Saving Kitchen Cabinets

When your kitchen cabinets look shabby and aren’t working too great anymore, it is natural to want to replace them with nice, new cabinets. However, not everyone can afford to spend the money for new cabinets, even if they find builder surplus stores that sell cabinets for as much as 50% off. Luckily, there are things you can do to make your cabinets functional for a bit longer. A few years ago, I used the following tips to make a kitchen look a lot nicer and work a lot better until I could afford to remodel.

Photo: SXC

Pull out drawers that aren’t working to see if they are off the tracks or if one of the tracks or guide wheels are loose or missing. You can easily tighten loose screws or buy and replace missing pieces to make drawers roll as easily as they did when you first got them. You can also repair drawers that are coming apart at the corners with “L” braces and wood glue.

Tighten door hinge screws and make sure the doors swing open and shut properly. If a drawer is in terrible shape, consider removing it and framing out the open shelves with trim to make a shelf for displaying some of your favorite china or head to the home improvement store to buy a replacement door.

Wipe out all cupboards and drawers and put down fresh shelf paper. Shine up brass knobs or consider replacing shabby old knobs with a completely new set. (New knobs can be expensive, but I found cheap knobs on eBay and in the clearance section of my local home improvement stores.)

Consider repainting your cupboards to make them look completely different. I did do this with mine, but the paint tended to chip easily and I had to do a lot of touch ups.

Do you have any tips for sprucing up your kitchen cabinets?