Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Kitchen Remodel: Upgrade Your Stock Cabinets to Designer









Hello ladies! Hope you are having a wonderful week.  I’m still remodeling my kitchen on a budget of three to four thousand dollars and today I wanted to share with you a very inexpensive way to have those designer cabinets that are so expensive on a relatively small budget.

If you have been following along on my kitchen renovation you will remember this inspiration picture.

kitchen3
habershamhome.com

If you look closely you’ll notice the cabinets are closed in on the bottom with a decorative trim and the end of the bar has lovely details. I’m going to show you how to achieve almost the same look with your stock cabinets.

First, and this will take time, look through all the trim at your building supply store until you find a larger trim with a groove in it that a small decorative trim will fit into. I found these two.

trimgroove

Notice the groove on the large piece at left. That groove is where the smaller decorative piece you see on right is glued then nailed.

Okay let’s get started.  The first step is to nail a small board (we used a 1”x 2”) to the floor making sure it is even with the bottom of the cabinets as shown below. 


kickboard


This board is necessary as a brace to keep someone from accidentally kicking the trim and caving it in and so you will have something to nail the trim onto.


nailup



Once you have the small brace board in you nail the larger trim piece to the cabinets as shown.  Nailing up into the cabinets and another nail into the bracer board. Then you apply the smaller trim into the grooved area on the larger trim. We glued and nailed them together.


trimcorrner


Finally, I updated the end of my bar with a wood bracket, a piece of what I believe is a fancy door frame, and on the bottom a bulls eye.


endbar


There will also be trim on the bottom of the upper cabinets but I do not yet have pictures.  I will share them when I show you the completed cabinets.

Now I’m going to be somewhat of a tease and not show you the finished cabinets for two reasons; I’m not yet finished, and I want them to be a surprise. 

The finish I am putting on the bottom cabinets is a four step process and on the upper ones it is a three step so it is taking quite a bit of time to complete them.  

To help you not feel so disappointed I will leave you with another of my inspiration pictures. These cabinets have an Old World finish that I just love.


oldworldfinish
kitchenremodeldesigns.blogspot.com

See that decorative trim on top of the cabinet on right? You could soooo totally do that!





I’m sharing with the following lovely ladies:

14 comments:

Rasonda @ East Conolly Cottage said...

Great idea Peggy!!! Cant wait to see your completed kitchen.

Pat@Life At Lydias House said...

Very creative! Super idea! I can't wait to see the finished project!

ANNE said...

Wow - great idea! TFS!

Thanks for visiting me & leaving such a sweet comment.

xox

Jana@Transformations From the Heart said...

What a neat idea with the trim. It's beautiful!

Witha said...

Brilliant idea! Thanks for giving me the inspiration :D

Lisa said...

The finished result on this is going to be spectacular! Great job on figuring out how to diy that cabinetry! I have a question for you. How on earth do you nail that brace underneath the existing cabinet toe kick? I have a nail gun, staple gun, etc. Did you use a super long nail and hit it at an angle or what? I've been trying to figure out how to do this on my island. Please share your secret ninja maneuver with me!

Lisa said...

I love the finish on your inspiration photo! I can't wait to see what else you do! Thanks for stopping by to see my Lego Table!

Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co. said...

Pretty molding makes everything better!

Deborah@Green Willow Pond said...

Thank you for an excellent tutorial! I love this idea. I will be following along to see how it all turns out. Have a lovely week!

sheerserendipity said...

You are so creative! What a great idea…I can't wait to see your completed kitchen!

Vilma Tähti said...

Great.For just a little bit amount you make a classic kitchen.Pretty cool.

puppy therapy said...

I realize this is an old post and I'm new at this..... but I can't find the finished kitchen??? I love what you did in this blog.

Christine said...

Just found you via Hometalk. Very interesting process! I'm going to peruse your blog and see what else you've made so beautiful!

Cath Brookes said...

Cabinets arguably take up the most real estate in your kitchen. So if they’re sad, the whole kitchen looks a bit depressed.
Cath Brookes
San Antonio Personal Injury Attorney

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