Love Hate Relationship

I hate the cabinets in my kitchen.  I dislike the color - that orangy wood color and the hinges and handles are so dated.  And then there is the ugly soffit. 

However, the cabinets are well made, solid as a rock.  They hold a lot of stuff and are well laid out (for the most part).  There is a lot of dead space but they are here to stay.

Replacing them is not an option. So I went on the hunt for ideas. Many of my ideas come from watching home improvement shows on TV.  (warning - they are addictive and have this strange side-effect of adding items to the project list!)

One idea was adding simple strips to make them look like shaker cabinets but frankly the doors are just to wide to get the right effect. 

Shaker style - clean and smart


Another idea was to cut out an opening in each door and insert beadboard or adding beadboard and trim to the front of the doors.  After discussing the mechanics of that job, I scrapped it.  Here is a good tutorial on how to do that if you think it would work for you...

Kitchen cabinet makeover


Was there anything I could do to make this cabinets look better?.... I searched the internet and found a limited budget kitchen makeover.  This lady is a genius!  With some paint and molding, she turned ugly cabinets (don't they look a lot like mine?) into something classy!

Before

                

After

Having a game plan for the cabinets is such a relief.