5 Easy DIY Kitchen Upgrades

Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

Are you tired of the same old look and feel of your kitchen? Do you think it’s time for a change? Don’t worry; even though kitchen remodeling sounds expensive and complicated, there is a surprising amount of projects that you can do all on your own, even if you have little-to-no experience with DIY kitchen upgrades. You deserve to make your kitchen stand out and shine. After all, it’s where you spend a good deal of your day, so why shouldn’t it look wonderful? Here are five easy, yet surprisingly effective upgrades for your kitchen.

1. Open the shelving – If your kitchen has rows of cabinets, try removing the doors. You’ll be shocked at how much more open the room will feel. “Open shelving” is quickly becoming a popular trend for homeowners who are on a tight budget but want to make their kitchens seem larger.
2. After removing the cabinet doors, you can fill in any holes with wood filler, sand the edges and corners until they are smooth, and then paint or stain the wood as you see fit. If you decide to apply any interior treatment to your kitchen like wall-covering, make sure you prime the inner walls of the cupboard where you plan to apply the coverings.
3. Replace the faucets – Out of your entire kitchen, your faucet is possibly the most used aspect. Obviously, it’s going to go through the normal wear and tear of any fixture, but you shouldn’t avoid sprucing it up in the midst of your kitchen remodel.
4. Look into new faucet fixtures that can freshen up the room. Replacing a faucet is easier than you think and can turn into a fun project. Pick a style of faucet that you can coordinate with appliances and other kitchen hardware like cabinet handles and knobs. It’s the little things that can pull an entire room together.
5. Upgrade the hardware – Your kitchen’s hardware is like jewelry – it’s meant to add aesthetic value. You can highlight your kitchen cabinets by using metal hardware like gold, brass, silver, or stainless steel. As mentioned earlier, you can then coordinate and match the hardware with your faucet or major appliances. Our eyes are naturally attracted to matching schemes and patterns, so your entire kitchen could look infinitely better with some small touch-ups to the hardware.
6. Change up the floor – Don’t forget about the floor! While upgrading your kitchen, keep an eye on the ground and see how you can add a little style. Check out your local home improvement store for a painted area rug that can cover rugged or scuffed wooden floors.
7.  A growing trend in kitchen floor updates is to apply a fresh coat of paint. You can create a transparent mixture that spices up the color scheme, but lets wooden grains shine through, giving an overall impressive shine. All you have to do is mix one part latex paint with one part water, use this to paint the floor, lightly sand it once it dries, and then apply two coats of polyurethane to protect it from scratches and wear. Your jaw will drop when you see how much more impressive your floor looks!
8. Paint the cabinets – It’s not just your floors that deserve a fresh coat of paint. If you want to upgrade your kitchen in a cost-effective way, apply some paint to select cabinets. This creates an illusion of there being a built-in hutch. You can paint the surrounding cabinets in a contrasting color to further enhance the visuals of your kitchen features.

Your kitchen is an important part of your home. Many homeowners find themselves engaging in a kitchen remodeling project at some point in their lives, so don’t be surprised when that time comes for you. However, don’t feel like the remodel has to break your savings account. Look into these and similar low-budget, DIY projects and watch your kitchen flourish.