Unless you have an unlimited amount of funds to work with, you are probably like the rest of us when it comes to making any upgrades to any area of your home. It’s really hard to find the money to invest in the actual upgrade. If the paint on your house is cracking and it is starting to look really bad from the road, you probably can’t afford to have a professional do the job for you. So, you try your best to match the paint on your house at a local big box store, rent some staging, and decide to do it yourself. It’s the only way that you can afford to have your house painted.
If you love your kitchen, there are some ways in which you can save money when it comes to upgrading this space. Within the past few years, my wife and I knew that we had to upgrade our kitchen cabinets. A few years ago we actually decided to try to sell our home and it didn’t turn out so well. The real estate agent came back to us and told us that most people commented on the fact that our kitchen was outdated. We took the house off the market and decided that we were going to do our best to make some upgrades, particularly in the kitchen.
So we started looking into what we could do that would be within our budget. We would’ve loved to have purchased brand new granite countertops but we opted for a solid surface countertop which was a lot cheaper than expensive granite. We upgraded our kitchen floor by installing ceramic tile and wood which we did on our own. I built a kitchen island with seating for four which was built specifically for our small kitchen. Needless to say, it was a lot cheaper than buying one in a kitchen store or having one built for us.
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Kitchen Cabinet Refacing
When it came to our kitchen cabinets, we knew that this just might be our biggest investment. We actually called up cabinet companies and entertained a couple of different salespeople in our kitchen as they pitched their particular brand of kitchen cabinet. When we looked at the numbers, we had sticker shock! We simply realized that unless we wanted to go into debt we couldn’t afford brand new cabinets.
So my wife and I set out to do some research and found on the internet that there was an option called kitchen cabinet refacing which intrigued us to say the least. Even though our cabinets were looking outdated they were still structurally-sound and they were built of solid wood. We didn’t really want to part with them and the cabinet refacing option appeared to be a great solution to enhancing the cabinets without ripping them all out. Having cabinets that were sound structurally was actually a prerequisite of the kitchen cabinet refacing process.
We found what appeared to be a highly-recommended kitchen contractor online and asked him to come over our house to tell us more about the cabinet refacing process. He showed up with an album of some projects that he had previously completed and a list of names that we could contact to ask about his workmanship. We were extremely impressed with his knowledge of construction in general and particularly when it came to the kitchen. He showed us a number of different colored laminates with which he would reface our existing cabinets and we actually wanted white which was a very popular choice.
He told us that the process of cabinet refacing involved replacing the cabinet doors and the drawer fronts, brand new hardware, and covering the existing cabinets with a laminate of our choice. Then he gave us the estimate of what it would cost for the project to be completed and we were sold! The difference between the brand new cabinets and the refaced cabinets was incredible. So, the fact that we could actually keep our existing cabinets and pay a whole lot less than brand new cabinets, our decision was made. We have now lived with the refaced cabinets for a number of years and they still look beautiful. It is a great option if you want to upgrade the dcor of your kitchen but don’t want to break the bank.
Soft Close Cabinet Hardware
So we had our kitchen cabinets refaced many years ago but one thing about them always bugged me. They were very loud when you closed them. There were many nights that I was awakened to the sound of banging cabinets when my daughters were baking cookies at midnight. Yeah, they like to do that.
About two years ago my brother had his kitchen entirely renovated. It took many months for it to be complete but it was magnificent in the end. When we first visited his house and viewed the renovation, we were thoroughly impressed. My wife and I were inspecting every little thing that he had done and one thing stopped us in our tracks. When we opened and closed their brand new cabinets, we didn’t hear a thing. We had to know what was behind these quiet cabinets. Well, we quickly learned that soft close cabinet hardware can be purchased in specialty kitchen stores and also online.
So, when we got home we decided that rather than buying enough for each of our cabinets, we would buy a couple of soft close adaptors and see if they worked for our own kitchen cabinets. When we received them in the mail my wife decided to install the two that arrived. All it took was drilling a small hole in the inside of the corner of the cabinet and inserting a small screw. That was the extent of the installation.
When I got home from work she asked me to open and close a particular cabinet without telling me that the hardware had arrived in the mail. I was flabbergasted when the cabinet shut with no bang. Right then and there we went online and ordered one for each cabinet that we had in our kitchen. I think we paid about $4 per adaptor which was about the best investment we have ever made in our kitchen.
If you too feel that your kitchen is outdated you might want to consider kitchen cabinet refacing and soft close cabinet hardware. The dramatic effect that both of these upgrades will have on your kitchen is significant and you won’t break the bank doing it!
