He Painted the Orange Oak Cabinets Balanced Beige and the Whole Kitchen Looks Different
Orange oak covered this kitchen from the long storage wall to the sink cabinets, refrigerator surround, and cooktop island. Raised-panel doors carried the same warm wood finish across the room, with matching crown molding and cabinet frames adding more oak above and below the counters.
Instagram creator @pezzottipainting repainted the existing cabinetry in Sherwin-Williams Balanced Beige using Renner Wood Coatings 2K 765 in a 30 sheen. The cabinet layout stayed, along with the white counters and backsplash, stainless steel appliances, brown tile floor, and island cooktop.
Long metal pulls replaced the smaller hardware used on the oak cabinets. With the wood grain covered, the existing doors, drawers, trim, and crown became one continuous neutral cabinet finish.
Orange Oak Covered Almost Every Cabinet Surface
Oak cabinets occupied both sides of the kitchen, with another bank wrapping around the refrigerator and a smaller cabinet section beside the window.
The long wall on the left included upper and lower storage beneath wide crown molding. Across the room, oak continued around the sink, microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator. The island brought another block of the same wood finish into the center.
Raised-Panel Doors Added More Wood Around the Sink
Raised-panel oak doors filled the wall above the sink while matching drawer fronts and base cabinets ran beneath the counter.
Visible grain continued through the cabinet frames, doors, and drawers. Small metal knobs and pulls punctuated the wood fronts without breaking up the amount of oak across the wall.
The stainless steel microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, sink, and faucet were already in place before the cabinet repaint.
Second Cabinet Wall Continued the Same Oak Finish
Another full run of oak cabinets occupied the opposite wall. Six upper doors stretched across the top, with matching base cabinets beneath the white counter.
Crown molding capped the upper cabinets, while the raised-panel profiles repeated above and below. This section contained no appliances, leaving the oak cabinetry as the main feature across the entire wall.
Cabinet Frames and Doors Were Sprayed Separately
Before the new color appeared across the finished kitchen, the cabinet doors and drawer fronts were removed while the fixed frames stayed in place. Plastic, paper, and tape covered the openings, counters, appliances, backsplash, walls, and floor as the exposed cabinet frames received the new finish.
Doors were finished away from the cabinet boxes, with Sherwin-Williams Balanced Beige covering the raised panels, edges, and faces. Once both parts came back together, the original oak cabinetry had the same finish across the removable fronts and fixed frames.
Balanced Beige Covered the Existing Cabinetry
Sherwin-Williams Balanced Beige replaced the orange oak across the cabinet doors, drawer fronts, frames, side panels, and trim.
The original raised-panel profiles remained. Instead of visible oak grain running through each front, one paint color now connects the individual cabinet sections.
Balanced Beige also continued onto the island base, bringing the cabinetry in the center of the room into the same palette as the perimeter.
Same Color Continued Across the Sink Wall
Balanced Beige extends across the upper cabinets surrounding the microwave and sink, then continues through the drawers and doors below the counter.
The sink, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, white backsplash, and counter remain in their previous locations. Even the arrangement of doors and drawers is easy to match with the original kitchen.
Covering the oak changed the largest surface on the wall without changing its configuration.
Long Metal Pulls Replaced the Smaller Hardware
Long straight pulls replaced the smaller hardware found across the original oak doors and drawers.
Their narrow shape follows the height of the tall upper doors and repeats across the lower cabinetry. The metal finish also connects with the stainless steel microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, sink, and faucet already used in the kitchen.
No new door style was needed to make the hardware change visible. The pulls sit on the same raised-panel fronts that were present before the repaint.
Balanced Beige Changed the Long Storage Wall
The cabinet wall opposite the sink received the same treatment, covering the oak across both the upper and lower runs.
White counter and backsplash surfaces now sit between two sections of Balanced Beige. Wide crown molding remains across the top, while the original door arrangement stays intact.
With the grain covered, the six upper doors read as one continuous bank of painted cabinetry rather than a row of separate oak fronts.
White Counters Create Contrast With Balanced Beige
White counters and backsplash tile remained beside the new cabinet finish. Against Balanced Beige, those pale surfaces form a light strip between the upper and lower cabinets.
The stainless steel sink and pull-down faucet also stayed in place. Balanced Beige surrounds these existing elements without introducing another cabinet color.
Raised arches on the upper doors remain visible from this closer angle, even though the wood grain beneath them no longer defines each panel.
Island Became Part of the Painted Cabinetry
The cooktop island retained its position in the center of the room, but its oak base received the same neutral finish as the perimeter cabinets.
Its white counter also remained, including the rounded end beside the cooktop. Painting the base removed another large section of orange wood from the center of the kitchen.
From this angle, Balanced Beige now appears on cabinetry to both sides of the island and across the sink wall ahead.
Existing Layout Is Still Easy to Recognize
The finished kitchen retains the same basic arrangement seen before the repaint. The cooktop remains on the island, the sink and dishwasher occupy the back wall, and the refrigerator stays beside them.
Cabinets still extend across the opposite wall and around the refrigerator. The brown tile floor, stainless steel appliances, white work surfaces, and ceiling fan also remain.
Balanced Beige connects cabinet sections that previously shared the same layout but were defined by orange oak grain.
Before and After Shows What Balanced Beige Changed
The side-by-side comparison shows the same cabinet runs, island, refrigerator, cooktop, flooring, and ceiling fan in both versions.
Orange oak doors and drawer fronts on one side become Balanced Beige on the other. The new metal pulls replace the smaller hardware, while the white counters continue through both versions.
Most of the visual change comes from surfaces that were already part of the kitchen.
Oak Grain Disappeared, but the Original Cabinets Stayed
The sink-wall comparison makes the retained cabinetry easy to see. Drawer positions, raised-panel doors, microwave cabinet, sink base, dishwasher opening, and refrigerator surround line up between the before and after images.
What changed was the finish covering them. Sherwin-Williams Balanced Beige replaced the orange oak across the room, while longer metal hardware added a second update to the original fronts.
The kitchen kept its cabinet layout and recognizable features, but the oak that once dominated the room no longer does. Would you have painted these cabinets Balanced Beige or kept the original wood?
All credits go to Instagram creator @pezzottipainting.