Kitchen Remodeling Isn’t Just For the Pros: You CAN Update Your Kitchen Yourself!

Kitchen remodeling is one of those major projects that homeowners are afraid to tackle themselves, but with a little sweat equity and help from the local home improvement store, anyone can renovate their own kitchen. Don’t be intimidated: if I can do it, so can you!

When I bought my current house, it hadn’t been updated since 1973. There was sculpted shag, white and gold linoleum… you get the picture. The flooring was an easy change. I ripped out carpet and put in Pergo Select, scraped up linoleum and laid heavy weight vinyl tiles that look like slate, and hired someone to replace the carpet in the bedroom. But the kitchen also looked like a blast from the 70s. After some thought and major design planning, I decided to tackle the renovation myself. The process was easy and my new kitchen cabinets look fabulous!

Step one was to assess the current state of my cabinets… I soon learned that the cabinets weren’t solid wood, meaning I couldn’t sand off the dark stain. That meant priming and painting! A light scuff roughed up the cabinets enough to take the primer, and then I painted the cabinets an antique white. To give them that professionally finished look, I took out the shelves and painted the interior, too. The shelves were finished off with a coat of paint on the bottom and contact paper on top.

The old cabinet doors didn’t have knockout center panels, so to get the glass-front look I wanted, they had to be replaced. I chose unfinished oak frames, doors and drawer fronts from my local home improvement store. To place my order, I measured each existing door and drawer carefully–measure, measure, and measure again to make sure your new cabinet doors will fit! I also made a diagram so I would know which doors went where.

Once delivery day arrived, there was still tons of work in front of me. I got out my trusty measuring tape and measured the cabinet door frames for the glass inserts. I gave the Delphi glass rep the measurements and the number of pieces, and she figured out how many sheets of glass I needed. Then, while I waited for the glass to arrive, I sanded and finished with doors with a satin, water-based polyurethane for durability and a beautiful finish.

Cutting the glass was easy, if a little stressful. Mark your glass with a grease pencil to make sure you get the layout right! This ensures you have minimum waste and you get all the pieces you need. When your glass inserts are cut, run a bead of clear silicone caulk around the inside edge of the cabinet door frame. Lay in your glass and secure it with glazing points; leave it flat until the caulk cures.

When the time came to install the new glass-front cabinet doors, I got lucky-my new doors lined up with the screw holes from the old doors. If yours don’t, simply measure the difference and drill your new pilot holes before hanging. The drawer fronts are not difficult to remove. and you can use the same holes to install them. You will have to drill the holes for attaching your pulls, though, so measure, mark, and pre-drill them before attaching the drawer fronts.

That’s all it takes: a few simple steps, very basic home improvement know-how, and the desire for affordable, beautiful new kitchen cabinets! My new cabinets are glass on top, solid doors on the bottom and look truly gorgeous. At a cost of $800.00 plus labor (all mine!) they were less expensive than all-new cabinets. I have a great-looking new kitchen and I’m proud that I did it myself.

Mary Freeland is an entrepreneur and founder of Just What I Want. She loves finding affordable, stylish home accents that make it easy to update her decor and has a passion to help others do the same. You can share these great finds by visiting http://www.justwhatiwant.biz and get helpful decorating ideas and tips on her blog http://www.justwhatiwant.biz/blog She would love to discuss personalized decor ideas with you-just e-mail her at tuscanhdd@comcast.net to make an appointment: find just what you want or figure out what you can do with what you have!