How we turned our dreadful old cabinets into brilliant shabby chic style beauties!

by Susan
(Queensland, Australia)

one of the pieces of cabinetry we distressed

This was really cool! Last year we were heartily sick of our tired, paint-flaking cabinets. The rest of the kitchen was fine, but the cabinets really needed some serious attention. So we did the homework and decided that it would be less expensive and effective to distress them, paint them with a very light color wash, and then they would complement our shabby chic lounge room furniture. (The living and kitchen areas are open-plan.) Well, we had a bit of fun and it did take 2 weekends instead of the one that my husband promised! But, the result was great. The cabinets look fresh, the theme works well and now we are going to replace the tops with new Caesar stone benchtops. The colors will be light sand and will really go well with the cabinets. So there is a whole new 'look' in our kitchen and we love it!
Oh, how did we distress the cabinetry? This website will tell you how (go to 'cabinets' on the nav bar) - we followed ideas and tips from here. Really, the beauty of this technique is that you can't go wrong - make it up as you go along and you'll love it! Oh yeah, we varnished the cabinets after distressing and painting them so they were waterproofed and easier to clean.