So your kitchen is literally starting to fall apart. Your appliances can’t turn on because your home doesn’t have the proper electrical supply, your cabinets are falling off, paint is peeling, your kitchen counters are damaged. Or, maybe it’s not as bad as that and you just simply want a facelift for your kitchen and give it a nice upgrade. There are so many options out there and ways to improve your kitchen lifestyle, but what to do? What features are worth having? Does it improve the value of my home? Here are 4 Ideas to Consider When Remodeling Your Kitchen!

Should I Paint Or Stain My Kitchen Cabinets?

Hopefully, your goal is a very simple facelift by adding a new color to your cabinets. But how do you decide whether you should paint or stain them? Here are a few simple tips to help you decide:

What type of wood are they made out of? If it is made of low-grade birch or fur you should consider painting it as they have very uninteresting surfaces. Also, consider the grade of wood your cabinet is made of and how many knots are on the surface. Those are the weird round circles in the middle of the wood where branches and the like used to be. The cheaper, and lower the grade of wood, the more likely you’re going to see a lot of these knots. Having a lot of these is not good for your kitchen’s appearance and you should definitely consider painting over them.

However, if your cabinets are made of stain, consider having them resurfaced! Resurfacing is a fairly simple, but lengthy, process involving carbide scrapers, chisels, and sanding, but it’s not for the faint of heart! It removes the old layer of stain you want to change and reveals the original bare wood. Then you can choose your new color you’d like for your kitchen.

If your cabinets are made of redwood, oak, birch, cherry, teak, or maple, consider having a different color stained to give it a new look. However, if it is made of mahogany, cedar or oak, consider adding natural oils, such as shellac, which help the wood keep their strength and color. You should also consider whether the paint or stains are temperature and waterproof.

Do I Need New Kitchen Cabinets?

Unless you are trying to follow a historical home style, you should definitely upgrade your kitchen cabinets if they still look like they’re from the 60s. Consider getting newer kitchen cabinets if they are falling apart, loose from their mounts, damaged, or rusting if it is made of aluminum or other metal. You can only remount a kitchen cabinet so many times before the wood just gives way. However, when asking for a custom kitchen, you can control what materials your cabinets are made of. Don’t go cheap, get something nice like PVC cabinets or classic hardwoods like oak, cherry, mahogany, or cedar.

Countertops

There are many types of kitchen countertops to choose from. You have marble, aluminum, stainless steel, granite, ceramic tile, PVC, wood, laminates, concrete, and quartz. There are various pros and cons of each, but quartz and stainless steel are highly popular remodeling options. Quarts, while expensive and heavy, have a lot of great features. They are built from pigments, resins, and stone chips. They are resistant to heat, deep cuts, stains, and cuts, unlike most other countertops.

Your Floors & Walls

Don’t ignore either one of these as they can give your kitchen a great sense of personality. Highly popular trends like wood floors & marble tile floors are very popular ways to make your floor look brand new. They are also easy to clean up and fix if they get cracked or broken. Your walls could have simple drywall with a nice coat of paint, or hardwood with a stain, wallpaper, laminates, tiling, marble, or panels. There’s a lot of wall options to choose from.

According to Consumer Reports, following any of these while remodeling your kitchen can add potential of 7% to your home’s value. If that doesn’t sound like much, that’s upwards of $7,000 – $21,000. That is a pretty good return for spending a few hundred or thousand bucks to remodel your kitchen.

So, get started with these 4 Key Ideas to Consider When Remodeling Your Kitchen.