Kitchen Update on a Budget

Whether you are getting your house ready to sell, or you just want a more clean and updated look, painting your cabinets is one of the best ways to make a big transformation on a budget.

The kitchen in our 1960s house still had its original oak cabinets. I decided that the best way to update the kitchen without spending too much money was to paint the cabinets white. I will say, it is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. So, if you can afford to pay a professional painter to do it for you, then you should go that route. But, if you have more time than you have money, you can do it yourself!

The easiest way to paint cabinets is to buy an all-in-one paint kit from a hardware store. The kit comes with everything you need to do the job, and you don’t have to strip or sand anything!

Here are a few tips to make the project go as smoothly as possible:

• Keep track of which hinges came off of which door and where the doors came from. You already know the doors fit in those spots exactly right and it’s best if they go back to their original spots. I did not do this, and a few of the doors did not want to fit back on correctly when I was done.

• Do a section at a time. If your kitchen is any bigger than just a few cabinets, try to split up the kitchen into a few sections and work on one section at a time. Otherwise your whole kitchen will be torn apart for the entire time it takes you to do the project.

• Be diligent. Work on the job as often as possible, so that you make progress. Even when you want to quit, keep going! You can do this, and it will be worth it in the end.