These Orangey Kitchen Cabinets Got an Unexpected Luxe Color Redo

A homeowner wanted to update a 2001 kitchen to a more modern look. The existing cabinets were orange-brown, the country-style backsplash looked dated, and the countertops were dark and uninviting. The space also felt drab due to limited natural light. The homeowner kept the functional layout and avoided demo and plumbing by taking on cabinet painting himself. The project included painting all cabinet boxes, doors, and drawer fronts, while a professional team replaced countertops, backsplash, sink, and faucet. Cabinet work was done in sections to keep kitchen use possible, with only brief downtime during surface installation. Preparation included removing doors and hardware, degreasing, sanding, vacuuming, and continuing with painting steps.

"“The cabinets were orange-brown [and] the country-style backsplash made the kitchen look even older, and the countertops were a very dark and uninviting granite,” Daniel says of the kitchen before. “Add the fact that there's only one (double) window in the entire space, and the whole experience of being in the kitchen was drab.”"

"“One main tenet which I've always lived by is 'go big or go home,'” he says. “The work consisted of two main efforts: one, painting all cabinets, doors, and drawer fronts, which I did myself, and two, replacing the countertops, backsplash, sink, and faucet, which we outsourced to a professional team and was completed when the cabinetry was about half done.”"

"“Sure, we had cabinets without doors for weeks at a time, and the project ended up stretching for months, but the only time we couldn't use the kitchen at all was for a couple of days when the surfaces were being installed. That's it,” he says."

"“He started by removing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and detaching the hardware. Then he cleaned each surface with degreaser, sanded with 180-grit sponges, vacuu”"

Read at Apartment Therapy