Hi friends!
I hope you had a great weekend! My family and I are continuing to enjoy being outside and enjoying the days of summer!
It has been a while since I shared a kitchen makeover story with you, and today, I certainly will do that! But as I do, I want to make sure that I help explain (and show some good examples of) knowing when upgrading your cabinet doors is the best decision for your kitchen refresh. Typically, with most of our kitchens, we are focused on upcycling the current kitchen cabinets and giving them a refresh by painting them and changing out hardware. However, sometimes when evaluating the whole kitchen project, the best decision is to change out the cabinet doors. It may surprise you, but this not only gives a fresh look to really outdated or beat up cabinet doors but it also can often be the most cost effective option when considering repair costs or labor costs to ensure the right outcome.
Today’s kitchen features the story of Patricia and her husband who were moving into a new home and part of their plan was to include a refresh to their kitchen. When we met, there were a few challenges to talk through. First the color or their kitchen was a dark black. Black cabinets can be an elegant option, don’t get me wrong, but the cabinets in Patricia’s kitchen were in rough shape. doing that thing that many of us do…we know we need to get things updated, but we are really trying to stretch our dollar and make sure we make the best and wisest decision for our families. When I first talked with Patricia, she mentioned that she was concerned the doors in on her kitchen cabinets When we met with Patricia, she brought one of her ca
Here is a picture of the kitchen before our FunCycled team was able to work our magic
It might be hard to see because I had to zoom in on one of the before photos that our client had taken of her kitchen. The cabinet doors were in pretty rough shape. A previous owner had them painted with heavy duty deck paint. This kind of paint is COMPLETELY WRONG for cabinet doors!
As we reviewed the condition of the cabinet doors, we determined that the number of hours to get these doors to a smooth surface (in order to help the paint adhere) would be well beyond the cost of building new doors for the project. Not to mention, we were not even guaranteed to ever get them fully smooth and could not really guarantee the paint would full cure and adhere to the doors.
Here are some more photos that we took the day John installed the new doors. Take a look at that rough texture! As I said before we probably would not even able to get a smooth even finish to repaint these doors and the process of attempting to do so would prove costly. The better option here is to select having new doors built. Another thing to note is that this texture and paint were on BOTH sides of the door.
Here are some photos of the new doors that we took the day of install. These new doors are a shaker style door. Shaker cabinet doors are very classic and work with just about every design style, so it will work in most homes no matter what other decor you may have. Notice how much smoother the cabinets are. Isn’t that so much better? Plus by changing the doors, Patricia and her husband were able to upgrade the hinges. So rather than having to keep her hinges which were really old and not in the best condition, she was able to upgrade to new soft close hinges. The hinges we like to use for our kitchen projects when a client asks for soft close option is linked here.
Here are the before and after photos of sections of the cabinets. Notice how much better it is to have the cabinet hardware NOT in the middle of the doors?
The color of the hardware is somewhat skewed in this bottom photo. They are a rubbed oil bronze finish which coordinates with the tones and colors present in the counters. And the color of the cabinets is Benjamin Moore Seashell.
Seashell is a neutral, warm white with beige undertones. Benjamin Moore describes this color as a luminous off-white. You can see a swatch to the right. If you are interested in this color, it has 2 codes. You will find it filed as #OC – 120 or #926…just a little tip for you!
And, of course, here are some great after photos which shows the whole kitchen. What a difference!
WHEN TO UPGRADE CABINET DOORS
- Rough Texture – if the surface of the doors has so much texture that it will become hard to smooth out, it could interrupt the ability for paint to cure and bond with the surface of the door and lead to peeling
- Damage – if there are large parts of the door that have been heavily damaged, this could be water damage or major dings and dents that would impair the process of creating a smooth surface
- Splitting Wood or Materials – there is no good way for major splits in doors to be repaired to a place that will allow for
- Outdated Doors – if your doors are really outdated or have odd lines and features, even a coat of paint may not provide the kind of update you are looking for
- Looking for New Style – if you know you are already seeking to change the look of your kitchen, when evaluating options for paint colors, discussing new door fronts may also be the best choice. I would recommend considering this if you know you are already going to update your backsplash and counters. You are already making an investment and by changing the doors, you still save money but you will be able to change the look and style of your home easily and will feel like you have a whole new kitchen!
Thank you, Patricia, for choosing us to be part of this special project and for hiring FunCycled to do the kitchen cabinet painting! What a wonderful transformation! We are so glad you decided to upgrade your cabinets.
If you’d like to see how we paint Kitchen Cabinets, click here to check out our video on YouTube.
Could your kitchen use an update? We’d love to help!! We can help pick out colors, finishes, product and do the cabinet painting, tiling, add new hardware. You can use our Contact Us form to request our design services or a quote for painting your kitchen. Please check out other kitchen projects on our For Sale page. We’ll need to see a picture of your kitchen, a list of how many doors and drawers there are, and where you are located to email you an estimate. This change ups the value of your home and gives you a whole new look at a fraction of the cost of new kitchen cabinets!
Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled
I am also excited to share that we are launching our Broken to Beautiful initiative again. Broken to Beautiful is FunCycled’s way of sharing love and kindness. Saying thank you to our customers and community! We want to bless someone in the Capital Region by upcycling a furniture project for them for FREE!
Submissions are being accepted from August 1, 2024 to August 15, 2024. If you would like to submit a project for consideration, fill out this form: Broken to Beautiful Submission Form.
To learn more, visit Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled blog post.
We can’t wait to see what is submitted!
Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture.
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In addition to kitchen cabinet painting, we offer interior design, custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do.
Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ; )
