The Kitchen Cabinets - finally done!

Ok. I lied. They aren't 100 percent done. I forgot we still need to add the crown moulding... but since who knows when that might *ever* happen, I thought I would at least share our cabinets and what we did. I am pretty proud of them!

You may remember the cabinets from before... pretty much standard, stock tract home cabinetry.

They were just there. BLAH. Nothing special at all. Of course someday we want to design the kitchen of our dreams... complete with new fancy countertops and appliances and an entirely new cabinet system. And that someday is quite a ways away since we no longer have any equity in our home. Until then, though, I decided our cabinets could use a little sprucing up.
I told Rick I wanted to paint the bottom ones chocolate brown...
And the top ones white. 
At first he was skeptical, but after persistent daily nagging over the course of several months, I finally got my way! And I loved them... especially with the cool pulls we picked up at IKEA last year. But when I looked at those top cabinets, I wasn't jazzed about them. They were nice, but plain. And I wanted something more interesting on them. 

That's when I got the idea of adding plexiglass panels in the recessed centers of each top cabinet!  At first I was looking for colored plexi, which would look cool with the white cabinet panels behind them... but colored plexi was going to be way to expensive. I was talking to my friend Jenene who gave me a GREAT idea... PAINT the plexi! OF COURSE! Paint the backs of the panels and then I can get exactly the color I want!
I painted the backs of all the panels (Honest! Rick just posed for this picture to pretend like he was helping!), and we let them dry for several days. 
Afterward, we sprayed them with spray adhesive on the backs and attached them right to the cabinet doors.
At first we were attaching them before peeling off the blue backing...
But that just made it harder, so after that we did it by removing the blue backing first. It went much easier. Then we used clear caulking to seal around the edges (and in hindsight we wouldn't do this... it wasn't necessary (although we would probably have chosen a stronger adhesive than the spray stuff), and it just made for a much more difficult, tedious cleanup of each individual panel).
SO, Ladies and Gentlemen... I present to you OUR NEW KITCHEN!
WOOHOO! I love how the top cabinets have a pretty shine to them.
They have the look and feel of glass panels, without having to worry about what's inside!
And the color is just what I wanted... a pretty seaglass blue. Perfect!
Now, someday you will see the crown moulding on the top of the cabinets. Don't hold your breath!