"I think we should paint everything BLACK"

We have recently been discussing what to do with this:

Why oh why did the previous owners have to paint everything BLACK!? I would never think to paint perfectly good wood cabinets any color, but especially not BLACK (and lets not forget the window casings, molding, railing, and fireplace that are also BLACK). When I look at this picture that music from Finding Nemo when the dentist's niece Darla walks in plays in my head. I wish I could sing it for you but I can't, it mostly scary music I guess.

Obviously our kitchen looks a little different than in this picture, you know, because we painted the walls and filled it full of STUFF. But the basic idea is we are getting close, although not quite ready, to do something with these cabinets. I also cannot wait to replace counter tops but kitchen's are expensive and so this project is going to go one small piece at a time. Tonight Bryce is going to attempt to sand one of the small doors to see if it is possible, feasible, and will not make us crazy, if we try to sand them down to the original wood and re-stain them. Although I think this would be ideal, it will also be the messiest project of ALL TIME (alright of all the time I've lived in this house, my parents have definitely had messier projects at their house when I was a kid).

The exciting news is Bryce found enough hinges to replace the current, mostly painted BLACK hinges, on all of the cabinets. He found them on Amazon and paid a total of $35 for 34 hinges, which sell for $3.00 a piece at Lowe's. That is $67 in savings, in case you wanted to know.

So although I have no after pictures for you yet, and in fact it will probably be a while until I do, I just wanted these BLACK cabinets to haunt you today as they are haunting me.