Kitchen Renovation Budget – How Not to Drain Your Bank Account
When trying to stick to a kitchen renovation budget, you have to get creative with all aspects of your project.
If the kitchen is your target, then you have to stand there and really take a good look at what you have to work with. As much as we would all love a total makeover, with strong guys installing new cabinets, appliances, and the lot, while we stand back and watch, our bank account tells us otherwise!
My answer to most projects is “high adhesion primer” Who ever invented this deserves a medal. No longer do you have to strip wood with all those toxic strippers, or spend you days and nights scraping. You can actually save kitchen cabinets, by using a good high adhesion primer.
Before you think the idea of painting your cabinets sounds like “yuk”, take a look at the options. If your cabinets are in pretty good shape, but the doors and drawer fronts are not, then consider just replacing the fronts. Many home improvement centers will do this for you now, you don’t have to go to a specialized kitchen facility, where your kitchen renovation dollars will easily add up, even with just the fronts being replaced.
I personally have found, that painting cabinets, will actually work just as well, and is a lot cheaper. Before you start getting images of brush stroked cabinets, do some research on the latest and greatest paint products out there. There are even great books on repainting your kitchen cabinets. It may be worth investing in one of these books. Or check online. You can do a lot to your cabinets before you have to make the decision to throw them out.
Think of yourself as a recycler! It is easier to paint your cabinets, if you can take the doors right off. It is also at this time you can decide whether you want to change out the hardware on your cabinets. If the holes do not line up for some new handles, then use some wood filler, and sand before priming. The decision to get new handles and drawer pulls, should be made before you paint your cabinets, for the very reason, you may need to fill some holes.
Once you have totally cleaned your cabinets, and yes this included emptying them, since you will want to paint the cabinets themselves as well, you will need to organize a weekend or a couple of days for this upgrade.
After totally cleaning your cabinet doors and drawers, come up with a way to have them between two work horses or come up with some kind of jig, to make it easier on your back for painting. This part is really important, or you will not do a good job, if you are bending down on the floor. Keep them at waist height and somewhere where they can dry away from flying dust and grit.
Once they are cleaned, you don’t need to sand if you are using those high adhesion primers. Don’t cheap out on the primer, this is really important. This stuff sticks to everything. Once you have them primed, you can paint them any color you want. But a good hint is to get the primer tinted close to your final color. This way you don’t have to spend your life painting coat after coat. One good coat of primer, and one good coat of finish paint should work. Make sure to leave them for a couple of days to get good and dry, before installing the new hardware.
Your kitchen renovation budget, will now allow you to get a few bells and whistles since you will not have spent thousands on the cabinets. You can maybe put the extra towards those new appliances you always wanted..
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