Five Budget-Friendly Kitchen Cabinet Upgrades You Can Make

Your kitchen is the hub of the home. It’s the room where most families gather for just about everything imaginable, from mealtime, to homework with the kids, you may sit at the table to pay bills, do crafts, or just visit with friends and family over a cup of coffee. Because so much time is spent in the kitchen, creating a space that is beautiful, warm and welcoming is just as important as making it a very efficient space that you can work well in, and enjoy working in it just as much.

One of the main features of a kitchen is the cabinetry. It not only consumes a large part of your kitchen space, but it serves as a focal point to the room. If you have noticed that your cabinetry has become old, tired and boring and needs an upgrade to help breathe new life back into it but money is an object for you, there are several ways you can create a whole new look to your kitchen cabinets that won’t drain your wallet. We’ve put together five ideas for upgrading your kitchen cabinets that are budget friendly. Take a look.

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1. Repainting

Paint is one of the most versatile home decor elements for many upgrading ideas. You can add paint to so many things to change the look of a room, whether it’s a small change or completely new look. When your kitchen cabinets take on an old and boring appearance, you change the entire look of them by painting them a whole new color to brighten the kitchen or add a dramatic effect. You can paint the cabinets one color and offset them by painting the built in portion a different color to give them a two-toned look, or maybe you prefer to paint all your upper cabinets one color and the bottom section a different color, which is another way to add a two-toned theme to your kitchen cabinets, but the best thing about painting your cabinets is that you can give your kitchen a new face lift without breaking your budget.

2. Add Crown Molding

Crown molding looks beautiful on walls and on cabinets. While many people would love to re-do their entire cabinet system and get all new ones, money is usually an issue, as this route can be quite costly. If you have a budget you need to stick to but want a different look for your cabinets, try adding crown molding to your basic cabinetry and see what it does for your kitchen. Crown molding adds height and a very dramatic appeal that will make your kitchen look like it got a brand new face.

3. Remove Doors

Playing around with ideas on how to upgrade your kitchen cabinets without breaking the bank may take some mulling over on what ideas would fit into your budget. Here’s one that can really add charm, elegance and an upgraded look to your kitchen with this simple task. Having some open cabinets in a kitchen is a great way to give your cabinets a new look, and it’s one of the most popular trending ideas, too. Your kitchen will look and feel more up-to-date if you removed some doors to create an open look for for some of your cabinets. An overbearing section of cabinets that seem to eat up a lot of visual space, for instance, a grouping of cabinets over an island that walls off a part of the kitchen.

4. Replace Door panels with Chicken Wire

Yes, it does say “chicken wire” and that’s because chicken wire works well to open up cabinetry to give it some personality and charm, along with a more light and airy look and feel. It’s cheap, creative, and it can totally transform the look of your cabinets. Chicken wire is a big farmhouse design trick that helps to keep the farmhouse look and feel flowing into the kitchen. But really, just about any style of kitchen can look great with some chicken wire added to cabinet fronts after the front panels are removed. You’ll love the charm and the transparency of this look, and it doesn’t cost much to do it.

5. Add Glass Inserts to Doors

Similar to the chicken wire, you can remove the front panels of some of your cabinets and put in glass inserts to give your cabinets a fresh new look. With so many styles of glass to choose from, you can create the perfect look for your kitchen. Of course, plain glass is a popular choice, but don’t discount frosted, crackled, colored, etched or patterned glass for an even more creative look. No matter what you choose, adding any type of glass will bring your kitchen up-to-date. A tip for glass front cabinets is to use different types of lighting to showcase the glass and create a different ambiance for your favorite, most utilized room in the home.