If painting cabinets white and updating countertops and a new backsplash aren’t in the budget or your husband refuses to paint perfectly good oak cabinets, you’re not alone.

Behind many computer screens are hopes and dreams, even my own, but it’s not always a reality.

FYI, here is a link when we were building the columns in case you wanted to see how we did it.

This means that while it might be solid wood, if it’s ugly or worn out, it’s not adding value (emotional or monetary) to your home.

Kichler recommends dimmable task lighting for the kitchen so that you can make it as bright as necessary for doing prep work but dial it down for evening mood-setting.

Lighten up a heavy, closed-off kitchen by converting your ordinary cabinets to open shelving.

Installing lighting on cabinets isn’t just a practical improvement.

Now before we get into the guts n’ the glory, you need to figure out what style of cabinets you have…

So, if you are truly wanting to ‘update’, then you’ll want to restain with a darker, more modern stain colour OR neutralize it with a lighter, more natural stain that doesn’t have the orange/yellow tone.

Mix up colors on upper and lower cabinets, or on cabinets and islands as shown here, to add richness.

These cabinets are painted in Windsurf from Behr Paints; the island is done in Snowy Pine and the walls are Spice Garden.