Five Ways to Completely Change Your Kitchen on a Budget Starting with Refacing Your Kitchen Cabinets
Simple changes that can be applied to transform your space without the price tag of a full renovation.
1. Refaced Kitchen Cabinets
When it comes to your exterior finishing panels of your kitchen, most would assume the only way to go about changing a dated coloured kitchen is by ripping and replacing entire kitchen.
What are refaced kitchen cabinets?
Refacing of cabinetry is the process of pulling out and replacing all surface panels being the doors, drawer faces, finishing end panels and kickboards with a new colour or style to give your kitchen a fresh new modern look without the price tag of a new kitchen. With many different quality manufacturers, colours, gloss finishes and even timber grained boards, you are most certainly spoilt for choice and can even mix it up with multiple tones in your kitchen if desired.
What colour and finish?
So are you renovating to sell or a spruce up for a rental property or just freshen things up in your own home? When selling its very important to consider whether the colour and style you are choosing is appealing to all prospective buyers is which we would always recommend to keep the colours neutral and timeless. Feature colours can always be achieved in benchtops, handles, appliances and Splashbacks. When sprucing up for rental, it’s important to think about maintenance, do you want a dark colour that can show scratches and finger prints easily or a forgiving matte white that is easy to clean and show minimal to no wear and tear?
“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”
– Warrant Buffet
The Cost Saving or refaced kitchen cabinets?
By salvaging the existing base cabinets, this saves having to demo, replace and engage electricians and plumbers to isolate and reconnect the services once new base cabinets are installed, which in turn is a massive cost saving to your project. You can read more here on why you should consider refacing your kitchen or bathroom
2. Hardware
A visually pleasing kitchen is not just about colour and finish, mechanical functionality is key in creating a sound result!
Hinges
When cabinetry is refaced, depending on the age and wear and tear of the existing hinges you may want to consider replacing the hinges for a new soft close option. Not only are soft close hinges more appealing, it will more importantly achieve a more aesthetic result on the refacing, as near perfect gapping on the replaced cabinetry will now be more achievable, especially on your corner doors where sagging may be occurring with worn hinges or archaic piano hinges have been installed and need an upgrade to a more suitable quality bifold hinge.
Handles
With your newly refaced cabinetry and essentially a blank canvas to work with, Handles can dramatically modernise any kitchen, whether they be brushed silver, brass, matte black, big, small or even handless push to open – the possibilities are now open to your imagination. Keep in mind handleless and push to open doors will require you making hand contact with the finished surfaces and fingerprint and grease could potentially mean a maintenance nightmare… especially with kids. Research current trends and find one that suits your household or property.
“Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together.”
-Michael Graves
3. Benchtops
The most 3 common forms or benchtop being laminate, the more desirable engineered stone and the high-end Natural stone/Granite. All have a variety of manufacturers, colours and price ranges. When considering which is best for you, its important to consider how durable your required surface needs to be, yet still take into account pros and cons of all options.
– Alfred Hitchcock
“Happiness is a small house, with a big kitchen. “
Laminate
Laminate being the more budget friendly option and easier on the pocket, still requires a plumber and electrician to have the sink and stove top isolated and removed regardless of which surface you opt for. Laminate is obviously not susceptible to high heat and can easily be welted/damaged accidentally with a hot pot, water damage and can occur in the joins with age depending and how well the benchtop has been maintained with liquid spillage over time. With this is mind it is always worth considering if this option carries long time value when it come to rental properties and who will be using it.
Engineered Stone
The most desirable form of benchtop nowadays, has become a hit in the kitchen industry for its low maintenance, durability and affordability. Whether CaeserStone, Smartstone, EssaStone or YDL Stone, all manufacturers offer similar colour, quality, warranties and ranges. It’s important to note that although engineered stone is very low porous and durable, hot pots can cause cracking/damage, however although low porous, they also can be stained by standing substances such as turmeric spice, red wine etc if not wiped off immediately. Most stains will come out with an engineered stone paste or cleaner and some elbow grease, however more serious stubborn stains will require stone mason to come and polish the stone and remove stain for a not so small fee!
Granite
Natural Stone or Granite has been used in the kitchen for ages and although visually rich with its natural earthy colours and tones, it is being used less nowadays and replaced with engineered stone as granite is highly porous, expensive and requires regular sealing & maintenance. Being high porous granite stains a lot easier than engineered stone and does even harbor bacteria if not sealed properly
4. Splashbacks
Splashbacks tend to form the feature in the kitchen, whether it be a subway tile with grey grout or a solid surface acrylic splashback in a colour to give the space some pop! Its always good to not only find something to give a statement but also something that is functional and maintainable.
Tiles
Tile colours, textures and grout colour options are infinite. The best advise we can provide here is to find a tile that compliments your flooring and provides some contrast between your benchtop and overhead cabinets. Its also important to consider your grout colour as although a basic white might be the norm, it can discolour quickly, especially behind cooktops and sinks. Perhaps a grey or charcoal grout could require a little less maintenance on those rental properties?
Glass or Acrylic Splashback
These seems to have come into their own these days, not only for their variety a colours but also for the purpose of not having grout lines and the discolouration and mould that grout within them! In most cases old tiles can be overlaid with these sorts of splashbacks, saving you the time and hassle of removing old tiles and re sheeting your walls. Be vigilant over has close your acrylic splashback in to your cooktop and make sure you check manufacturers minimum distances required from cooktop to splashback to avoid any damages and voided warranties.
“In the ‘kitchen of your life’, you have a choice as to what
Selorm Betope Alfred
ingredients you want to use.”
5. Appliances
Go the full distance……..
With kitchen renovations it can sometimes be considered a sin to get a kitchen to looking completely new and leaving the eye sore being the old outdated appliances. New Appliances don’t need to be the highest ends brands to look good and compliment your newly renovated kitchen. With stainless steel and even black appliance finishes, gone are the days of boring ‘white appliances’ and appliances can create a super modern look or feature. More modern appliances are very energy efficient and can provide some long term cost savings. Be sure to check Energy, Water ratings, warranties and online reviews before committing to particular brand and model. Don’t underestimate styling, You can read some great styling tips for your newly refurbished kitchen here.
