Give Old Cabinets New Life, Inside and Out

A Quick and Easy Facelift Can Make Over your Kitchen

Dec 11, 2008

Kitchen cabinets are a staple in homes, but can also leave your home feeling drab and outdated. With these tips, re-doing cabinets without spending a ton is easy.

Cabinets can set the tone in your kitchen, whether that tone is outdated and run-down or new, fresh and hip. They can change the entire feeling of the room and update it without costing too much. Follow these tips to remake the cabinets in your kitchen.

Consider Your Surroundings

What is wrong with your current cabinets and what do you want them to look like? Are they too dark or too light, too ornate or too simple? Cabinets are one of the most customizable objects in your home, and as such you can do nearly anything to them. You can paint then, reshape them, change out handles and re-do the insides for a fresh start. Just consider the strategy that will make your kitchen feel most updated and make your cabinets even more useful.

Make Over the Insides

Start inside the cabinets, as you consider lining the shelves with liner paper or vinyl to give them a fresh surface, and consider painting the insides of the cabinets so they feel fresh and don't have exposed wood inside. Consider matching the color inside to the color outside, or consider whether you'd like the inside to show through glass doors, in which case you could paint designs or another decorative touch inside.

Treat the Cabinet Doors

Literally dozens of options exist for how to re-make your cabinet doors. This depends on what you start with, of course, but consider the following options: You could sand down and stain your cabinet doors for a natural wood look in either a lighter or darker shade, you could paint them an opaque color – anything from a crisp white to a bright purple or green to play off the decorations and accent colors in your home.

You can also decide whether or not you want the doors to be solid wood or whether you'd like glass inserts in some or all of the doors, which you can do yourself or have done.

There are hundreds of choices for accessories for your new cabinets, from drawer pulls to higher-performing mounting hinges which will make your cabinets practically close on their own. When it comes to drawer pulls, consider two things: first, how you'd like them to feel in your hand and the most convenient way to grab the pulls, and also consider how they'll match with the other finishes and appliances throughout the kitchen.

With gleaming new cabinets, your kitchen will feel like a new place as you use it more and make it a place of pride in your home.

The copyright of the article Give Old Cabinets New Life, Inside and Out in Home Interiors is owned by Sara Gray. Permission to republish Give Old Cabinets New Life, Inside and Out in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.