A decision has been made

I am always pondering what my next project should be

and I have come to the decision that I am going to paint my kitchen cabinets.

I'm a little bit afraid of this project, 

because it's going be awful and long and tedious and hard and I really need it to turn out looking professional, not like a DIY nightmare.

But I'm going to do it anyway.

Someday I hope to remodel this kitchen

but in the meantime I still want to make it more "me" than it is.

I want to fix a few of the things that bug me or are just plain broken.

This will serve as my official "before" pictures.

I'm so proud of myself for remembering to take before pictures.

The room is sort of dark and cave-like most of the time.

Below is the area above the stove.

Why didn't they finish tiling up to the vent hood??

Or at least cut off the piece of tile to match the rest?

The tile isn't hideous but it's just not my style and we have a few broken tiles as well...

my current plan is to tear it out and put up beadboard as a temporary backsplash until I can remodel.

It should last a few years I hope.

I have already picked out the tile I want for my "real" backsplash (assuming I don't change my mind before I can remodel) but I don't want to install new tile now and then possibly damage it or have to redo it when I pull out the cabinets and counter tops.

I plan to replace this window over the sink.

I don't use the garden window as it is meant to be used...plus it just doesn't get enough sun since we have a covered porch out back.

So I will plan to get a regular window that I can open for some fresh air.

The window is also cracked.

I do have a nice wide window sill which I love!

I will put new hardware.

I don't know if you can tell but there used to be different knobs on these cabinets but they didn't fix the holes when they put the new knobs.

So I will have to fill all of those holes before painting.

Quite a few of the drawers and doors have damage...a variety of issues: age, water damage and just wear and tear.

 I'm hoping I can fix this drawer (below).

It is either not on correctly or is the wrong size because there is a gap that is always visible.

I haven't really investigated yet but hopefully it's fixable.

The one part of the kitchen that I most wish to fix but won't be able to at this time is the island.

It's huge.

Bigger than I want (makes it hard to walk by from the laundry room) and a weird shape.

It has attached swivel chairs.

And all of the plugs to the island are on the back side by the chairs which means I have an extension cord always attached for when I run the mixer or crock pot or whatever.

It's lovely.

One of the chairs is broken so no one can sit there.

Here's another view of the island.

Frank is charging his drill from the other outlet that I have available to me.

Currently my plan is to just leave the island as-is...no painting or anything like that.

We will see what happens as we go along though.

I'm not ruling out changing it, it's just not on the list of what's most important right now.

I'm a little unsure if white cabinets will look good with my current countertop, though it has speckles of white, grey and beige in it.

I won't be changing the countertops.

Frank is telling me to paint the cabinets a color if I want to, but  that makes me more nervous than white does.

After all, brightening up the room is the first goal.

So, even though I haven't really planned much

and I'm not even 100% sure what color I will do,

the decision has been made that I will be painting in here.

Wish me luck!

(and tell me if you have color opinions!)