background around the Alabaster cabinets. The original brown countertops remained beneath the painted walls.
New Hardware Went Onto the White Doors
White cabinet doors returned to their original positions with long metal bar pulls replacing the dark handles.
The existing drawer holes had an uncommon 4¼-inch center-to-center spacing, which limited the hardware choices. The homeowners found replacement pulls through Rok Hardware and paid about $2.08 each, plus shipping.
The Same Oak Kitchen Took on a Different Look
Before the makeover, oak cabinetry and orange walls covered most of the visible kitchen. The brown countertops and gray floor sat between those warm finishes and the stainless steel appliances.
After painting, Alabaster cabinets and Likable Sand walls replaced the two dominant colors. The original kitchen layout stayed intact, with the same range, refrigerator, dishwasher, sink, countertops, and floor.
The homeowners spent more time preparing the cabinets than spraying them, with cleaning, sanding, priming, and drying spread across several days. The finished kitchen kept the oak cabinet construction beneath its new white finish.
Would you have spray-painted the oak cabinets Alabaster White, or kept the original wood and changed the orange walls instead?
Image credits go to u/romanticheart and imgur.