“Just buy stock cabinets. It will be so much easier.”
That’s what our experienced reno friends told us. “You need to think of the cost of your time and the materials to refinish them.” Those were great words of advice from seasoned veterans. And we searched, tried to envision layouts, used cabinet design software, and we just couldn’t visualize what things would look like or how they would function. (Decision fatigue, anyone?)
During the “wait for permit approval”, demolition, and rebuild phases, I had something valuable: Time. While we wanted to be working on the cabin but there was nothing we could do during those phases. And…when you are renovating a whole house on a budget, $5,000 is a lot of money. It’s spray foam insulation. It’s electrical wiring. It’s a lot of things we needed.
The Kitchen Before
The kitchen, in the original church camp cabin, was part of the addition-the one floor section of the house. And it was pulling the original house over. I loved that there was the cute little door at the end. Other than that, you can see (above) that the layout was very awkward and tight. The linoleum floor was peeling up. Mike wanted to remove the upper cabinets – at least on the window side. I would have loved to move the sink over so it was under the window, but figured it would be expensive to move the water lines. I even used AI to help me envision how the space could look – and it really could have looked nice!
There was a small hallway outside the kitchen with an upper cabinet as well. I hoped to build a small breakfast bar along the hallway to make the kitchen seem larger and to bridge the space between the kitchen and the living room. I was going to paint a large, pop-art kind of sun over the bar.
Then Came the Demo Decision (to learn more, see the blog post The 7 Red Flags We Ignored (and Why We Would Do It Again))
Once we knew the house would be torn down, then came the planning of the new kitchen and what to save from the old. I wanted to save the cabinets. Mike wasn’t so sure. Even though the doors were painted white, I loved the natural wood and sturdiness of the original cabinets. Even if we didn’t like them in the kitchen, they could be used for storage in the upstairs bedrooms or loft area.
The Original Refinishing Plan The plan was simple: Strip the white paint off the cabinet doors to reveal the natural wood, then stain them to match the original stained cabinet boxes.
Reality had other plans.
We tried everything. We used three different kinds of chemical strippers. I sanded and scraped. The paint just did not want to let go.
When we finally got one door stripped down to where we could see the wood, it was not what we expected. The wood of the door was a completely different species than the wood of the cabinet boxes. No amount of stain was going to make them match.
So #ShiftingGeers happened again. I couldn’t stain them, didn’t know what to buy if we went with new ones, so, I did the only thing left to do. I painted them.
Mike and I chose a color called Snowdrop. It wasn’t the natural wood look I originally wanted, but I was kind of excited about painting the cabinets a fun color. Looking at greenish blues, sunny bright yellows, Mike pointed this color out and I thought the soft color would be better than the bold choices I was considering. When I finally painted one, it felt fresh, clean, and sweet—exactly what this kitchen needed.
Best of all? They were free. (except for one can of primer & one can of paint) Oh…I also added some fun cabinet liners inside.
The “Free” Hardware Surprise I had already added “New Hardware” to my shopping list, assuming the old, grimy ones were trash. But, once one cabinet was painted, I thought the original pulls might work. I decided to soak them and scrub off the grime. They were charming! And once I held them up against the new paint, they looked very clean and cabin-like. That’s how I saved $5,000 on cabinets.
The Additional $4,000 Shift: Why I Chose the Basic Fridge
The Kitchen Now (As of February 2025)
We still have to add counter tops, paint the ceiling, and finish the walls, and the cabinet layout isn’t as optimized as if we had a custom design, but they work for us. The snowdrop color may be too close to the white walls, so they may eventually get repainted – that’s kind of the fun of having the old cabinets rather than expensive new ones. I’ll just grab a brush and #ShiftGeers again not feel guilty! And we have a relaxed kitchen that is uniquely ours.
What’s in our kitchen
Cafe Microwave/Convection/Air Fryer
Farmhouse Delta Kylo Touch20 Faucet
Stove – free from a giveaway
Cabinets – Salvaged from original cabin (painted with SW Snowdrop)
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