Kitchen Cabinet Ideas Wanted

[nickg]

My dear wife says our kitchen cabinets are "old and tired" - I think they're fine, but that's another issue . Specifically she doesn't like the 'arches' on the upper cabinet doors. The doors on the lower cabinets use conventional straight stile and rail, without the arched top piece. She says she'd like the cabinets better if the tops resembled the bottoms, and they were a different color. See attached pictures.

Looking for a new 'look'. I could install hardware, or maybe re-stain all the cabinets a darker color, maybe make new doors, etc. I guess I'm searching for ideas that would give me the most 'bang for the buck'.

Nick

[dusty]

Those are really nice looking cabinets. If your wife needs an upgrade from here, I hope you got deep pockets.

That being as it is, those cabinets would look just as good on a shop wall.

I would like to have some uppers in my shop. It brings me to tears every time I see a set of cabinets destroyed on the DIY programs. They never recycle. Demolish and rebuild is their mode or operation.

Good luck on your cabinet project - whatever it turns out to be.

[JimD]

I would try some new hardware first plus maybe a door. It is easy to make flat panel doors using a rail and stile bit set in a router table. You could literally make all the doors in a weekend. I would look in the MLCS catalog on on-line catalog for something with a matching profile and order some.

Stainless steel is very popular right now for hardware and the european hidden hinges are also popular. You could make the european hinges work with your existing doors. They come with different height base plates to provide different offsets.

The biggest unknown is the color. Does she want dark redish "cherry" color? Or white painted? The latter would be easier. I like resisthane and hood finishing, the supplier, also has a good sprayable primer. If you do not have a spray outfit, the project might justify one.

Jim

[LCHIEN]

I AGREE THE PROBABLY MOST COSt effective approach would be to remove and replace all those upper doors with rail and stile flat panel doors that match the profile and stile width and have straight, not arched rails. Drill and Plug the holes for the handles with dowels and sand flush. Then paint the cabinets and hinges white for a bright, modern look and finally replace the hardware, primarily the handles. Looks like at least three different handles are present. Make them all match and be something modern-looking. That would be the cheapest alternative to total demolition and replacement.

[chopnhack]

+1 What the other folks have said. In addition another thing that tends to happen when you pull down cabinets is that the mrs. starts to see the wall for just itself for a moment.... and then decides the wall paper should come down and we need to paint. Be careful - you have been warned

[Two Much]

Does she want them painted white? If so you could make new doors for
the top cabs to match the bottoms and then sand and paint everything.

If she wants them stained and you're open to spending more money
you could make all new doors and drawers and and sanding the frames
and staining them to match the new doors.

Your flat sawn oak and arched cabs are outdated, so an upgrade
is in order. I agree with the Mrs... (hope that makes you feel better)

Your frames seem to be not so busy -- like your doors are, so you could
use quarter sawn oak for the doors and drawers and stain the existing
frames to match.

We did our kitchen in QS white oak in shaker/arts and crafts style
and we love it. If you're interested I could show some pic's.

btw...I'm the assistant cabinet maker around here (the wife) and I have
all the ideas, and do all the designing.

[cabinetman]

If you don't want to make new doors, consider milling/modifying the top (curved rail) and installing a straight piece. Once that is done you can work out what color change you would like.

.

[Stytooner]

I don't think shaker style oak cabinets ever really go out of style. They have nice lines and oak is one of my favorite woods to look at. I do agree the arched tops look a little dated, but with a few additions, may just look very nice.
Lots of kitchens are starting to have different color cabinets as a style. Very often the island is totally different, but often the uppers or pantry cabinets will be different.
You can certainly paint them. It really hurts the heart to paint over oak, but once painted, it still looks good usually. Grain pattern still shows through.

Consider these ideas. Change all the hardware. Install frosted glass in the uppers. Paint the uppers a complimentary color or two colors.
Install crown molding around the tops of the cabinets. No need for big an gaudy. Just some small crown will have an impact.
Add lighting under and inside and install a new complete back splash.
Rather than paint, you might consider a glaze treatment. There are many different methods of doing that for some stunning effects.

You can do samples of a few that you like in the shop to decide what method to choose. An update like this is a bit on the high side, but nowhere near what new cabinets would cost. Especially if you do all the sweating yourself.

[nickg]

Thanks for the feedback on cabinet modification ideas! Not sure which path I'll take - paint, stain, glaze, new doors, etc.

I agree, that arched rail look is 'dated'. We'll definitely install new hardware as this would help provide a new 'look' without a huge investment. We've been experimenting with different style handles to see which we like best (that's why handles differ in photos). I'll post back and let you know what we finally decide to do.

Some of you might be interested in a kitchen renovation job I did at my inlaw's house last year. The house was for sale, and was generating little interest. I spent a month redoing much of the interior (either actually doing the work, or being the general contractor). The kitchen in particular was sad (MUCH worse than mine). Sixty year old, flat cabinets that had little appeal. Anyway, I added some millwork to each cabinet door to provide some 'profile'. Then I used a product called Rustoleum 'Transformations' which is a multi step paint system. Though not inexpensive, this was of course a much cheaper alternative to new cabinets. I'm no pro, but I think the change was pretty dramatic. I might do something like this on my own kitchen (a different color and minus the antiquing step). See before and after photos.

PS: We finally sold the house after two years on the market (actually there is no market in rural Texas these days)

Nick

[chopnhack]

The refinished cabs came out really nice. The dead give away IMHO to kitchen cabinet age are the hinges and handles.

[Two Much]

Thanks for the feedback on cabinet modification ideas! Not sure which path I'll take - paint, stain, glaze, new doors, etc.

I agree, that arched rail look is 'dated'. We'll definitely install new hardware as this would help provide a new 'look' without a huge investment. We've been experimenting with different style handles to see which we like best (that's why handles differ in photos). I'll post back and let you know what we finally decide to do.

Some of you might be interested in a kitchen renovation job I did at my inlaw's house last year. The house was for sale, and was generating little interest. I spent a month redoing much of the interior (either actually doing the work, or being the general contractor). The kitchen in particular was sad (MUCH worse than mine). Sixty year old, flat cabinets that had little appeal. Anyway, I added some millwork to each cabinet door to provide some 'profile'. Then I used a product called Rustoleum 'Transformations' which is a multi step paint system. Though not inexpensive, this was of course a much cheaper alternative to new cabinets. I'm no pro, but I think the change was pretty dramatic. I might do something like this on my own kitchen (a different color and minus the antiquing step). See before and after photos.

PS: We finally sold the house after two years on the market (actually there is no market in rural Texas these days)

Nick

The cabs you did look good...As I told you in your pm to me, I'll post the pics
here later when I get to my other computer...

We did our kitchen about six years ago, it's a galley kitchen with an attached
breakfast room. I convinced the head cabinet guy to do shaker as they never go
out of style, by the time we got to the breakfast room it morphed into
arts and crafts.

It took several months to complete it, then we took off the summer and went back to making cabs in the breakfast room...there was only one cabinet in there, now there are many. Even last winter we added an oil
and vinegar cab and also added a small cab on the end for bird food...This
must sound nuts I'm sure, but we are two nuts. We only make things if I
know exactly where they're going or what's going in them.

It looks like you have flat sawn red oak, my objection to flat sawn oak is
the characteristic cathedrals; it gets so busy. If you choose to go
with flat sawn and quarter sawn you may be able to reuse some of your
rails and styles. We used both rift and quarter sawn and also used a lot
of free red flat sawn recycled church kneelers from our sons church.
We carefully chose pieces that weren't busy and stained them to match.

[JimD]

I'm actually debating what to do with my kitchen right now. My kitchen sink is composite and starting to look ugly - some of the metal inside is exposed and rusting. The counters are granite tile with the plywood substrate screwed to the cabinets with the screws going down - so the tile has to come up to take them off. The cabinets are site built of 3/4 plywood and softwood. They did not shellac the knots or use Kilz so they all came through. Outsides look OK but insides are getting rough. Doors are pressed fiberboard with a nice paint job that is wearing out in spots.

My general rule of thumb is I don't like fixing other people's mistakes. Finishing is one of my least favorite steps so getting to do no construction and just finishing is not attractive to me. I might make new doors and refinish what I have but my general inclination is to replace them.

I already replaced my island. It had doors and two small drawers with 3/4 length slides. I built the replacement of cherry and baltic birch plywood (inside). It is all drawers which are dovetailed togther. I left out drawer slides and made it like a dresser. I gained space that way. The contrast of the natural cherry with the white surrounding cabinets seems good to me. The top of the island is a granite slab. It is noticably better constructed than the other cabinets and is also more functional.

Jim

[Two Much]

This is in the breakfast room, I only had a width of 13" to work with...
sorry these are so big...having trouble today, this is going slowly.
This is the section that morphed into arts and crafts.

[nickg]

Cabinets

Nicely Done!! Like the glass inserts. You made the most from a relatively small space. Would not have guessed there was a flat screen in the cabinet - good measuring

[Two Much]

Thanks, those cabs are only between 7 to 9 inches deep, the bottom ones are about 11 inches deep...The wood on the doors are from the church kneelers.

The is the entire breakfast area...We made the table walnut for contrast.



this is the section that is 8 foot long...all backsplashes are mirror.



this section is 10 foot long. we made all the top cornices removeable, so that I
can clean the tops of the cabs easily.

This is the end of the 10 foot section, It always bugged me to walk into end cabs
so I designed wrap around shallow cabs. The last one on the top left we just made
recently...I had three open shelves and didn't like it..(too much clutter gathered
on these shelves) so we made another cab...I keep my bird seed in it.







I wanted more freezer space, so made this cab to fit an under the cab freezer.
the freezer sits on the fllor so it can be rolled out at ease for occassional cleaning
of the floor.