How can I perk my cabinets up myself?

If you’re searching for a quick way to revitalize your kitchen and you’re pretty handy with a paint brush and screwdriver, do it yourself. Let’s be honest: when people come over and ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ over your home upgrades, it’s nice to say you did it all yourself.

Depending on your budget and how handy you are, you have several options for perking up those cabinets.

• The first, easiest, and cheapest thing to do is reorganize. Reorganizing the shelving can save much needed counter space. Look at the shelving in your cabinetry. Many times, the shelves can be removed or adjusted to fit your needs. That way, your huge electric mixer can be stashed out of sight. Drawer inserts can be purchased to organize your silverware, cooking utensils, knife sets, and to even maintain order in your junk drawer. For a little more money, fixed shelves in your base cabinets can be modified to shelf pullouts, making it easier to access things stored in the back of the cabinets.
• Also, you can consider taking off a door or two and turning that area into an open shelf, great for cookbooks! Open shelves can also be modified into ‘pigeon hole’ compartments to organize mail and paperwork; quick, simple, and costs little to nothing. Materials for these projects can be found at your local home improvement store.  
• Adding knobs, handles or doors with glass panes can be a quick way to enhance the look of your cabinets. Any of these supplies can be found at your local home improvement store. Knobs and handles can be found in a variety of materials, colors, shapes, sizes and values. Those made of wood can be painted or stained to match the color of your cabinets. Using glass-paned doors easily dresses up the look of your cabinets. Remember, everything will be seen, so displaying crystal or fine china is a much better idea than showing off that electric mixer you just stashed away. 
• A popular and easy way to change the color of your cabinets is by painting. Using a good enamel-based paint, you can go to any color you want. When painting, it’s best to remove the cabinet doors and drawers and paint them separately. Also keep in mind that if you have any glass doors you’ll want the interior of that cabinet to match the exterior. For the extra mile, or for the artist living inside all of us, it’s easy to antique or glaze the cabinets by using a small artist brush or glaze that can also be found at home improvement stores.