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Hello!

I am in the process of buying a new to me house, and I love a lot about it, but I am just not wild about the 90's style cabinetry in the kitchen.

A whole kitchen remodel is out of the question financially and will be for a long time, and I'd like to try to update the cabinets as realitively inexpensively since there are few other expensive and more pressing projects in the house that will require the use of our funds up front.

One of the problems I see I'm going to have is that the cabinets are a wood veneer (I think, could be laminate) particle board, so I doubt they are going to take cutting or altering very well.

My husband isn't wild about painted cabinets, but he may be pursuaded if the color combinations weren't too out there (he's a pretty reserved guy)..but he is VERY against white cabinets.

Any suggestions you have would be appreciated!


Our kitchen table is farmhouse style (blondeish wood top and white legs), so any suggestions you have about how to tie that into an updating job, let me know!


Thanks!

You could cover the routed detail on the cabinets with a "picture frame" of molding before painting the cabinets to give them more of a three dimensional look. Glazing over an off white paint would give you pained cabinets without a wild color or stark white. Get rid of that wallpaper border and the little fence on the cabinet tops and change the door and drawer pulls to something more current, possibly mounting them through the new molding. Put something in the backsplash area even if it's paint in any color but white.

Don't blame your husband about the white, it's extremely hard to keep clean. If you are thinking about painting or glazing the cabinets, try it on the inside of a door first and see if it's possible or if it will just result in a mess. Sometimes you will just raise the grain of the cabinet and it will look bad. Change the cabinet hardware, get rid of the plate rail on the top of the cabinets.

Some good ideas.

If you do not want to paint you can add the molding to hide the router marks just stain them to match or contrast. You can get an idea of how they would look by cutting strips of paper/cardboard and taping it on a cabinet or two.