We need to redo our kitchen in our 115 year old house, but after spending thousands of dollars on other repairs, are left with little money. I need to do something about the cabinets. Any ideas?
Howdy to you, Something my in-laws did with their old nasty kitchen cabinets was. They groved the front pannels and put loads of varnish on them and they turned out great. Like having small groves all the way down the things. Covered up alot of bad cabinets. Have fun, Echos
Well, they do offer cabinet refacing, which is much less expensive than replacing the entire cabinets. Or you could dismantle them yourselves, strip all the paint and old varnish off, and stain them or paint them with a more modern color.
The stripping and repainting really could add new life to the cabinets at minimal cost. If the doors are plain, and you want to jazz them up a bit, you could also add a raised facing, such as rectangles that pick up a secondary color in the kitchen. Also, new hardware can make a big difference in the way cabinets look. You can pick up some bargains on the hardware at a hardware store, but also you can often find some good stuff at yard sales.
You might also consider taking the inside panel out, if there is one, and put in glass in the center of the door. Of course, if you don't keep your cabinets REALLY organized, that might not be a good idea.
Unfortunately, the cabinet bottoms are rotted out - the ones on the bottom, that is. The top cabinets are ok. We have been thinking about adding new ones to the bottom while keeping the top cabinets. The estimates we got for unfinished basic cabinets isn't too bad. We also need to replace the floor and have been looking for something red, as the colors in our kitchen are red and hunter green. I put in a new red Hunter ceiling fan and love it. Our walls and cabinets are hunter green and since our ceilings are 12 foot, I'd like to keep them the way they are. So far no luck in finding the right flooring in our price range.
You can definately tie in the existing cabinets with basic new ones on the bottom with matching hardware. For our kitchen, I got some nice self-stick vinyl tiles that look like terra cotta. They went in easy and they really stand up to wear.
We probably will. I also want a dishwasher and new sink. Alas, we're not even working on it. I need more cabinets, too. I want cabinets in my pantry, also. yes, there are lots of things to be done in this old house!
I'm going with Melos on this one. Last year my mom wanted to do something with her cabinets as they were really old and looked so bad. I helped her out and what we did was we removed the cabinets, stripped the old paint and varnish, and then very lightly sanded them down. We then painted them and put a finishing varnish on it. They turned out really well, but the job was very time consuming. My mom also added all new fixtures to the cabinets at a really good price, and they turned out really well. Good luck!
What we decided to do was buy new, unfinished cabinets at Lowes. Unfinished cabinets are much cheaper than finished ones, I mean - MUCH cheaper!
I've often heard that unfinished everything was cheaper. I didn't realize it would amount to that much. Are we talking hundreds or thousands?
My kitchen cabinets were very old and handmade, but in good shape. Someone painted them yellow, which wasn't my color. There was an insert in the center of the cabinets, I went to Lowe's and found the raised wallpaper, in white (it has the puddy look to it) and wallpapered the center inserts, painted white enamel around the outside edges sealing the wallpaper and painted the borders on the cabinets. They look great, and hold up, and clean easily! It worked for me My_LiL_Hamma
I don't know what condition your cabinets are in, but you may be able to get by with sanding and repainting or restaining.
Have you tried formsby refinisher? This is not a stripper but takes off the old varnish and you can restain with a similar color and finish. You can even paint it white first and then paint it in whatever color you wish.
