How to dress up kitchen cabinets with style

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/09/2003 (8287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAST week we looked at simple projects for adding interesting touches to your window treatments. This week, we’ll focus on the kitchen cabinets; a nemesis for many homeowners because replacing them can be a time-consuming and costly venture. For apartment dwellers, replacement is not an option. In both cases we must come up with inventive ways to enhance the existing cabinets. Homeowners and apartment dwellers have different needs and choices when it comes to projects of this nature. Today, we’ll look at projects suited to both scenarios.

Homeowners

Painting your cabinets may be your only solution if they are in rough shape. If, however, your cabinet surfaces are in reasonable condition, there are several ways to enhance them without having to paint all of their surfaces. Before you begin you’ll want to visit your local hardware store and ask for assistance when choosing the type of paint you’ll require for your cabinet surface. Then consider one or more of these ideas:

Choose a large stencil that will suit your kitchen decor and stencil a design on each of the doors. Free-handing a design is an option, but a stencil will give you a more exact, repetitive design. Whether you choose to stencil your design in the middle, bottom or top of the cupboard doors, be sure that the stencils are all evenly spaced to ensure a uniform look.

If the edges of the cupboard doors are worse for wear, this is where you can get creative with your decorative painting. Mask off a border around the edge of the door and paint in a desired colour, covering the worn areas. A border of crisp black paint on white or cream coloured cupboards, for example, can make for a dramatic change.

Cabinet doors get the most wear so you may want to consider painting all of the doors in a new colour while leaving the actual cabinet face in the existing colour. This is a bit more work but worth it if the doors are scuffed and scratched. If you just want to add accent colour to the kitchen, you can do the reverse and paint the face of the cabinets and leave the doors as is, perhaps adding a small stencil to the centre of each door to bring the colours all together. Depending upon the style of your cabinets you, may have to remove the doors and hinges before you begin, which is a bit more work than creating a painted border.

If you’ve always wanted to replace your drawer and door pulls with something new, now’s the time to plan for that change. You can fill in the holes from the previous handles with filler and paint over them when you are doing your chosen paint technique. Then, the sky is the limit with regard to the style of new pulls you desire and you won’t have to worry about matching the former hardware size.

Options for apartment dwellers

I’ve lived in apartments and know the reality of living with outdated kitchen cabinets. Sometimes they can be a mish-mash of styles and colours which is really a challenge. Painting them is probably not an option but there is room for improvement, albeit temporary.

Cabinet doors with flat surfaces can be updated with the use of wallpaper. Create centre panels on each door with wallpaper and border. This is a simple solution that can unify the look of your kitchen and can be removed when you move. Adhere the wallpaper as you would if you were applying it to the walls. Try to choose a wallpaper that works with whatever colour is currently on the cabinets so that the wallpaper panels will co-ordinate with your existing scheme. For example, if your cabinets are bright orange, find a wallpaper with a small amount of orange in it along with a larger area of more neutral tones. This clever cover-up idea can also be used on the inside of the cabinet doors as well or even as a shelf liner. If your cabinets have a bulkhead, cut out the motifs from the wallpaper (like flowers, for instance) and place them on the bulkhead in a decorative pattern. You can use these small ‘motifs’ throughout the kitchen to unify the look. Use wipe-able or scrub-able wallpaper for easy clean up.

Miscellaneous ideas

This lace-look vinyl trim is a quick and easy way to add a special touch to open cabinet shelving. It’s pre-pasted and cuts easily to fit. I found this product in the Regal catalogue and really like the way it dresses up open cabinetry. I even used it on the inside of my cupboards to mask chipped shelf edges.

Open bulkhead areas are a great place to display collections. Baskets, silk plants, decorative tins or decorative plates displayed on the tops of the cabinets bring the eye up and add visual interest to an otherwise barren space. Consider adding wallpaper to this area for added interest.

Mirrored tiles can be used to create a backsplash that will reflect items on the counter and possibly bring in more light to the space.

A decorative pot hanger mounted from the ceiling or on the wall can add interest to the room and help to un-clutter your lower cabinets.