New Kitchen Doors Can Breathe Life into an Old Kitchen
Every so often you have to replace your kitchen, or at least update so it looks fresh and up to date. That’s the way it is, and it isn’t something that you can put off, especially once the kitchen doors start to look a bit tatty and you see them looking back at you every time you walk in the place. If you’ve got the budget to put in a whole new kitchen every few years, great, but not everybody can afford to do that and many turn to alternative ways of keeping it looking good.
One of the simplest and most cost effective ways to freshen up a tired looking kitchen is to replace the doors on your cupboards and other units. You don’t need to touch the units themselves, especially as the chances are that they will be still be perfectly serviceable and even if they are looking a bit battered inside, who cares? It’s not like any visitors will be examining the insides for signs of neglect, but they will be impressed by outward appearances.
You’ve got a couple of choices to make still, even if you are only going for new doors and drawer fronts. The material the doors are made from is an important one, and many people don’t even realise that they have a choice. Solid wood always looks good, but it can be very expensive and is more likely to twist and move as the wood naturally shrinks and swells, and it’s also difficult to keep clean and hygienic as the grains can harbour bacteria. At the other end of the scale is the cheap imported wood wrapped in a thin veneer – these are easy to clean and cheap to install, but they look and feel cheap and probably won’t last too long. If you want something between those two extremes, then medium density fibre could be the answer as it’s made from recycled wood and wrapped in decorative vinyl, which makes it cheaper than real wood and easy to clean but with a longer life and a good, natural look to it.
Are you going to go for a new look, or are you sticking with the current style and colours? You might want to stamp a new look all over it, or play safe and stay with what you know. Even if you’ve kept the original style and colour, you can make the whole kitchen look different by changing the handles on the drawers and doors. It’s surprising how much difference a small change like this can make, but it really works – your eyes are drawn to the handles rather than the kitchen doors, and they become the centre of attention instead. Try it and see!