Tips for making builder cabinets look custom

We hid the kitty litter underneath and the top was supposed to be a folding table. Haha! There was rarely room to fold anything. As much as I have decluttered and organized in our home, we still needed a spot for many items around the house. A lot of them ended up on this counter! 

Then we had some upper cabinets moved from over the washer and dryer to this spot, and I installed four inexpensive drawer units on the bottom: 

They are the basic unfinished cabinets you can find at any large hardware store. 

I later added this gorgeous wood countertop I had been drooling over for years!: 

With that bevel my plan wasn’t going to work. I sat on it for a couple weeks to figure out what I wanted to do. I finally decided I would build new drawer fronts out of mdf and add the thin trim on the front. 

But as I was looking at the drawers one day, I had an idea. I wondered if I could just turn them around and have the flat side facing out. I took one off, flipped it around…and really liked it! The bevel looked fine turned back against the cabinets, and the back side gave me a nice flat surface to work with. YES! This was going to be way less work and money. 

Once I had that figured out, it was time to start painting. I took off each drawer front (there are screws inside the cabinet drawers) and laid them in order on the counter. Before I started painting, I used a drill bit to drill through the holes where the screws went so I could attach them back on in the exact same spots.  

Just like my warning when installing cabinet hardware, be sure to drill straight through from the top of the drawer, not at an angle. If it’s at an angle they won’t attach the exactly the same and be level. 

Then I filled the holes on the new “fronts” and started painting: 

You can see my tips for painting cabinets by hand here. 

You may recognize this color! I’ve used this Cyberspace paint color in our dining area and family room. I LOVE it! It’s a beautiful navy/gray color. 

After the drawers had two coats each (and a light sanding between), I started on my trim pieces. I wanted them to be as smooth as possible, so instead of the lattice I usually use for projects like this, I picked up some four foot poplar strips that had very little grain: 

They are a quarter inch thick by two inches wide. At first, I made the mistake of starting to add these to the drawer fronts while they were off the cabinets. It was easier to work that way, but I found it was better to do install the trim while drawers were in place. 

It’s much easier to make sure the sides of each cabinet are exactly the same if you add them while they’re installed. Otherwise even the slightest change in height or width from one drawer front to the other will be noticeable. 

I glued and nailed each strip onto the drawer fronts: 

I had already painted the frame of the cabinets with the drawer fronts gone — that part goes very quickly. 

It was as I was installing the fronts that I realized the paint sheen I had used (that was leftover) was satin. I wanted semi gloss — so I gave everything one more coat in the semi-gloss instead. (I told you this room has giving me many fits!): 

I found these awesome acrylic and brass handles online and really loved them: