Before and After: Refaced Cabinets Revive 3 Kitchens
Saving money and reducing waste? These newly fresh-faced kitchens are all in
Looking to keep costs down while elevating your kitchen’s look — and keep materials out of the landfill to boot? If your cabinet boxes are still going strong and your kitchen’s basic layout works fine, consider replacing or even just repainting only the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. That’s exactly what designers did in these three kitchens, to beautiful effect. Of course, being skilled designers, they didn’t stop there. So we’ve also noted some of their other minimally invasive moves, such as removing some of the cabinets for a more open look, changing the countertops and redoing backsplashes. Would any of these economical ideas work for your own kitchen?
After: Frees saved most of the drawers and perimeter cabinets, replacing doors with fresh white ones and swapping small knobs for elegant bar pulls. Glass cabinet fronts made the cut, but their cluttered-looking mullions didn’t. Cubbies and big pieces of crown molding bring the cabinets to the ceiling for a streamlined, updated look.
Other minimally invasive moves that made a major impact: removing a clunky range mantel, adding a hutch and a focal-point range hood, swapping out the island and countertops, and bringing in dramatic pendant lighting.
Other minimally invasive moves that made a major impact: removing a clunky range mantel, adding a hutch and a focal-point range hood, swapping out the island and countertops, and bringing in dramatic pendant lighting.
While refacing the cabinetry, Frees added a small detail with a lot of personality: cabinet feet. They nod to days gone by when kitchens often had furniture pieces, and they contribute to the kitchen’s skillful blend of old and new styles with Scandinavian flair.
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“After” photo by Colleen Scott Photography
2. Weight-Loss Plan
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: Interior designer Michele Merz and her husband, Shane
Location: Houston
Size: 275 square feet (26 square meters), including breakfast area
Designer: Michele Merz of MMI Design
Builder: A. Yoder Construction
Before: Challenging herself to save money and pass those ideas on to clients, Houston designer Michele Merz refreshed her own kitchen without starting from scratch. After 15 years of cooking here, she had grown tired of some of the finishes and the overall boxed-in feel. The upper cabinets and copper range hood in particular seemed to weigh the space down despite all the light colors.
How to Reface Your Old Kitchen Cabinets
2. Weight-Loss Plan
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: Interior designer Michele Merz and her husband, Shane
Location: Houston
Size: 275 square feet (26 square meters), including breakfast area
Designer: Michele Merz of MMI Design
Builder: A. Yoder Construction
Before: Challenging herself to save money and pass those ideas on to clients, Houston designer Michele Merz refreshed her own kitchen without starting from scratch. After 15 years of cooking here, she had grown tired of some of the finishes and the overall boxed-in feel. The upper cabinets and copper range hood in particular seemed to weigh the space down despite all the light colors.
How to Reface Your Old Kitchen Cabinets
After: Removing the upper cabinets around the range and adding a tall white range hood (in budget-friendly plaster) cleared things up nicely to start. Then Merz refaced all the lower perimeter cabinets in white oak and painted the island base in Ballet White by Benjamin Moore to match the walls and the cabinets around the sink, which now sport custom inserts.
Four cabinet hardware styles jazz up the look further: acrylic-and-brass pulls on the drawers, brass knobs on the perimeter doors, custom horn pulls on some of the island drawers and matte black knobs on the glass-front doors.
Other minimally invasive moves that made a major impact: extending the backsplash tile to the ceiling, adding a marble shelf (made from a remnant), placing sconces on the stove wall and swapping a dark runner for a light-colored patterned one.
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Four cabinet hardware styles jazz up the look further: acrylic-and-brass pulls on the drawers, brass knobs on the perimeter doors, custom horn pulls on some of the island drawers and matte black knobs on the glass-front doors.
Other minimally invasive moves that made a major impact: extending the backsplash tile to the ceiling, adding a marble shelf (made from a remnant), placing sconces on the stove wall and swapping a dark runner for a light-colored patterned one.
Read more about this project
“After” photos by Scott Smith
3. Blue Rays
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A young couple
Location: Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles
Size: About 325 square feet (30 square meters)
Designer: Richard Sterman of Palisades Kitchen & Bath
Before: Being solid oak, these 35-year-old cabinets in a Los Angeles kitchen were in great shape. But their orangey stain and the granite countertops were design weak spots, and the cabinets had a heavy look overall. The homeowners brought on designer Richard Sterman to make over their space without breaking their tight budget.
3. Blue Rays
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A young couple
Location: Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles
Size: About 325 square feet (30 square meters)
Designer: Richard Sterman of Palisades Kitchen & Bath
Before: Being solid oak, these 35-year-old cabinets in a Los Angeles kitchen were in great shape. But their orangey stain and the granite countertops were design weak spots, and the cabinets had a heavy look overall. The homeowners brought on designer Richard Sterman to make over their space without breaking their tight budget.
After: Sterman removed the cabinets flanking the range hood to open up the look. Then he sanded down the remaining cabinets and the hood and painted them in a custom shade of St. Bart’s by Sherwin-Williams. New brass pulls add a bit of gleam.
Other minimally invasive moves that made a major impact: swapping the granite countertops for marble-look quartz, redoing the backsplash in beveled subway tiles, using gray-washed oak planks for the floor and replacing the window valances with grasscloth-look vinyl roller shades.
See more kitchens with refaced cabinets
Other minimally invasive moves that made a major impact: swapping the granite countertops for marble-look quartz, redoing the backsplash in beveled subway tiles, using gray-washed oak planks for the floor and replacing the window valances with grasscloth-look vinyl roller shades.
See more kitchens with refaced cabinets
Here’s a closer look at the “new” cabinets — proof positive that paint and hardware alone can work wonders!
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1. Scandi-Inspired Scheme
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Hinsdale, Illinois
Size: 250 square feet (23 square meters)
Designers: Stephanie Frees of Plain & Posh and Amy Tausk of Swoon Interiors
Before: The layout of this 1990s Chicago-area kitchen worked just fine, and the appliances and cabinet boxes were in good shape. So designers Stephanie Frees and Amy Tausk focused on revamping the space without putting it through a major overhaul.
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