Ideas on Improving Your Kitchen

This time on Tim’s Tech Tips I’m going to be writing on kitchen upgrades that are easy and can help to upgrade your kitchen and the value of your home.

 

Hardware

This is an easy one. Replace cabinet door handles and hinges with new modern hardware. If you are going to paint the cabinets remove existing hardware and fill any unnecessary holes with body filler. Also if you are going to paint you should preinstall all new hardware just in case something goes haywire and you have to fill any extra holes that you make. It’s an extra step but it is worth it in the long run to make sure that it fits and goes together correctly, also easier to reinstall after your cabinets are fully painted.

Marking

Don’t forget to mark all cabinet door and drawers as you take them off, its far easier to do it now than to fight it later on. Place your number system on the underside of the drawers and behind the hinges on the doors. Create a master “map” of your numbering system for ease of installation in the future.

Cabinets

Probably the biggest thing that you first see when you enter your kitchen is the kitchen cabinets. If they are a old cabinets in good condition the best upgrade will be to paint them. All surfaces should be cleaned thoroughly with a good quality cleaner to remove all grease and other contaminates. Remove the doors and trim, sand all surfaces and fill any holes and voids with a light weight body filler then sand to a smooth surface. The light weight body filler is harder than Spackle and it will take the abuse of a kitchen. All of the interior corners should be caulked to provide a clean seamless unit. Prime all surfaces with an oil based primer. Check for any spot that are void of paint, indicates a grease spot under the prime coat, these need to be cleaned and re primed. Re caulk any spots that are missing it and sand smooth prime surface. Use a tack cloth to pick up any dust that left over from the sanding process. After all of the prep work is done and all non-painted surfaces are masked off it is time to paint the finish color. If you have access to an airless paint gun it is a whole lot easier to achieve a smooth glass like surface. Make sure that you take the time to filter out your paint to remove any particulates that will ruin your finish. With a airless sprayer there are three filters that are built in to the sprayer. Remove all masking and reinstall the door hardware.

More on cabinets

New cabinet doors and drawer fronts are another easy was way to upgrade your cabinets. Remove and mark placement of doors and drawer fronts, take them down to your local cabinet maker and have them match your door and drawer front sizes and they can then make new door and drawer fronts with new modern styles. Make sure that you have them mark the new ones with your numbering system so that you can easily reinstall them. They can also install new hinges and pulls for an additional charge.

Paint

Always an easy upgrade. Please check out “Tips on sprucing up your home #101″ for some tech tips on painting. As an extra tip try doing a glaze on the walls. Paint your walls a neutral color or a straight white; the paint should be a semi-gloss so that the glaze does not soak in too much. Apply the glaze with a cloth as you would a stain. The glaze will go to the low spots in the texture and the high spots will be wiped clean leaving an antiqued aged look. Accent this with a tumbled stone tile back splash and you will have a stunning new look with very little outlay of money.

I hope that this article will be a help to you when you spruce up your home.

 

Sincerely,

 

Timothy Eyre

Eyre and Company LLC