Because cabinetry, countertops and appliances are big-ticket items, we tend to keep what we have for many years–which can lead to dated or dowdy kitchens. Instead of making do, why not try to revitalize your space with a quick fix? Here are ideas from the experts:
Hardware: Like jewelry; “it comes in every style and price point, and you can use it to give your cabinets a whole new look,” says Highland Park interior designer Carol Helbraun.
You can find hardware in home design centers to specialty kitchen boutiques, and you can mix it up and use several coordinating styles at once. Plus, even if you spend a lot on hardware, you can take it with you when you move.
Backsplashes: For a decorative update, install new ones. Chicago interior designer Lisa Ewing has done everything from piecing together dish fragments with grout to buying books of gold, copper and silver leaf at art supply stores, applying it directly to the wall with epoxy in geometric or organic patterns, then finishing it with a flame-resistant polyurethane sealer. Chicago architect Madeleine Boos uses glass or stone tiles to make patterned backsplashes. She also advises buying a few expensive tiles as accents or having the tiles cut into interesting patterns.
Cabinets: Instead of getting new ones, reuse what you have by changing their look, says Helbraun. You can layer them with strips of molding and refinish them, or cut out the interior of each cabinet door and fill it in with glass or wire mesh.
Islands: They provide storage and working space, fill wasted open spaces, give a space an instant decorative update and can move to the spot you need them most if you fit them with wheels, notes Boos. She also suggests upgrading an economical version from a store such as Ikea by adding a more luxurious surface on top.
Lighting: The ideal in any kitchen is to have enough general lighting through an overhead source, then add task lighting.
Boos points out that too little lighting can be a huge issue, so go for the highest wattage possible when you install your overhead source and add dimmers to adjust lighting as needed. For a good and economical source of task lighting, install under-cabinet light fixtures.
If you don’t have strong enough lighting and do have tracks, an easy way to boost the light quotient is use halogen bulbs instead of incandescent, Helbraun says.
Track lighting can even be retrofitted to accept these bulbs if you have a porcelain socket and the wiring is still viable, she adds.
Walls: Turn a whole wall into a blackboard, as designer Lisa Ewing did in her own kitchen, with Crayola brand paint formulated to do this. It has as practical and decorative applications.
“You can never find paper and a pen when you need them, so this way you can write messages and grocery lists directly on the wall,” she says. And kids or artistic types can draw temporary artworks when the spirit moves them.
