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Are your wooden kitchen cabinets in sore need of an upgrade, but you can’t bring yourself to paint them? It’s no wonder; aside from having to pick a paint color, out of thousands, you’ll also have to remove all the doors, give them a good washing, sand them, prime them, sand them again — and this is before you even apply the first coat of paint. It’s an exhausting process — one that can take up your entire weekend. Surely there’s an easier way to give your cabinet doors a face-lift that doesn’t involve getting paint on you? According to Thomas Borcherding, owner and lead designer of Homestar Design Remodel, there absolutely is: “One of the best ways to modernize your kitchen cabinets is by changing out your [cabinets’] hardware,” he told Food Republic.
He continued, sharing with us that this Food Republic-approved method of easily and cheaply updating your kitchen is a very simple and relatively inexpensive undertaking; rather than spending two or three days waiting for paint to dry, it should only take upwards of about 30 minutes to swap out handles (perhaps you might consider the vintage decor trend that’s coming back around). However, Borcherding reminded us, “When doing so, you’ll want to ensure that your new hardware’s hole spacing matches your existing hardware’s hole spacing.” Just use a tape measure to get the distance between holes.
Your under-cabinet space can look lit
Another way to enhance your kitchen cabinets without busting out the paint brushes? Thomas Borcherding recommended under-cabinet lighting. “Under-cabinet lighting can be a great way to enhance your kitchen’s appearance while also improving lighting for cooking and other tasks,” he said. Under-cabinet lighting is unique, he told us, in that it doubles as both task and ambient lighting, and it’s as simple as applying an adhesive LED strip underneath your cabinets (while it doesn’t exactly fall under the old-school lighting trend currently happening, it can still give your kitchen a warm glow).
Along with LED-strip lighting, there are tons of options you can choose from, in both hardware stores and online, and most of them don’t require any tools to install. Even better, there are rechargeable models, like this set of five from PZSUNLY, plus models that come with a remote and different lighting settings, like this five-pack from Chasesun. Plus, they are a relatively inexpensive investment that can have a huge positive impact on the functionality of your kitchen. Try prepping dinner with the clarity of under-cabinet lighting, and you will never go back to the darkness of the “before times.”
