After seven years with our green kitchen, it was finally time for a change!
When we first built this kitchen, I absolutely loved the green cabinetry. But sadly seven years of everyday family life had definitely taken its toll. The cabinets were looking a little worse for wear, the benchtops needed some love, and the whole space was ready for a refresh.The goal wasn’t a complete renovation because the bones of the kitchen were still great, so instead I wanted to see how much of a difference we could make with paint, a few small updates and some refinishing. And, as it turns out, quite a lot! I partnered with Bosch DIY to do this, and their tools made it so easy!
Choosing a new colour
The hardest part of the whole project might actually have been choosing the colour. When I first shared that we were repainting the kitchen, so many people suggested blue — which I loved in theory. But then I looked around our house and realised that almost every other painted space is already some variation of blue. I decided it was probably time to give another colour a chance! Eventually I landed on this gorgeous dusty, buttery yellow. It felt warm and cheerful without being too bright, and I loved how it worked with the timber and other natural tones in the space. Although I will admit, there was a moment halfway through when I became convinced I should repaint the whole thing burgundy instead. Thankfully, you guys encouraged me to stick with the yellow and I’m so glad I did.
Preparing the kitchen cabinets
As tempting as it is to jump straight into painting, prep makes such a difference when you’re painting kitchen cabinetry. I started by thoroughly cleaning the cabinet fronts to remove any grease and grime, then gave everything a good sand to create a smooth surface for the new paint. After that, I primed the cabinets ready for their new colour. I also removed all of the existing knobs before painting, which gave me a completely blank canvas to work with.
Spraying the kitchen cabinets
For the painting itself, I used the Bosch UniversalSpray 18V-300 battery-operated spray gun. I’ve painted plenty of cabinets with brushes and rollers over the years, and spraying was so much faster. What would usually take me hours to work through took around 20 minutes to spray, and I loved how smooth and even the finish was. Because it’s cordless and compact, I could easily move around all the cabinet doors and get into the different areas without dealing with cords or constantly repositioning everything. It also saved me from the arm workout that comes with rolling coat after coat onto cabinetry! If you’re refreshing a kitchen, furniture or another larger painted project, a paint spray gun can make this part of the process so much quicker.
Refreshing the benchtops
While we were giving the cabinets some love, it made sense to tackle the benchtops too. Rather than replacing them completely, I sanded and refinished the existing counters. This brought them back to life and helped the whole kitchen feel fresh again without having to rip out perfectly usable materials. This is one of my favourite things about projects like this – sometimes you really don’t need to replace everything, a little bit of work on the existing finishes can completely change how a space feels.
The finishing touches
Once the painting was finished, I swapped our old cabinet knobs for new ones. Such a tiny change, but alongside the new colour they made the cabinetry feel completely different. We also added a new IKEA cabinet to give us some extra storage and, importantly, some much-needed additional benchtop space. Between the yellow cabinets, refreshed counters, new hardware and extra storage, the kitchen feels completely transformed, even though we actually kept so much of the original space.
This project was created in partnership with Bosch Home & Garden.
