5 Ways to Elevate Your Kitchen....without ripping the whole thing out
We all know that a new kitchen can be the most expensive addition to your home. Even if you opt for a kitchen at the lower end of the price scale we’re still talking about thousands of pounds.
So if you’re wanting a kitchen revamp without having to take out a loan, or if you’re selling your house and want to upgrade the look and feel of your kitchen to optimise your asking price here are five ways to add some bling;
1. Cabinet Doors
This is absolutely the easiest way to create a dramatic change in your kitchen. Unless you’ve given your kitchen cabinets a real battering, there is usually no need to replace the actual cabinet carcasses and you can completely change the entire look of your kitchen just by changing the cupboard doors. Most kitchen cabinets and doors are standard sizes but even if they’re not there are so many companies that will make your doors to size as well as drill your hinge holes for you. It is relatively easy and cheap, in comparison to ripping out a kitchen and starting from scratch.
Always wanted that Devol Kitchens style classic Shaker kitchen? Sick of clinical white gloss? Want to introduce some colour into your kitchen? All of these problems can be solved with new doors.
The other great thing about replacing the doors is that you can choose from pretty much any colour you like and you don’t have to be restricted by the limited collections of kitchen showrooms.
As well as changing the colour you could also change your doors to handleless ones, but more about that in the next point.
Here are a few of my recommendations for kitchen door companies;
2. Handles and Hardware
Often not a huge consideration for people renovating or installing their kitchens as a lot more time and energy is put into the bigger ticket items, however, I believe the handles and hardware used in your kitchen make an enormous difference. And if you’re looking to spruce up your kitchen this small change will make a massive difference.
There a huge array of door pulls and handles available that will transform the look and feel of your kitchen in all sorts of materials, colours and textures. Think of them as pieces of jewelry for your kitchen, pulls, knobs and handles in brass, brushed brass, black or steel will add instant elegance.
Just be aware that doors with existing handles will have drill holes for the current handles so these will need to be matched or effectively filled and painted. And as well as measuring the drill hole distances remember to measure the depth of your doors for the new screws.
Some of my favourite hardware companies are;
Plank Hardware
All Handles and Pulls
Dowsing and Reynolds
Buster and Punch
3. Hinges and Slides
So this one won’t be apparently obvious to anyone just looking at your kitchen, but believe me if you upgrade your door hinges and drawer slides to soft close you will certainly feel the difference. Most new kitchen cabinets are sold with soft closed hinges but if you don’t have them you will know whether you do or not if your kitchen doors slam shut when you close them. Alleviating the slam on doors and drawers not only avoids any little fingers getting hurt it also adds a feeling of luxury, like the doors and drawers are automated.
Without putting you off doing this it’s not always just a straight switch of hinges. In some cases you can just add a soft close damper but you will also need to be aware of whether your doors are face frame or frameless cabinets and the measurements for overlay. Let me know if you would be interested in a deep-dive on hinges and overlays….Anyone?....Anyone?
Best hinges are Blum – that’s all you need to know.
4. Lighting
Lighting is often underrated but truly is the magic ingredient that can take a space to the next level.
Lighting in the kitchen, in particular, is difficult to get right. Lots of people assume you need harsh, bright white light in a kitchen which isn’t the case. The kitchen should be treated in the same way as other rooms in your home with a mixture of different types of lighting to suit the tasks taking place.
One area that is relatively easy to retrofit in the kitchen is under cabinet lights. Adding a strip of LED lighting underneath your kitchen cabinets not only provides useful task lighting for your worktops but add a dimmer function and you have a beautiful accent light perfect for first thing in the morning or night time snacking.
If your dining table or kitchen island is missing overhead lighting it will be worth the electrician fees to install a pendant. Mostly as a practical addition to your work or eating area but also aesthetically a beautiful pendant looks very cool in a kitchen.
Please make sure a trained professional installs any additional electrical elements to your home.
5. Taps
Another easy upgrade and one you will notice because whether you’re an eager home chef or not is the kitchen tap because you use it every single day.
You’re probably all aware of boiling water taps well now you can get boiling water, filtered water and even chilled sparkling water all out of the same tap! If you want to ditch the kettle and filtered water jugs as well as impress any potential new buyers then think about upgrading your tap. Easy enough to install the one thing you will need is space under the counter as tanks are required for each of the different types of function. They are also now available for less than £500.
Alternatively, upgrading your regular tap will elevate your kitchen. Changing the material such as chrome to brass (to match your new cabinet handles!) will make a real difference.
Let me know if you have implemented any of these ideas or if you have any other suggestions. Hopefully, what you will have taken from these points is that a small change can make a big difference and doesn’t need to be hugely expensive.
If you are looking for any further help or advice to renovate your kitchen sign up to the waitlist for my ‘Design Your Own Perfect Kitchen’ course which I am in the process of creating.