White Kitchen Cabinets
One very cost effective way to update an outdated kitchen
is to paint or re-stain your kitchen cabinets. Many
homeowners are opting to brighten their kitchens with the
color white. Whether you paint or stain your existing
cabinets or purchase new cabinets, white may be the right
color for you.
One obvious reason to choose white cabinets is that they
automatically brighten your kitchen which also makes the
room appear larger. Regardless of the amount of natural
light in your kitchen, you will be amazed by the dramatic
change white cabinets can bring. Especially if you have
darker flooring or countertops,
white kitchen cabinets are
wonderfully eye-pleasing.
The first thing to weigh when deciding to go white
is the type of finishes that are typically used. The most
common choices are to either paint your cabinets or stain
them. Staining, of course requires more work because you
will need to sand the existing stain or paint off of the
cabinets. However, a white stain on cabinets can be quite
beautiful as some of the wood grain shows through the
white coloring. If you want a more consistent appearance,
painting the cabinets is probably the direction you would
want to go. With paint, there are many sheen options so
you would want to consider how glossy or flat you want
the appearance to be. Although they are more expensive,
there are specialty paints designed for cabinets that you
would most likely want to consider using to extend the
life of the paint coating. These paints are more
resistant to common stains and wipe clean easier than
typical paint.
If you are going to install new cabinets, you will
need to decide between paint vs. laminate. One advantage
of laminate cabinets is that they will be easier to
maintain because of their slick surface. If you paint or
stain the cabinets yourself you will most likely have
more wear and tear, such as, cracking, chipping or fading
of paint or stain. Laminate obviously doesn’t have the
appearance of real wood cabinets, but if you want shiny,
smooth, polished looking cabinets laminate may be the
choice for you. However, many people prefer to have solid
wood construction so it would simply be a matter of
choosing what your preference would be. One other
advantage to white is that you can easily find a
white under cabinet TV or white under
cabinet radio to match the decor.
Since white kitchen cabinets are so popular, it isn’t
hard to find popular brands that carry them. Some
examples of brand names are: Thomasville Cabinetry,
Kraftmaid, American Woodmark, Premier Cabinetry, and
Mills Pride.
