Freshening Up Kitchen Cabinets!

Jill has been entirely too quiet, and I knew she was up to something.  And then, I heard rumors about her cupboards.  AaaHAAA!!!  So she HAD BEEN up to something -- and she's been on a roll, people!  So, I asked her to share.  Wait until you see what she's done!!
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Hello again!  I'm really excited to share a super-duper simple, quick, and cheap (yes, I said CHEAP!) update I recently made to a couple of my kitchen cabinets.  I have two cabinets with glass doors in my kitchen. They have looked pretty much the same since we moved into our house nine years ago.  And quite frankly, I was getting rather tired of the old look.

I was really inspired by two projects I saw on Pinterest... one by Pretty Handy Girl and the other by Emily A. Clark.  But -- I'm kind of a "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" kind of decorator, so I took their ideas and went in my own direction.  I tend to dive head first into a project without thinking it through, or even knowing if I have the supplies I will need.  Often, this blows up in my face (much to my husband's chagrin).  On this day, however, I think it all came together wonderfully.

I remembered some wrapping paper I had purchased after Christmas at the Target Dollar Spot.  I loved it, but wasn't sure exactly what I would use it for... maybe lining some drawers?  One day it hit me that maybe I could use it to line the back of the two cupboards for a new look.  I emptied the cupboards of all their contents, and got started.

I used just a few simple supplies.

• wrapping paper
• a ruler
• scissors
• Scotch Clean Mounting Squares (which I happened to already have)

I removed the shelves from the cabinets first.  I was hoping to be able to cover the backs with just one piece of paper, however the sizing was a little off.  I wound up using the paper horizontally, and using two pieces.  (It left me with a seam, but I was able to hide that with my shelves pretty well.  I tried to match the pattern up the best I could also.)  I measured (twice) and then cut my paper.  I was actually able to cut my paper by tearing it against my ruler.  It made for a nice straight cut.  Then, I mounted the paper with the mounting squares.  Easy peasy!

Next came the fun part... styling my shelves.  For this step, I gained a lot of inspiration from Kelly at Talk Of The House.  I think she is so great at styling, and her home is just lovely.

Now, you may be thinking, "Did she buy all new dishes to go in her newly lined cupboards?"  Well, the answer is yes... and no.  I hosted Thanksgiving for my family last year, and decided that my tulip-covered dinnerware wasn't going to cut it for my Thanksgiving dinner table.  I had been longing for a set of white dishes for a while, but didn't like the price tags I was seeing.  So, I ventured out to my local Dollar Tree store and found plain white dinnerware by the piece.  I bought 12 dinner plates, 12 mugs, and 2 serving bowls.  I packed them away after Thanksgiving, but when I started this project, I knew I would be digging them back out.  And true confessions here... I did wind up going out to Target and getting four cereal bowls (they didn't have them at Dollar Tree) and they set me back more than the 12 plates did!

And another silly tip... Do you see those mason jars on the top shelf?  Most of them are Classico spaghetti sauce jars... seriously!  Cheap, I tell ya... CHEEAAAAAP!  I think my husband thinks I'm crazy for saving spaghetti sauce jars, but... oh well.

All along, as I was working on this project, I was thinking that it would look so much better if I took off the glass doors.  So, when my husband came home that night, I talked him into it, and he helped me take them off.

I'm really happy with the result.  In fact, the next day I decided to put the paper on the back of this shelf that is underneath another cabinet at the other end of my kitchen.  It kind of helped to balance things out.  And the great thing about this project is that I can easily change the paper out any time I want.

So, now I have to paint my kitchen.  I told you I fly by the seat of my pants!  This little project has given me inspiration as well as direction on how I want to proceed in updating my kitchen.  Also, it's given me some ideas for other low-cost projects.

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I hope Jill's ideas have inspired you!
Stay tuned.  Maybe Jill will share more projects with us!