kitchen cabinets

If I were to ask you, "Are you proud of your kitchen?" I would venture to guess that most of you would respond, "No." Considering that the average age of the American home in 35 years, many of you have may inherited an old kitchen with laminate floor tile and countertops or dingy, dated cabinetry that doesn't look exactly as you'd wish.

With home prices down 30 to 50 percent, most consumers are only buying what we need and can afford, but unfortunately, a kitchen renovation is not the most budget-friendly of expenses. The cost to replace your cabinets and countertops stands somewhere between $4,000 and $20,000, depending on whether you purchase stock supplies or have a custom kitchen built. To reface your cabinets, you can expect to pay between $1,000 and $6,000. And painting your cabinets will cost you around $200, but as anyone who has tried this will tell you, the paint will inevitably peel if you don't strip, sand, and prime beforehand — a lengthy process.

So what's the alternative? Luckily there's a new product on the market for refinishing wood, melamine, laminate, and a number of cabinet surfaces that doesn't require sanding, stripping, or priming! Better yet, it'll cost you as little as $80. Find out what it is when you read more!

Here's a post from CasaSugar Community member ella1978 from the Su Casa group:

We are nowhere near working on our kitchen, but it is definitely time to do our homework for the project. The planner in me says so! One of the major renovation components and expenses is refinishing the kitchen cabinets. On our blog, I take a step-by-step look at how to properly refinish our cabinets. Here is a quick outline of the steps.

1. Empty all of your cabinets.
2. Remove all the doors.
3. Remove all hardware.
4. Clean cabinet doors and frame.
5. Sand cabinet doors and frame. Continue reading for the rest of the steps!
6. Add holes for new hardware.
7. Fill in dents and nicks.
8. Prime doors and frame.
9. Apply the first finish coat.
10. Add the second/final finish coat.
11. Reinstall.

Check out our blog post to get a step-by-step explanation of each step. We'll update the blog whenever we are able to get the funds to undertake the project! Until then, I hope that this inspires someone else to make over their cabinets!

Have you done any home renovation projects lately? Share your photos and tales in the Su Casa group!

Here's a post from CasaSugar Community member diywithadd from the Su Casa group:.

Whether you're planning a big budget kitchen renovation or a small budget kitchen upgrade, it's the little details that matter. One detail we took into account was the microwave. Since we hardly ever use it, and since microwaves aren't sexy, we didn't want it to be front and center in our kitchen. We definitely didn't want it sitting on a counter or hanging out right over our very sexy Bertazzoni range.

So, instead, we designed our cabinets with a slot for the microwave to slide in underneath the counter. Below the microwave cubby is a tall pull-out drawer that houses microwave-friendly storage containers. This makes for a convenient little "leftover" station. Above the microwave is nothing but uncluttered countertop, and that kind of real estate is priceless in our tiny New York kitchen. I love that our microwave is out of sight and out of mind until we need to reheat last night's mac and cheese.  

For a before shot of the space, read more

Here's a post from CasaSugar Community member LollyD from the Lovely Little Vignettes group:

So we have those boring, white, laminate cabinets and are in no position to remodel with new ones, or even to reface the ones we have. I wanted to do something fresh, modern, and bright in there, but paint was only doing so much for me. I thought about putting wallpaper on them, but I knew I'd end up with a nasty mess if I decided to redecorate. So I hunted for ideas and check this out . . . We found these at Cabinet Prints. They are removable, kind of like wall murals or giant stickers, and you can order them to fit. Our whole kitchen is redone in these and we did it ourselves for under $200. My kitchen is no longer boring, yay!

Be sure to share photos and details of your own home décor arrangements in the Lovely Little Vignettes group!

Here's a post from CasaSugar Community member ABurlock from the Su Casa group:

My kitchen cabinets were old and dirty, needing either a serious clean or some new paint. I decided to go the paint route. Here are the cabinets before:

I am renting, so I really can't do much beyond painting. I went to my favorite local hardware store and was going to have this white color mixed, but then the paint man mentioned that they had some of the color pre-mixed and on clearance because they no longer had room for it on their shelves. So I got a gallon of this paint for $5.

Want to see ABurlock's freshly painted kitchen?