5 Tips to Update Your Kitchen Cabinets in Encinitas

You don’t have to break the bank to upgrade your kitchen cabinets in Encinitas. Here are five tips to update your kitchen cabinets for under $100 per cabinet.

#1 Change Out Your Hardware

Kitchen cabinet hardware can be very fancy and expensive, costing $30’s and up for a single ornate knob. It would be a thrifty decision to buying a multi-pack of 10 simple while contemporary cabinet hardware at a store for less than $20.

Save yourself time and money by replacing 1-hole hardware with 1-hole upgrades; 2-hold hardware with 2-hole upgrades. That way you won’t have waste time or money to drill or patch.

#2 A Little Paint Can Go a Long Way

Updating old cabinets is quickly done with a fresh coat of paint. It’s a very cost effective DIY and you can paint most of the cabinet surfaces, but the entire process takes time. The prep work is what takes the longest when repainting your cabinets.

Tips for DIY on Painting Kitchen Cabinets:

  • Choose lighter color paints to make your kitchen seem bigger
  • Clean cabinet doors and boxes to remove built up grease and grime, fill in holes with wood putty, then sand.
  • For laminate and melamine finishes, rough up the surface with 150-grit sandpaper and apply a good bonding primer before the color paint of your choice.
  • Lightly sand each coat of paint for a true professional look and perfect paint job.
  • Lay cabinet doors flat to paint, and wait for each side to completely dry before painting the other side. Time consuming yes, but at least you won’t have drip marks.

#3 Moldings Can Make It

Crown molding can add that touch of class to those tired cabinets for less money. Three-inch, primed composite crown molding with a dentil design can cost as little as $20 for 8 feet. It is easier to add molding when you’re repainting the cabinets, and it helps with getting that perfect match.

#4 Change the Glass

By changing the glass insert in a cabinet door, you can transform the entire look and feel of your kitchen. Of course, not all cabinet doors are eligible for a change due to design. You would need the kind of door with a removable panel. So check the backs of your cabinet doors to see if the center panel can be removed.

The types of glass you can choose could be contemporary, bubbles, raindrops on water, antique, and so on at only $7 – $9 per square foot. Meaning you can change the look of a 2-door, 30-inch-by-24-inch cabinet for $35 to $45.

#5 Task Lighting

In the past, the only way to shed light on kitchen tasks was by putting in hard-wiring under-cabinet lights, which was expensive. Now anyone can add lighting under and inside of their cabinets with peel/stick, battery powered LED lights.

It’s true that battery-run lights are not going to be as bright as the old-school hardwired light, but they are less expensive and easy for you to place where you want them. Shop around and you’re sure to find the right kind of lights for the look you are going for, maybe even in the right color scheme.

Redoing your kitchen cabinets can help sell your home and intrigue buyers to make better offers on your home, because kitchen cabinets can be thought of as the landscaping of your kitchen. For more information on how to stage your home, check out How to Stage Your Home in Encinitas. And remember, ask your Realtor for tips about selling your home 😉

By Linda Moore

Office Listings

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.
To top ⬆