Updating Kitchen Cabinets

Your kitchen cabinets are the biggest tellers of your kitchen’s age. It is, no doubt, that the cabinets are the most overwhelming feature of the whole kitchen. Upon walking into the kitchen, people tend to look at the cabinets in regards to how well they are made and how much they can hold. Changing your cabinets even slightly will have a dramatic effect on your whole kitchen appearance.

Updating Cabinets with New Hardware

If your cabinets are lackluster and dull, but the doors overall are in good shape, a simple change in decorative kitchen hardware can make an enormous difference. There is a lot of different decorative hardware for any kitchen style available on today’s market.

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Try to use quality hardware for this kind of job. The knobs and pulls should reflect the quality of your cabinets. After you remove the old knobs, there will be scratches and little holes left from removing them, so the new hardware should be able to cover those scratches.

Solid brass, plated brass, chrome knobs, and baked enamel knobs will cost anywhere from $2 to $64 each. You can go to any home supply store to look at their selection or go a step further by opting for a more special looking knob or handle.

You may find porcelain knobs as an attractive feature in your kitchen. They are usually seen as something that is part of a country style kitchen or cottage kitchen, but they can be used in a traditional kitchen.

Refreshing the Old Kitchen Cabinets

If your cabinets need a little more to freshen them up, then you might want to opt for a mini makeover of a sort.

If you are working with painted cabinets, then take the doors off and sand them lightly with sandpaper. You may use spray paint if you are proficient with it, or you can use polyurethane paint instead. To avoid brush marks, use either a foam brush or a soft-bristle brush. It is recommended to stay with more neutral colors unless you are planning to change the color regularly.

If you have already installed your hardware here are a few tricks as to how you may keep it paint-free: remove it, cover it in painters tape, or you can cover them in petroleum jelly so the paint will roll off with ease. You can always bring it to a professional painter who can finish the job for you for a pretty reasonable price.

If your doors are either stained or finished with polyurethane, you have to sand them down because the new stain cannot go through the old one. While you have to sand them down completely, you have to make sure that you are using care and caution as not to damage a door that may be thinner again, if you are not comfortable in your abilities to consult a professional.

Keeping up with the New

You should be aware of the fact that just like the fashion world, the interior design (which means kitchen design as well) are ever changing. It would be best if you were mindful of the trends as you spice up your kitchen.

Today, lighter colors of wood, such as maple, have replaced the darker wood tones of the seventies. European style cabinetry and colors of cabinetry are coming into style. Those colors include while or almond shades, with a touch of oak either on the handles or as a trim. Using the details from today’s trends will make your kitchen look up to date.

A Transplant, per se: If the doors of your kitchen cabinets are in a condition that is beyond repair, instead of replacing the kitchen cabinets you should consider just getting new cabinet doors.

Updating Kitchen with New Cabinets

If your cabinets have more than just “door issues” and you plan on changing your kitchen layout, or you are tired with the old ones that you would much rather update, you should do so! If you have old kitchen appliances and the new ones wouldn’t fit into the cabinets you have now, you should go for the change. Adding new kitchen cabinets will make a dramatic difference in your kitchen rendering it almost unrecognizable.

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You should not have any problems finding reasonable prices for the cabinets if you look at home improvement stores and any cabinetry stores that may be offering closeout prices at any point.

There are several kitchen cabinets types you should know about: custom kitchen cabinets, semi-custom, and stock cabinets. When starting your search for the kitchen cabinets you should spend some time to learn the kitchen cabinets basics and to look around, and you will find your dream cabinets in no time.

Kitchen Storage – More is More!

If you have decided on changing out your kitchen cabinets, don’t forget to think about storage! With getting completely new cabinetry, you can add a lot more space and convenience that you have removed.

You will add even more space after you are doing to be forced to go through everything that you have kept in the cabinets and finally throw out what you do not need.

You can also make your kitchen more efficient by placing a few more storage devices. You can put a few Lazy Susan’s and a few wire racks. You can keep the wire racks on the inside of the cabinet doors and larger ones on the inside of the pantry or closet door.

Updating Kitchen with Carved Wood Embellishments

Whether you are ordering brand new kitchen cabinets or re-facing an old one the addition of decorative carved wood products and decorative wood molding will not just help you to add character to your kitchen they will help you to bring your kitchen style to a whole new level.

Hand-carved kitchen embellishments can turn any kitchen into a warm, dynamic, and detailed space. Special touches like beautiful wood crown molding, lavishly detailed carved wood onlays, wood corbels, and delicate wood rosettes lend distinctive character to the kitchen.

Several types of decorative molding can be used for cabinets adornments:

1. The wooden crown molding is usually applied on the top of the kitchen cabinets, creating a beautiful finished look. Crown molding can have a simple, clean profile without any ornamentation or have a decorative design carved or embedded into the molding profile.
2. Wooden frieze molding usually installed under the crown molding for additional decoration. Frieze molding applied on the flat surface of the cabinet and varied in size from 4 to 7 inches.
3. Decorative wood panel molding used for fine cabinet’s trim. Panel moldings with rope or beaded designs often applied to the cabinet’s doors or under the crown or frieze molding.
4. Pierced wood molding carved from solid hardwood with pierced design. If you wont to add vivid, deep-relief details to your cabinets – this molding will do the job. Most often pierced moldings are finished to match the kitchen cabinets, but some choose to finish the molding with a lighter stain. The color variation makes the pierced design stand out more, creating a particular statement. This ability makes pierced molding ideal for updating existing cabinets.
5. Decorative wooden baseboard molding. This type of molding is applied on the bottom of the kitchen cabinets and usually, carry’s the same design motif as the rest of the kitchen cabinets. For example, if the kitchen cabinets are trimmed with rope panel molding or crown molding with rope design the rope motif baseboard should be considered for use as a trim for the bottom part of the cabinets.

If your kitchen plans include a kitchen island, you might consider using kitchen island legs for support of the countertop. Use of kitchen-island legs gives you an ability to create a maximum countertop overhang and create an additional sitting in the kitchen. Kitchen-island legs are available in different styles and sizes to feet any kitchen style.

Another way to add elegant embellishments to the kitchen island is to use a decorative corner-posts with carved details during construction of the kitchen island.

You can embellish the sides or the front of your kitchen island with hand-carved door panels.

Helpful Tips

Have fun with the hardware for your kitchen cabinets. Adding beautiful hand-crafted cabinet’s hardware is the easiest way to update your kitchen cabinets.

Hand-carved door panels and wood onlays will bring your kitchen cabinets to life.

Add beautiful details to the kitchen cabinet by using decorative corner posts.

Use traditional Rope kitchen-island legs to provide adequate support for the granite countertop

Additional open shelving on the side of the kitchen island provides extra storage and decorating opportunities