@turner3477 YIKES! You already had the "aged look" and a very unique timber cabinet. wherever did you get it? I still think this trend of "paint it black or paint it black and white or paint it white is a psychological dilemma where people don't know how to use colour or are scared of it...or are afraid that they will not be "en trend" and keep up with the "Joneses". Don't mean to insult anyone's sensibilities but its how it looks and feels to me...everything old and genuine and beautiful being veneered to look trendy and plasticky. I'd be delighted to find a timber cabinet like that one as opposed to the the painted white version....and if I was at all tempted to investigate the white one to see what it was made of, my first instinct would be to have a feel and a scratch of that lovely decorative carved frieze above the benchtop....to see if it were made of a plastic mould and just stuck on. Sad to say this but what you have made of this cabinet is "what I call " fashionable fake". One redeeming feature though, whether it has any significance for you at this point in time is that at least under the paint, you know you have a genuine, solid timber cabinet that would have been worth something one day and maybe still will be when somebody, 30 yrs from now, recognises it for what it is and lovingly restores its genuine identity rather than mistaking it for junk and throwing it out to be replaced by the next lot of stage scenery. Wonder what the next "fashionable fake" will be made of when people have forgotten what solid timber and craftsmanship is? Don't know where you live....but would you like to sell me that cabinet at all ? I'd give it the life it deserves and I am sure you could find another one that would look every bit what you want to achieve in your space..(.In fact I could knock up a pretty good imitation replacement myself...not that I'd want it). I like watching` those antique shows in Britian where people bring old wares to be appraised and where antique dealers enter people's homes to buy collectables. It is on these programs that one learns the true value of the timeless pieces...some of which seem like old junk...but what surprises when what looks like junk turns out to be worth investing in! Apart from the above...enjoy your pristine French Provencale dream!

We recently renovated my son's kitchen/ family room in a weekend. His oven needed replacing so it was a good opportunity to 'fix' it all. We rang around and got quotes on having the cupboard doors professionally painted but it was way too expensive so we took the pine laminate cupboard doors off and painted with a white laminate paint and replaced all the timber handles with chrome ones. We retiled with 600x 300 white marble look tiles (leftovers from our bathroom) (cut the old tiles out and re-sheeted the walls so we had a good surface to tile on) and repainted ceilings and walls. Replaced a dark timber venetian blind with a see through 'sun-out' blind and painted all the architraves white (previously mission brown). A new mixer tap replaced very ancient 'double' taps. We were totally shattered at the end of the weekend, but the kitchen looks a million dollars and the room looks twice the size now the pine and mission brown have gone. We are pretty chuffed with the result achieved by us unprofessionals!

Thanks for the replies. I think regardless ill need to paint the posts a darker colour, so you arent seeing the red colour through the boxing. Any advice on the painting would be appreciated :)

I can see you have already had some great advice and if I offered my choice from the three it would be the middle one. But in truth, I personally wouldn’t have any of them as they just remind me of those ‘real fake’ pictures where a group Thai ‘artists’ each paint a part and pass it on, banging out 100 a day. I am pleased that some Thai family is in employment, just not sure about all the middlemen. For our wedding my wife and I asked all guest to donate whatever they felt they wanted toward a painting, we already had enough kettles. In the end we had enough to buy a painting each. I originally wanted to buy a picture that may go up in value and be something of an investment for my son. The gallery owner who helped us with our choice made this point, that when you choose something for an investment its worth remembering you should enjoy looking at the picture as well. We went with that advice first. I’m sure there must plenty of places where a genuine local artist would appreciate the purchase of their work in order to make a living. My plan when we finish our rebuild here in Christchurch is to fill our walls this way. But if you ended up with an abstract those links on doing one yourself looked interesting.