Five Ways to Upgrade Your Kitchen Cabinets This Weekend

Kitchen renovations are among the most popular renovation projects out there for homeowners. The same is true whether it’s your first home or your vacation home. The kitchen is a gathering place in any home, and it needs to look good while still being functional. If you have a vacation home that you’re renting out, then you definitely want to make sure your kitchen is in good shape to attract renters and keep them comfortable for the duration of their stay.

If you aren’t ready for a full kitchen reno but you want to make some updates, then take a look at your cabinets. Updating kitchen cabinets is a fairly cost-effective way to make your whole house look better and make it easier for you to work in the kitchen. You can tackle upgrading your kitchen cabinets on your own, or you can find a contractor to do the work for you.

Here are 5 ways to upgrade your kitchen cabinets.

1. Paint your cabinets: If your cabinets are still in decent shape and work as well as you need them to, then you might just need to put a couple of fresh coats of paint on them. Painting cabinets can freshen up the whole room and let you add a pop of color if the rest of your kitchen is fairly neutral. Add some variety by mixing up the colors for upper and lower cabinets, or make your island stand out with a different color than the rest of your cabinets. You can hire someone to do this for you, or you can do it yourself with sandpaper, paint, and elbow grease.
2. Open up shelving: Removing doors from your cabinets can create an open, breezy look. It can also add convenience, when the items in your open shelves are ones that you use every day and add an uncluttered appearance to your kitchen. This concept works especially well for cabinets that are over an island to create a breezy space that keeps the kitchen open.
3. Install lights: Under cabinet lights don’t just look nice. They also add functionality, by making it easier than ever for you to see when you’re working in the kitchen. Dimmable under cabinet lights are perfect to make sure you have tons of light while you’re prepping your meals and also mood lighting when you’re ready to wind down for the night.
4. Install a roll-out shelf: Roll out shelves are perfect for those heavy objects that are awkward to pull out from your bottom shelves. They can also help you organized your bottom shelves—instead of throwing all your Tupperware in a cabinet and hoping for the best, you can pull out a shelf to put them away in an organized manner.  You can install one yourself by picking one up from a store like The Container Store for less than $100.
5. Add a spice rack to your cabinet door: The back of a cabinet door is sort of a waste of space, but it actually has huge potential to help you get (and stay) organized. Install a spice rack to your cabinet door to make it easy for you to see your spices and to free up a lot of space in your cabinet. You can have a designer make up a door rack for you, or you can look for a prefab model.

These kitchen cabinet upgrades can all be done in a weekend if you’re a DIYer who’s itching to get something done this weekend. If you want them done but aren’t feeling so handy, just look for a contractor who can handle the project for you!