Updating cabinetry

If you're going for homey and cozy in your kitchen, skip the built-in cabinet-base island and instead make the central work area a furniture-like table with a butcher-block counter. Because these thick wood-slab tops have their edge or end grain exposed, they are stronger than wood laid on the flat. That means they resist warping and nicks better than laminate and almost as well as stone. Butcher-block islands mimicking 19th-century worktables are perfect for toning down the coldness of stone counters and metal appliances in modern cook spaces.

You can bring this classic aesthetic to your kitchen by constructing a prep island from easy-to-buy materials or choosing one of the dozens of styles available through retailers and furniture makers. For full step-by-step instructions, shopping list, and tools list, see How to Build a Butcher Block Island. Dishware, serving pieces, table linens—a sideboard packs a whole lot of storage space into a relatively small footprint, making it a handy addition to any household.

A sturdy, high-quality one can leave a thousand-dollar dent in your finances, but as TOH general contractor Tom Silva demonstrates, you can enhance a few stock kitchen base cabinets with molding, furniture feet, and knobs to produce a handcrafted piece for a fraction of the cost of buying one ready-made.

Opt for unfinished or inch cabinets fitted with doors and operable drawers not the fake drawer fronts used for sink cabinets and take a day to put all the pieces together.

Your handsome creation will turn heads at dinner parties for years to come. For full step-by-step instructions, shopping list, and tools list, see How to Build a Sideboard from Stock Cabinets. As attractive as window seats are, only a few older homes with deep dormers seem to have them. And adding a window seat has always been considered impractical. First, you need a niche that features a window. Then, the seat has to be custom-built by a cabinetmaker or trim carpenter to fit the exact width and sill height of the window.

Not surprisingly, this approach is expensive and time-consuming. This simple, do-it-yourself approach provides both the "niche" and the window seat, and an abundance of storage space. This seat was built under a 6-foot-wide kitchen window, but its design can easily be adapted for any size window in almost any room. The seat is made up of six kitchen wall cabinets and two inch-tall bookcase units, which are trimmed with decorative crown molding. The window seat itself is composed of two inch-tall, over-the-refrigerator cabinets set side-by-side.

For full step-by-step instructions, shopping list, and tools list, see How to Build a Window Seat. You could leave your dishes tucked away behind closed doors. The cause is none other but the very different visual resulted after the project. Another thing that you must know is that this furniture does not only get a new color for the update. The designer removed some parts of it and replaced it with a new custom addition. That is the reason why some details of the cabinets look different after the update.

Another thing to notice is the new countertops and backsplash chosen as the pairing for the updated cabinets. These are also the elements that make the furniture looks rich and elegant in the end. There are quite many ways you can choose to update the look of your oak kitchen cabinets. The one that we want to show you here is just a simple painting method. It is glazing. When we talk about glazing oak cabinets, it means that there will at least two-step must be done.

The first is painting or staining, and the second is the glazing process itself. As an example, you can see the picture of oak cabinets in a rather small kitchen above. Before the update, it looks ordinary. Here is the look after the update.

As you can see, in the final result, the cabinets look white. The furniture gets a new white paint before getting glazed, which also makes the small kitchen area look brighter. The type of glaze applied to the white-painted cabinets is chocolate glazing. Something like this can create accents to make the cabinets looks more attractive. It also erases the too uniform white look of the furniture. It becomes a better choice for some people. Sometimes, you can leave the furniture be, but change some elements that are connected to it.

As an example, you can make honey oak cabinets looks richer by replacing the countertops. You can create an even richer look by also changing the backsplash. The actual example of this idea is available in the picture.

Before the update, the raised-panel honey oak cabinets have white countertops. Other than that, there is also no backsplash on the wall behind it.

After the update, you can see how different the cabinets look. The first thing you may notice first is maybe the dark Verde Peacock granite with hints of gold.

The color of the new countertops looks highly compatible with the oak wood tone. Together they create not only rich but also elegant visuals. Another thing that we cannot skip is the new backsplash. If, by any chance, you already have oak kitchen cabinets with black countertops, but you still want an update to be done, here is another idea you can get inspired from.

It is by coloring the cabinets with white paint but leaving the black countertops as they are. The honey oak cabinets in the picture are an example that we can see. At first, it did not look bad at all, actually. The pairing between the cabinets and the black cabinets and the black appliances was simply great and elegant.

Although so, again and again, a kitchen update is a matter of preference. That is why it is totally fine if you want to do it. If you are remodeling to stay for a time period shorter than 5 years, design your remodel to help your home sell fast.

Pick finishes and something the future buyers might like, stay neutral with big ticket hard surfaces like countertops and flooring. To be honest, most of my clients fall into both camps. If they are investing in a designer, they usually want a more customized design overall. They want to make sure everything they do brings value to their home. They typically want both end results.

She actually had about half the budget of what was needed to do what she had been wanting. My challenge was helping her prioritize which parts would be the best investment for now and for resale on down the road.

Based on my experience with remodeling to sell properties and with costs associated with remodeling certain aspects of a home, I came up with these suggestions. There are lots of wood cabinets in this interior kitchen. The homeowner was looking to do a partial remodel and wanted to know how to prioritize what to do.

Can this kitchen be updated without painting the cabinets? A wall of wood cabinets on this side of the kitchen means wood on 3 walls.

Can this be updated without painting the cabinetry? The homeowner had freshly painted walls and trim in a light gray and white and hung new lighting as a good start to an update. This wall of upper wood cabinets, running between the corner cabinet boxes, are built as two separate boxes, divided in half, basically. I think something more interesting can be done with this long run of upper cabinets and be relatively easy-to-accomplish.

BTW, that crown on this run of cabinets in the photo above is detached and just straddling the cabinets above there, in case you are wondering what that line of wood is above the cabinetry. I know it took me a minute to figure that out.

It gave me a really good idea of the placement and layout and how the kitchen looks overall. So, I recommended that she not do any of those. Her husband liked the wood cabinets and painting all that cabinetry would be a big mess to deal with. Especially at this time with her kids home a lot for schooling, etc. I also thought about recommending a two-tone kitchen, with the stained wood cabinets below the counter to keep some of the wood for him and painted above for a fresher appeal.

Plus, the wall on the one side of the kitchen was almost all tall cabinets, and making a two tone situation work there would likely look awkward and too visually chopped up.

Pantry cabinetry with ovens, a wet bar and desk fill this wall of an all-wood kitchen. NOTE - Basically, when you keep wood cabinetry, you pretty much have to leave them as is as far as modifications go. If you remove something or add to them, it is hard to match the existing wood finish.

I thought her priority for this remodel, especially for resale, would be in new hard finishes. With original Corian counters, square ceramic tile, and appliances that were all about 20 years old, I thought that those needed to be addressed. Add your own trim to a simple slab cabinet door.

Start by cutting baseboard trim pieces with mitered corners to create a thick frame on the face of your door; adhere the pieces with wood glue and a pin nailer. Use medium-sized decorative trim pieces to create another frame along the inside flat edge of the baseboard pieces.

After cutting the pieces to size, secure them in place using wood glue and a pin nailer. Using even smaller decorative trim less than 1-inch wide , add another frame inside the layered baseboard frame using the same process.

Paint the door your desired base color. For an aged look, mix brown paint with a glazing compound and paint over the first color. Immediately wipe away the excess paint so the color stays mostly in the low spots and inner curves of the trim.

This kitchen cabinet update idea works well for recessed-panel cabinet doors. Cut 1. Lay one board at the bottom of the panel, angling it slightly upward to overlap the inside edge of the cabinet frame. Apply E glue along the top underside of the board and adhere it in place.

Set the second board in the panel, slightly overlapping the first, and glue it in place, repeating this process to cover the entire inset panel. Use narrow wood trim pieces to create a frame around the shutter design. Allow the glue to dry; then prime and paint the door your desired base color. Give the cabinet door an antiqued look by layering on paint in different colors and sanding between coats.

Beyond fun embellishments and personality-adding details, a good cabinet makeover often starts with fresh paint. Watch this video to learn how to master the basics of painting cabinets. Put extra wallpaper to use as a pretty patterned insert. For this easy kitchen cabinet update, start by painting the cabinet door with semigloss interior latex paint.

When the paint is dry, cut a piece of scrap wallpaper to fit the recessed panel. Apply spray adhesive to the back of the paper, then carefully smooth it onto the panel.

To seal the surface, use a paintbrush to apply a thin coat of decoupage medium over the paper and the entire door. Give old wood doors a makeover, but let a bit of their original character show through. First, apply a coat of polyurethane spray paint to seal the wood. To create this bird, trace your desired shape onto contact paper we used clip art found online , then cut it out and press it onto the cabinet front.

Use your fingernail to seal the edges tightly. Paint the cabinet we used off-white semigloss interior latex paint. When dry, carefully remove the contact paper to reveal your design. Use a damp cloth to remove any paint that bleeds under the contact paper. Add interest to a plain cabinet door by parading pretty trimwork around the door's perimeter. Measure your cabinet door to determine how much molding you'll need. Be sure to factor in the size of the four embellishments for the corners.

Use a miter box to cut the molding strips to size. Paint the cabinet , molding, and embellishments the same color. When dry, use wood glue to affix the molding and embellishments to the cabinet. Clamp the pieces in place until the glue dries. For this kitchen cabinet update , we used Patterned sheet metal to give these doors a fresh yet vintage vibe.

After removing the inner door panel with a jigsaw , paint the cabinet door and let dry.