Your cabinets and drawers play a major role in your kitchen’s decor. When you’re living with cabinets that are dated or simply not your style, they might be one of the first things you want to change. Unfortunately, replacing your kitchen cabinets can be a costly and time-consuming process that most people just don’t have time for. Thankfully, there are plenty of affordable things you can do at home to breathe new life into your cabinets. Best of all, most of these can be done with a fairly small budget! Continue reading to learn five creative ways to update your kitchen cabinets without replacing them.
How To Bring New Life To Old Cabinets
1. Paint – If you’re looking for an easy way to refresh your kitchen cabinets, a new coat of paint will often do the trick. You will need to remove the doors and drawers to make sure no spots are missed, but aside from that, all it takes is some sanding and painting. After a few hours of work, your cabinets will have a whole new look! Typically, you want to use an acrylic paint that has a semigloss or gloss finish. If you are able to use one, a paint sprayer will give you a seamless look with no streaks.
2. Restain – If you have wood cabinets, giving them a new stain can offer a very similar facelift to paint. Best of all, as long as you’re going at least a shade darker, you don’t even need to fully sand the cabinets. Instead, just lightly scuff the old finish with some steel wool, clean them thoroughly and then apply the stain on top. If you want to maintain a more natural wood look, consider using gel stains. Gel stains contain a small amount of polyurethane which helps the stain coat stick to the existing finish. Once you’re done, add a top coat with a gel polyurethane and your kitchen cabinets will have a whole new lease on life!
3. Interior – If you cook at home a lot, the interior of your cabinets are just as important as their outer look. Fortunately, there are tons of quick and easy ways to better organize your cabinets for more efficient use. Adding racks for lids and sheet pans will help save space. Dividers for your drawers will keep your utensils easy to find and grab as needed. You can also add handy pull-out systems to your cabinets – like pull-out spice racks and baking sheet organizers. Remember, remodeling the interior of your cabinets can make just as much of a difference as the exterior, especially if you cook at home on a regular basis!
4. Hardware – One of the easiest and most affordable ways to update your kitchen cabinets is by changing the hardware. This includes drawer pulls, knobs, handles, and other hardware that’s attached to your cabinets. If your cabinetry is currently without these fixtures, adding them can have even more of an impact. Switching out the hardware can quickly take an outdated look to something super modern. Picking hardware in another color or shape can make the entire mood change for a minimal investment. When deciding which hardware to you want, get a few samples and bring them home to test out first. That way, you can play with different finishes, colors, sizes and, most importantly, placement before settling on which ones to buy.
5. Reface – Refacing your cabinets gives them an entirely new look and feel without having to tear them out and replace them. To do this, you remove the existing drawers and cabinet doors, sand add paint (or stain), veneer or laminate to the cabinet boxes (there are even peel-and-stick options available), and then install new drawers and doors to match.
Cabinet boxes experience much less wear and tear than the doors, so it is often a waste to replace them along with the doors. It’s actually a more sustainable and cost-effective solution to reface the cabinet boxes and drawers with new doors and give the existing boxes a fresh coat of paint to make everything match. New doors can be custom ordered in whatever style and color suits your design vision, and the entire project can be completed within a weekend. Refacing can make your kitchen look completely refurbished without the cost of a total renovation.
Conclusion
All five ideas above are great ways to spruce up the old kitchen and make friends and extended family say “wow!” next time they visit. Best of all, the above-mentioned ideas are relatively inexpensive! It might not be a complete home renovation project, but a little change now and again can make your home feel much cozier and welcoming. Try playing around on Pinterest or with a home decor app and you’ll find what suits your palate soon enough. Remember, have fun with your new kitchen makeover!