82 Studio Progress: Major Cabinet Upgrades!

When we originally installed the cabinets in the studio, they were off the shelf, unfinished oak cabinets from our local home improvement store.  They were as basic as they come, unfinished interior, unfinished shelves, unfinished everything.  So, we installed them, added wainscoting sides, painted them white and added some pretty crown molding.

When I decided to go bold and paint the back wall a deep, saturated gray... I also decided that it would be a good idea to raise the cabinets to the ceiling at the same time.  I wanted the cabinets to feel more grand, more custom, and almost like a giant piece of furniture.

To make the extension happen, the first step was to carefully remove the original crown molding we installed, so that we could attempt to salvage it and reuse it.  Removal was a success, so next my hubby used some 2"x2" boards, which he cut down to size and screwed into the tops of the cabinets.

Using his Kreg jig, he was able to create square frames out of the 2"x2" boards, he did this on top of each cabinet and along the return of the cabinet back to the wall.

Not at all fancy, but the goal was to give him something to nail the front board to.  For the extension piece, we went with 3/4" MDF board, which was the same depth as the lip of the cabinet.  Once cut down to size, he carefully pounded the board into place, and affixed it to his support pieces with his brad nailer.

To hide the seam between the new MDF board and the existing cabinets, we cut down a piece of white molding with our miter box...

The trim piece was then affixed with the brad nailer to the new MDF board.

The crown molding was then re-attached in the same fashion.

Here is a view of the end with the molding returned back to the wall. 

After all of the molding was attached, we filled all of the nail holes with white painter's caulk and gave it all three coats of white paint. 

As you can see the wall to the left was not at all level, so there is a small gap in-between the wall and the cabinets which we still need to address {it was too wide to caulk}.

The raised molding was the first of four upgrades that the cabinets received.  The second was new shelves!

The original cabinets only came with one unpainted shelf each, which originally received a coat of white paint.  Because I was nervous that over time the white paint would chip and scratch, we removed them and decided to replace them with white melamine shelves instead.  The melamine comes pre-finished, and it's almost like the shelves will have a hard candy shell.  The other plus to swapping out the shelves is that I wanted twice as many.  Having a single shelf in the middle of the tall cabinet, didn't utilize the storage space all that well. 

We purchased two 12"x8' white melamine boards from Home Depot.  Since the interior of the cabinets is only 11" deep, my hubby ran each board down his table saw to remove the extra inch.  He then measured each board and cut them the correct cabinet width as well.  The trick with cutting melamine, is to use painters tape before cutting, which will prevent the edges from chipping.

Just installing the white shelves made worlds of difference to the cabinets, and they also did a great job breaking up all that pretty dark gray paint.

We also purchased the shelf pegs from Home Depot, which is how the shelves were installed.

That way I have the option of adjusting the shelves down the road, as I begin to load them up with craft supplies.

The third upgrade was as quick as installing the painted corbels that you see pictured on the counter above.  The corbels were originally unfinished {purchased here}, so they received a few coats of the same white paint as the cabinets.

Ooooh, and not really an upgrade to the cabinets, but to the wall instead, we also installed a couple of cheapy $4 towel bars, which I thought looked so much more chic than $4 towel bars.

I was originally debating whether or not I wanted to have a craft space with supplies out in the open, or concealed.  I ultimately decided that I wanted a little of both!  So, the towel bars will be great for hanging some cups and supplies from hooks, and above, we only added two of the cabinet doors back on, and left the one in the middle off.  All together, it should be a nice balance of both options, to avoid things from getting too cluttered, but to also ensure it doesn't feel too sterile.  It will also ensure that the main items I need and use, are within quick reach.

The final upgrade that the cabinets received, was some jewelry.  And you know what that means!  New hardware!

There is something about gold and deep gray that makes me melt inside.  And the price on the cup pulls was amazing at under $2 each.  I found the pulls and knobs both at homedepot.com.

So when alllll of that was said and done {cabinet extended to ceiling with decorative molding, new melamine shelves, painted corbels, installed bars and new bling hardware}, we were left with our like new, upgraded studio cabinets!

Gah, aren't they just gorg?!  And the best part was rolling my craft cart back into it's home, the pink just makes it all that much better!

Dudes!  I could cry I love it so much!  And this weekend you can bet I will be blasting some tunes and filling those empty shelves with all my goodies {which have been living in boxes and piles for months now}!  Paint, glue sticks and sewing supplies, oh my!

Who is gonna have as much fun as me this weekend?  Anyone else over the moon excited to finally be moving into a space, or finishing a project that has been forever in the works?