How to Make Your Old Wood Kitchen Cabinets Look New Again

Your kitchen should be a place of joy and comfort since it is the heart of the household. Many people don’t have a lot of money to invest into a new kitchen now due to economy that we are in. I have a house that was built in 1964 with the flat paneled cabinet doors and hinges that came halfway across the door.

Transforming this kitchen was much cheaper and was a lot easier than what I thought it would be. First thing I did was think about what I wanted to achieve in this kitchen, I wanted a bright space that my family would enjoy. I didn’t want to put in a new kitchen because I didn’t want to spend the money for my dream kitchen.

I took all the doors off the cabinets and removed the soffits about the top kitchen cabinets, removing the soffits and the large black hinges made a big difference in updating the room. I took a palm sander and I sanded the front of the doors and the back of the doors, I also sanded the inside of the cabinets then used mineral spirits to clean the cabinets. Next part in the process was installing crown moulding along the top of upper cabinets, I then took bead board and applied it to sides of the kitchen cabinets and added other thin moulding on cabinets where there was imperfections.

My next goal was to modernize these doors somehow, I took small picture frame moulding and measured about two inches from the edge all the wall around door. I measured the space inside the frame and cut a piece of bead board to fit inside of that space, it gave the door a much different look.

I also removed the old countertop which was an ugly dark green and there was a peninsula that stuck out in the middle of floor. I removed part of the peninsula and created an island with it adding furniture legs, bead board and painting it chocolate brown to offset the lighter color on cabinets.

I sprayed the cabinets and doors Benjamin Moore simply white, using their impervo paint. It is a white but not a boring bright white, very pretty when it all came together. I gave the cabinets a primer coat and a finish coat, the impervo paint is self-leveling so any minor imperfections disappeared.

I added chrome hardware to the doors and hinges, the hinges are hidden now not halfway on the door like the old hinges. I purchased a new countertop using the formica that looks like granite, it isn’t the standard formica you would see in the home depot but an upgraded version.

After the cabinets were painted and I installed the new counter, I purchased new appliances in stainless steel and installed hardwood floors in the kitchen. The end result is absolutely beautiful, I took this very dull kitchen that nobody wanted to spend time in and turned it into the best room of the house

I had to do a lot of research for some of the projects but the cost was minimal compared to having a contractor do the work.

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