We are officially done with our kitchen renovations. Yes, it only took us 4 loooong months to finish the project. The crazy part is that we worked on this project almost daily. In fact, I spent the last month painting our cabinets at night after the children were in bed.
Despite how long it took us to complete our kitchen, I am so happy with the results. It really is perfect for our family. Aesthetically, I couldn’t be happier with the design. It fits my taste and style perfectly. We plan to post before and after pictures soon. John’s camera is better than mine, so I think I’ll let him have the honor of sharing our new kitchen with you.
Today I want to talk about ways to save money on your kitchen cabinetry. Purchasing all new cabinets can strain a small budget. In fact, new cabinetry cost from a third to a half of a kitchen’s total cost. Before we decided to renovate our existing kitchen, we got quotes from numerous companies to completely gut and rebuild our kitchen. The cheapest quote we received was for about $25,000.
We knew that a $25,000 kitchen wouldn’t even be our dream kitchen. With that number, we would be forced to choose from the cheapest cabinetry lines. I was worried that we would end up with cabinets that were a lower quality than the solid wood cabinets we were ripping out. Plus, $25,000 is a lot of money. We weren’t sure we even wanted to sink that much money into our house.
We started looking at our dated cabinets, and realized that they were still in good condition. All of the upper cabinets looked great – no problems at all. The base cabinets around the sink had some cosmetic damage from water, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a splash of paint. This realization got our wheels turning. We could update our kitchen, without ripping everything out and starting over.
If your cabinets are in good condition, you have a few options to change your space, without breaking the bank.
Put new hardware on your cabinets
If your cabinets are in good shape, a simple change may be all you need to update your space. Try swapping out your old brass knobs for a more modern stainless steel.
Paint your cabinets
If changing out the hardware isn’t enough, you might want to consider painting your cabinets. This is a time consuming project, but relatively cheap in comparison to the cost of new cabinetry.
Replace your cabinet doors
This is the most expensive option, but it is definitely more cost effective than a full kitchen replacement. Keeping your cabinet boxes and replacing only the doors is a great way to make your kitchen look and feel brand new.
We started out wanting to paint our 1960s cabinets and replace the hardware. However, we ended up purchasing new cabinet doors from a local wood shop. This allowed us to get the shaker style cabinetry I had always dreamed of, while also letting us get soft close hinges for a more modern feel. And I have to say, it was completely worth the expensive. Our cabinets look brand new.
If you are considering updating your cabinets, I highly recommend looking into all of your options before ripping out your cabinetry. There are so many ways to improve the aesthetics, without draining your entire bank account.