You are in trouble there!! I doubt they are paintable anyway not being wood. You would have to replace or reface, I would say.

I don't care for them either and they would have to go as soon as I could afford the update!

I would say flip them around but I'm guessing the backs have hinge holes in them and since they are veneer particle board you can fill/stain. If you can't afford new doors right now there's not a whole lot you can do. I'd at least remove the railing and scalloped thing above the windows. You can also change the hardware and paint. I really wouldn't bother changing the countertop. It's clean and functional. It's not a huge space so when the time comes you can get creative and change out the cabs affordably.

"Can this kitchen be updated?"

Not given your parameters, no, it can't. Not painting or changing the doors limits you to minor cosmetic changes like painting the walls or a cheap new counters. That's not going to really do anything to help.

If you came off of your pre set limitations, you could fill in the door routing with Bondo, sand smooth, and paint for the cheapest solution. White paint and ripping down that valance would take the kitchen in a nice modern direction that could stand up for a while until you could redo things more completely.

You could also buy new stain grade doors and finish them yourself as a medium cost solution, but that wouldn't fix the lower quality boxes or the layout, and frankly I think would be a waste of money. If you don't want to fill and paint, then just save your dollars until you can afford to rip everything out and start over.

I agree with the above posts. One other solution that MIGHT work depending on the actual surface of the GROOVES is HIGHLIGHTING the grooves and using a funky color of paint in them. So using a bright red or yellow or the like. Even a white would give them a new feel. If you can't beat em, join em.

OK let's all take a deep breath! This is not the worst kitchen we have seen here. It's neat and clean. Just live with it and save up for a reno.

It's silly to think you can really make a change to these without at least paint.

Anything else you do is going to look like old, pretty ugly cabinets with stuff stuck on them.

I'd flip 'em, or bondo the routing, and PAINT them.
Use an adhesive primer such as ZIN or Stix (BM) and a good, Cabinet Coat paint.

They do not have to be white.
But what's he expect without paint? Magic?

You may just want to hold off doing anything if you don't want to paint the cabinets. That'll give you time to save cash to pay for renovating the kitchen.

Be thankful you have a big, clean modern kitchen. Our house had its original kitchen from 1920 with a stove that had to be lit with a match. I would have killed for your kitchen back then. It's all relative. What comes out of the kitchen will be the same regardless of whether it's update or not. Congratulations on your new home.

I could live with that while saving up for the real remodel.If I thought it would be a year or so I'd probably change the mediterranean hardware....that's all I'd probably do. If you are compelled to do something,I'd remove most the upper doors..leave the doors over the microwave and maybe one other cabinet. What is the inside of the carcass-could be painted perhaps?? If you want more of a nullification of the look...completely take down a chunk of the upper cabs and put up the reasonably priced Ikea open shelving....that could be fun with some wall paint color behind to at least get something different at eye level.Many kitchens have the open wall shelving feature...it could be fun to just banish those wall cabinets since you'd probably get rid of them anyway later on. Can you calculate the amt of items you'd have to live with on shelves/box up the rest of your "stuff"...just get the shelves that you'd absolutely need....might be nice to have clear wall space.....giving you a fresher palette to think about your remodel for next year[planning phase begins!] Leave the base cabs as is.

If hubby doesn't want white painted cabs, then he needs to pick another color. =) I googled painting veneer and it is possible and not that hard, actually. Easier than stripping a finish and then painting or refinishing. Just have to sand to rough up the veneer but not sand so much as to strip the veneer.

So, I'd fill in the routing with bondo as already suggested and then sand, prime, etc. I'd actually think about painting them a dark brown espresso color so they look more like wood if hubby doesn't like painted cabs. And switch the hardware over to BN. If you paint the trim around the countertop and the bases they will probably look pretty good and keep you going until you can save up for a reno.

My .02. :)

If you have some time Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations is a good product. I am using the version for a painted look on our base units that were a dingy white and are now a lovely deep espresso brown. A neighbor is using the version for stained cabinets with the top glaze and she's thrilled with the look.

Are either of you handy with a saw? Depending on the drawer slides and depth of the drawer cases, you might be able to trim down the overhangs on the doors and drawers, to make them into inset doors/drawers. I did this on a couple of old dressers, and changed the knobs. They turned out great. You'd have to be able to figure out if the drawer openings have enough depth to accommodate the (probably 3/4") drawer fronts. Then get new hardware. The corner cabinet might be tricky.

I don't know what your husband's reason for not wanting painted cabinets is, but the improvement that a can of paint can make is huge. Find some pictures of nice painted cabinets and show him. Maybe some color other than white will appeal to him.

Also remember that the kitchen is empty now. Once all your stuff is on the counters the cabinet details won't be as prominent. Good luck!

If you don't want paint and you can't flip the doors over then what are your remaining options? I don't see any.

At least lose the rail and whatever that is up there as remodelfla posted earlier. Maybe some new, inexpensive hardware? I don't know though, it seems a waste to do anything that costs $$ at this point other than maybe paint. A nice sage-y green on the walls?

Make a deal with DH: new cabinets will not be painted; these will.

I'm so glad there's so much else you like about your new house. :)

To me, unless you intend to live with these cabinets for at least several years, all suggestions would be a waste of time and energy except maybe Javachik's deal. A coat of paint would provide a fresh new look of your choice quickly and inexpensively. A color the same or very close to the wall color would allow them to set back into the walls. For a current look, maybe a colorful rug on the floor.

I personally don't think pulling detail off in an attempt to bring the look more line with whatever's being sold in showrooms right now would be a good idea.

If you want to keep them, though, you could eventually have a company come in and veneer them and/or install new doors and make whatever other changes you wanted then. Given the quality, though, you'd have to decide they have enough years left in them to justify the investment.

In the meantime, it's actually quite a nice kitchen, isn't it? Ironic that, for all the criticism, it's actually a much nicer workplace than some that show up in brand new homes with the latest tricks slapped on top.

There are a lot of good suggestions here. A while back I saw someone remove all the doors from the uppers and lower and replace the lower doors with curtains. This is a particular style of course and has its own limitations, but it could a few way to change the look for a few years while you save for new cabinets. Follow the link I added, and scroll down for the pictures.

By the way, you might be surprised at how little you could get new cabinets for at Ikea if you are willing to DIY. Check out their site; they have a great design tool that will add up all of your costs as you make selections.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinets with curtains

How wonderful to love almost everything else about the house! So many times when somebody moves into a house, they have a giant list of things that they don't like. Granted, your "dislike" is an expensive one to change, but then you will have the opportunity to design it exactly the way you want. And you'll feel less bad about redoing it since it's a little older as opposed to someone who hates their kitchen that is almost new.

Honestly, the kitchen is not THAT bad. (This said by a woman who is living in a house that they bought and has a 1970's kitchen. Ours came complete with an avocado green range and hood, shiny Formica countertops, and no dishwasher! Our cabinets are actually pretty similar to yours, only ours are darker and because they are darker, they look shinier and the hardware is in the center of the doors (WHY would anyone do that?)

We too are not fans of painted cabinets. And even at that, we knew that we would be redoing our kitchen in a year or two., so why put in all the time, energy, and money to changing it to something that still wouldn't be what we wanted? With that in mind, we decided to do the best thing we could think off - nothing! We felt it was silly to put so much into changing around what was still not going to be the kitchen we wanted. That being said, we did buy a dishwasher (which will be reused in the new kitchen) and pulled a cabinet for that. And the range was in really bad shape, so we got a temporary, inexpensive range from Craigslist...if we were going to reuse it in the new kitchen, we would have bought what we wanted, but we are going cooktop and wall oven. We took down the plate railing (it was falling off anyway). Earlier this year, the fridge that came with the house died - so we got the fridge we wanted for the new kitchen. Right now, my kitchen is laughable - a mishmash of 1970 and 2010. But, the renovation is in sight now...we are picking our GC right now.

How long do you think you'll need to keep the kitchen the way it is? If it's only a year or two, save up your energy and money, leave it as is and start focusing your efforts on how you would like your new kitchen to come together. Your kitchen looks like a very workable area - a good bit of counter space and a good bit of cabinets. There are always things that come up with home ownership that you didn't expect - ours was a fridge and a water heater in the first year, along with a bunch of other smaller things.

If it's longer than a year or two, I would seriously consider painting them and putting on some new hardware, even if you aren't a fan of paint, it could bring a little extra life to the kitchen. And there are other colors of paint aside from white - greige is very current right now or go darker and use a dark brown.

If the husband refuses to consider paint, you are stuck with 90s groovy cabinets. Staining them dark - Java gel stain - would make the groove less obvious, but that's a lot of work.

I agree with ellendi ... unless it's broken, live with it until you can replace it with what you want.

I agree - I've seen much worse kitchens. The cabs are not to your taste, but it's a good kitchen. I vote for living with it until you can completely redo it. And just think how much you will love your new one after living with this for a few years!

More important than figuring out an update for these cabinets would be to figure out a mutual goal and plan for your kitchen with your dh.

What do you eventually want the kitchen to look like? To have? And how long will it take you to get there? Do you like the layout or will you want something different?

Before I invested any time into updating those cabinets, I'd figure out what your goal is. If you want to completely redo the kitchen, and you can do that in a year or two, I think it makes more sense to live with the current kitchen for a while and use that time to research and plan your new kitchen.

I don't know about others, but I can tell you it took me a LONG time to plan out my renovation. I posted several layouts here and got feedback, and then I had to take time to digest the feedback and consider what changes I wanted to make and what things might be not "GW - optimal" but fit in the constraints of my budget and timelines and family preferences. Then I started getting bids from trades and found out I had to make additional changes to my proposed layout in order to not disrupt other parts of my home (for example, no island sink because I'm not willing to lose basement ceiling height.)

If you think it will be many years before you'll be able to renovate, you and dh need to come up with a plan that makes you both happy. I understand dh does not want painted cabinets - ok, that's fine. What will he agree to? Gel staining? New doors from an inexpensive source like Barker doors or Scherr's?

For me personally, it took a long time to get across the message that it's not okay for one spouse to just veto suggestions. If dh doesn't want painted cabinets, he needs to explore what it is that he'd be open to. You're equal partners in this - you're not bringing ideas to "the boss" to have them criticized. The goal needs to be a kitchen you both like - not just one he's okay with.

I'm with lazygardens, not sure I'd go as dark as java but I would gel stain them, it would be time consuming but it wouldn't cost a great deal, a quart of gel stain, some TSP to clean them well, some sandpaper to scuff the surface lightly and rags, paint thinner and a brush (bristle or foam). Overall though that's a very nice looking kitchen. :)

Like some others who've already posted, I think you'd be wasting time and money and effort to try to somehow tweak the cabinets to look better. There's a very good chance you will end up with them actually looking worse. Better to do nothing until you have saved enough money to re-do the cabinets and counters properly. As has already been mentioned, Ikea is a good low-cost good-quality option, and there are other brands as well that don't have to cost an arm-and-a-leg, though you do need to have saved some money.

That kitchen has a lot of potential. We have seen so much worse on this forum. I'd be itching to get my hands on it. I wonder if some of the other improvements in the house that you mentioned could wait, and you could do the kitchen instead.

I have to agree with those who say it isn't that bad. Not in style but really quite livable. Given your limitations, I would probably change out the hardware for something a bit daring and funky that I loved. I got mine from Target and they were a good price. Maybe something in a brushed stainless look? I bet you can find something that makes you smile whether it is super modern or shaped like a twig. I think its important to have it be something you love since you will be touching the handles every day.

I would also paint out what appears to be stencil on the wall above but may be wall paper boarder.

Other than that I would leave them alone because they are pressed particle board. Eventually you will want wood so spend your energies elsewhere until your ready to tackle the kitchen.

In my old house I had a 1970s kitchen with dark brown cabinets, dark brown counter tops and dark brown carpeting. I updated by taking down the upper cabinets and having them replaced. The lower cabinets I had refaced to match the uppers by replacing the doors and adding veneer. I installed granite, replaced the appliances and flooring and called it good.

Hi Laura. It can be beautifully renovated in less than a week, and unlike most others here, I think it's totally worth the effort, even if you only live in it that way for a year. I bought a tiny cottage that had veneered slab doors. I made them inset doors as egganddart49 described, and I sanded and painted, just because I like painted cabs.

For your kitchen, I would go inset if you are handy; I'd also add a thin Shaker detail around the edges- so easy. If you are not comfortable cutting cabs and adding wood strips, just carefully clean and lightly sand the doors after filling in the grooves with wood filler, and adhere new wood veneer over them. It's not quite as easy as laying shelf paper, but it's not much harder. Add some new hardware, and voila, in a couple of days you have cabs that are pretty and will last for as long as you need them to.

Counter tops will be trickier because you want to make a temporary choice, but you still want it to be nice. I would go for inexpensive solid white or black corian. When you rip everything out later, you might be able to re-use them in a laundry or bath room. You'll also want to remove wallpaper and paint - again, super easy - and for a back splash think outside the box, like vinyl bead board or painted metal ceiling tiles - something easier to remove than tile.

Again, I think it's totally worth making your space beautiful even if it's just for a while. But that's just me. You may find you like it so much you keep it longer than expected. Even though particle board isn't the greatest substrate, the cabs in my cottage kitchen were in perfect shape after decades of use, and making them beautiful saved me tons at a time when I had no money to spend. I made a lot of money on that house, and I sold it in 2010.

Check out the link below for veneer info. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cherry Veneer

Husband does not want painted cabinets and you do. See if you can work a compromise by showing him some two tone kitchen pictures. You get painted on the top and he gets wood on the bottom. If he agrees, just replace the all the top cabinets for now in painted. You can save a ton of money but still get quality by buying Conestoga RTA's and hang them yourself, they have a zillion paint colors and door styles to pick from. Now you are part way there on a new kitchen. In the meantime you can look for deals on a sink, faucet, lighting and a backsplash. Further down the road you can do countertops and base cabs. It's not an ideal solution being that you will have to wait for the whole dream kitchen but hey, a girls gotta do what girls gotta do. If husband is not keen on the two tone idea EAM44's idea sounds good...it's a lot of work but you would save a lot.

Just get your husband on here, we'll take care of the rest ;)

There is a website that I checked out about a week ago on this very subject. A friend of mine was redoing her countertops with Giani granite painting system. I did see that they also have paint for the cabinets. Not just white, but a few other colors. I'm tempted to paint my cabinets the smoky black color. I don't like white cabinets. I did that already. I also did a dark green and that came out horrible as well. I'll post a link to the website that I checked out, below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nuvo Cabinet Paint

Wow! I never imagined I would get so much feedback!!

I think that a full kitchen remodel is really out of the question, and would be for quite some time. So I will have to live with what is there for quite awhile.

I am also a but hesitant to paint the cabinets also. Firstly, because I would have no idea what color to pick. Secondly, I am afraid that I will go through a bunch of work prepping and painting the cabinets and when I'm done they will still have the decrorative groove in them and I will have done a bunch of work for cabints I still don't like, that I am going to have to live with for a long time.

My original hope was to be able to router out the centers of the cabinets and put in a beadboard paneling that was painted a very pale blue. However, with the doors being a particle board core, I am not sure if that will router well, or even cut out well. Then I run the risk of ruining the cabinets I have.

I suppose it is probably best to just leave everything the way it is.

Thanks again for all of your input!

Laura

They look like laminate cabinets to me. Strongly consider buying new doors AFTER you've lived with the layout for a while. The cost is enough that you'd feel guilty doing a big remodel later.

I always recommend that people live with it a while. It's perfectly clean and usable the way it is, but if you live in the kitchen for even three months, you might realize that you just can't stand that microhood or other issues that would point more towards replacement. I'm not a fan of investing a lot of money and effort into something that I'd rather replace - I'd just save the money.

So, on to possible cures. I don't think you can't cut them down and replace the centers. Particle board is very heavy and strangely fragile when cut into thin strips. Likely you could route more grooves in - but I can't see that adding attraction. If you really want something like that, you'll need to replace the doors.

If you can, try to convince yourself and spouse to just take the wall cabinets down and substitute with some uppers and open shelves from Ikea. The wall cabinets could be taller and use simple moldings. Best of all, its not a big job and will not take weeks of work. It's not bad on costs and involves no plumbing and no electric.

Painted some color, the bases wouldn't "read" that strongly. Since spouse doesn't like these anyway, why would he care if they got painted as a temporary measure (oh, say 5 years worth of temporary)?

I'd try bondo in the groove to see if they would flush fill. We've had good success with it in difficult areas - like sill joints at replacement windows. You might need to take a wire brush (they sell small ones like tooth brushes) and rough it up just slightly. I have seen people apply lathe to the edges to fake a shaker look.

If those cabinets are actually wood print laminate and not veneer, there is a paint called Cabinet Coat which sticks to laminates fairly well.

Since you have a lot of cabinets, would you consider taking at least some of them down and playing up the window/sink wall to bring your attention to have your eyes rest on another focal point.

Perhaps that wall of cabinets where the stove is you could remove the cabinets doors completely and have open shelves - a trend that many have like this (only leave them as is and not painted)

[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Other Metros Media And Blogs Heather Freeman

Removing the doors would literally take a few minutes at least for a test to see if you could live with that better then living with the older style cabinet doors.

Many love not only the look of open shelving but the ease of access.

IMO base cabinets don't effect the look of a kitchen nearly as much as the uppers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen of the Year 2012

Just a quick two cents here since you already have great ides flowing. I used to be pretty hard set and closed minded against white painted cabs. After seeing amazing photos here I've totally changed my view and love some of them. Also, my kitchen was built circa 1975 before my (in-process) reno. so your way ahead of me with what you have. I'd change the hardware to something interesting and funky. Congratulations!

If you paint, you can easily get a hip, modern look by keeping the routed detail. Jonathan Adler is making a killing by mass-marketing Hollywood Regency style.

Read this thread and then this thread to understand what you have and get some ideas.

I think the idea of filling the groove and painting is you best bet -- but paint doesn't mean white or even all one color. Light neutral floors mean you could do all the cabinets or just the bases in espresso or black adn the uppers white or cream. Take a cue from the counters if they can't be replaced and do a hunter green on the bases with white or cream above -- even a pale green if you love the color. Check out how you feel about having a couple of dish storage cabinets left open while you have the doors off for filling and painting. Get rid of the wallpaper boarder and paint the walls and think aboyt leaving a couple of doors off.

Personally, I think the counters are the most limiting factor for an update, but you can do prefab laminate or IKEA butcher block pretty inexpensively. The tone on tone idea is not longer limited to green -- you have the full color palette at your disposal if you don't have to work with the existing counters. There are kits to go over laminate -- not sure how well they work or hold up and I don't know if you can lose the wood trim with those.

While knowing what kind of update options you may have is good to know before you buy, the best advise is to give it 3-6 months before you do anything with a large input of cash or labor. Your ideas may change once you start using the kitchen and living with it.

Thanks for the ideas!

Marcolo, would you paint the door and the decoratve groove the same color?

Do you think it would look alright to paint the doors but leave the actual cabinet housing wood? It would be nice to leave those wood incase later when we have a little extra cash we'd be able to replace the doors with actual wooden ones?

Our kitchen table is a farmhouse style table that is currently blonde wood on top but white on the legs, and the chairs are blonde on the seat and white on the backs and legs. The table needs a repaint job too...so do you think it would look neat to paint the cabinet doors (leave the decoratve groove) and the white trim on the table the same color and leave the actual cabinet housing and the table top and chair seats wood?

I really do appreciate everyone's advice!

Does that make any sense???

I was just looking through Cabinet Transformations gallery and saw before and after pics of cabinets that look similar to yours done in espresso (2nd set of pics), not a bad look if you like the dark (although they have lots of other colors).

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet Transformations

Ghostlyvision
What a great site. Thanks for posting.

A contrasting groove would be cool, but more challenging. You'd have to make it look professional, and maybe experiment with paint pens and such. It would also work without the highlights, too.

The thing is, it is always easier and more successful to build on what you have rather than trying to make a Dorothy Draper-inspired door into a Ye Olde Twee Cottage Scented Candle Festival. It just happens that reinvented Hollywood Regency is now very big and it is very easy to find relatively inexpensive accents to play up that look. Add VCT floor tile in good colors, maybe new laminate (not that expensive if you DIY), paint the cabs, add hip hardware (I'm thinking flat round shiny knobs, or use metallic wax to brighten the ones you have) and maybe even an inexpensive modern chandelier from Overstock. Think bling and have fun. No one will think "outdated" once you're done.

You're welcome Bellsmom, lots of before and afters of the cabinets and also using the counter transformations. I was looking for pics of the English Cream unglazed to see if it was a very soft yellow (as opposed to a more off white) but most pics of it had the glaze.

Those are great suggestions, Marcolo. :)

I think D.D. would have run like hell from those cabinets. :)

"Do you think it would look alright to paint the doors but leave the actual cabinet housing wood?" Yeah, no. Try to find a picture of that combination that you love in less than a week.

Paint the cabinets and the dining set the same? It's actually sort of boring. We originally painted our kitchen table a slightly different color from our trim color. When we had to repaint the trim due to a paint problem, we went with a different color from a different manufacturer. In the end, we decided to repaint the table base to match. There are some ways that its good - it's soothing, but its also pretty boring. Maybe carry over one color, but pick something else for a second tone.

Well, I think D.D. would also run from half of the stuff at the Jonathan Adler store, too. But it's still an improvement!

I thought you would want to see this kitchen redo. Many of the problems are the same as yours.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cab update

I just saw this update featured on a blog I read. It has the same type of cabinet fronts that you have and they made them look really good. Maybe if your husband saw them he would agree to painting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen update

Corgimum, what a great update, and how creative. They look like new cabinets.