Kitchen Before-and-After

As most of you know, I love a red kitchen. And I really do like the red I chose for my kitchen. Unfortunately, it's really for some other kitchen. Some larger, more airy kitchen. I think it would be a definite fail if I had painted the cabinets the color I intended. As it is, I think the white off-sets some of the darkness. It's still a little dark for the kitchen, but it's OK. I think I'm going to get some rope lights and put them on top of cabinets to cast more light on the red.

Kitchen Cabinets

I have repainted my kitchen a vaguely questionable color. I'll post pictures of the whole thing in a second, but I thought I'd focus on the cabinets first. They are super cheap cabinets that are a mix of wood (a small mix), paneling, and particle board.

I meant to paint them off-white, but the store failed to actually tint my paint.  Being the bright creature that I am, I didn't notice until half way through the second coat.  But it actually worked out -- I think it makes my questionable wall color slightly (though not entirely) less questionable.

However, because of the paneling and particle board, I first had to paint it with a primer.  I used Zissner, which is the same stuff I used on The Thing. Below is what they looked like after the primer.

The hardware on my cabinets was also atrocious.  The collection in the tupperware is the original stuff.  The stainless steel on the left is what I contemplated changing it to, but that nonsense costs money.  Kind of a lot, even for something relatively cheap.  Those suckers add up.  So then I tried using the spray paint that we used on my lighting, but I didn't really like it.

Well, then I saw this instant chrome stuff (below was the only picture online I could find), and I thought to myself, man, that is klassy.  So, naturally, I got it.

First, I lined them up and primed them all.

Of course, I was a total doofus and I didn't protect my hands, so I had these zombie fingers.  Very clever, Reavis.

Then I used my brain piece and put on gloves.

Aces!

Then it was time for the chrome.  It dried really fast -- almost immediately, in fact.  No doubt lots of cancer-causing chemicals responsible for that.

Shiny!

So, anyways, this is what I ended up with.  It's far from ideal, but it's free.  I'm willing to live with a lot when it's free.  But I want to know what you think!  Is it just ticky, totally tacky, or full-blown ticky tacky?  Let me know, because after the picture is the first ever Gracewood Eats poll.  Answer it!