Green Kitchen Cabinets: One Year Later

Four years ago, I decided to give our original 1950s pine kitchen cabinets an upgrade with a little paint. Pretty quickly, I realized we weren’t white cabinet people. But it took me nearly three years to get up the courage to try something new: green kitchen cabinets.

So what’s the verdict?

I wish I had done it sooner. I love them that much!

So much, in fact, that my big summer project is finally going ahead with painting the upper cabinets green as well.

While I had plotted the cabinet painting for awhile, the actual act of deciding to paint them green was a sort of spur-of-the-moment deal.

That’s how it always is with me, by the way. Spend an exorbitant amount of time second-guessing myself before finally getting sick of the drama and launching head-first into it all without much of a plan to show for all of my overthinking.

I ended up choosing Valspar’s Thalo Night. I was looking for a very dark color that would hide the dirt/grime of hands big and small touching all over the cabinets.

At the time, I really only had time to tackle lower cabinets since it was Christmas time. I figured since the white upper cabinets had fared much better than the white lower cabinets, I would leave them as-is and revisit painting later if I loved the green.

And I do, which means I’m repainting the upper cabinets green to match this summer!

For the most part, the paint job has held up very well. On the drawer we get into the most, we do get chipping there. However, I just touch up as needed. It needs to be touched up again right now, but it can wait until I do the upper cabinets.

Previously, we replaced our 1950s formica countertops with acacia wood butcher block. We also found that our black hardware didn’t play well with the green, so we changed the drawer pulls to brass and painted the hinges to match.

I’m hoping the repainted green upper cabinets inspire me to get serious about finding a brass kitchen faucet and a vintage brass pendant light to hang over the sink (I’ve actually found a vintage-style modern one that I love, but I’m holding out for a vintage one). I also have a vintage chandelier in the garage that I plan to rewire and hang over our island. Will it all happen this summer? I hope so!

But one big question remains: Instead of painting the back of the upper cabinets, should I find a fun wallpaper to give it all a fun bit of contrast?

Let me know what you think in the comments below!