5 kitchen cabinet hacks to elevate your kitchen

Homeowners and apartment dwellers looking for a way to elevate their kitchen should consider painting the cabinets. Painting cabinets seems to elicit strong opinions that it’s not worth it, or that you somehow shouldn’t. The truth is you can paint just about anything with the right primer and paint.

We’ve seen all the disasters that come from people who try to take shortcuts; not properly cleaning all of the residue from oils and waxes, not removing the doors and drawers first, poor brush and roller techniques, not using the right primer, and generally rushing the project.

We’ve also found the kitchen cabinet hacks that elevate a kitchen to the next level.

Use the right primer for your surface

Primer is the unsung hero of most cabinet painting projects.  You may use the best paint but without the right primer its not going to stick around for long.  You want to use the right primer for the surface.  Most kitchen cabinets are made out of wood, oak, maple, or cherry.  For a wood surface you want to use an oil based primer that will block stains and hold on for the long haul.

Use the right paint for your kitchen cabinets

This seems obvious, but paint is a “get what you pay for” product. If you use cheap paint on your cabinets or—and please don’t do this—spray paint, you’re going to find it chips off easily. It’ll never hold up to the heat, humidity, and grime that comes from being in the messiest room in your house.

Change out the doors and knob hardware

Use different knobs or handles—called pulls—for what might be the cheapest way to a new look. A new knob or handle can be just a few dollars each at the hardware store like Lowes.com or Homedepot.com or at topknobs.com and if you’re getting new ones with a similar size, replacing the hardware is as easy as replacing the screws.

We always recommend brass for a warm look and chrome for a cool one. If you’re unsure which to use, contrast your existing paint or decor. If you have a warm room with yellows and reds, go for chrome. And likewise, if you have a kitchen dotted with greens or blues, go for brass.

You can also take into account your metal finishes on your faucets and appliances, if you have a satin nickel finish your best to keep with that same look for the new knobs and pulls.For a little more aggressive change, purchase new doors and drawers for the existing cabinets.

Remove the doors entirely

This one requires all your family members or roommates to keep things tidy, but if the cabinets are just old and the fronts seem like a foregone conclusion, just take them off entirely. This works well if the insides are generally dark or filled with enough stuff they don’t expose and colors you don’t want to look at.
The result is a modern take on a classy look. If you need to fill out some spaces or add color, jars filled with beans, candy, or dried fruit is a good look. You can also use cookbooks to add color from their spines.

Paint the walls around the cabinets to pop or hide them

If new cabinets aren’t in the budget, new paint on the walls around them can help diminish or escalate their presence.

You can talk with a paint consultant for ideas through a virtual or in-home walk-through. We usually recommend people go with colours that incite people to eat and gather. Greens, reds, and yellows are common. Blues and purples aren’t impossible in a kitchen, but because blues and purples occur so infrequently in nature (even blueberries are barely blue), they’re psychologically off-putting in the context of eating.

White, of course, is always classic, but the hot trend in 2021 and 2022 is bright color popping in and around small parts of an all-white kitchen. The days of the neutrals and grays seem to be diminishing.
Add a soft-close feature to your doors

Soft-close hinges don’t do much for the aesthetics of your kitchen, but they dramatically change how you feel and how the doors sound.