We are still trying to sell our house. Looking to "update " the looks should we leave the cabinets wood or paint. my thoughts are once you paint your done if someone liked wood.
Our daughter and her husband just had a new home built. The kitchen cabinets are real wood, as well as the woodwork. Our son remodeled and updated his home. All kitchen cabinets and woodwork is wood. Our old place has natural wood wood! Natural wood is modern. If you paint it any color the buyer is gonna say "gee this would have been a nice place if those kitchen cabinets were natural wood." And if not they can always paint them pink!
Hard call, GN. I like the look of wood and keep it that way in my kitchen and hard wood floors. Once you paint, it's pretty hard if at all to go back......... Personally, I think you would take away from the look of your kitchen. No more warm cozy feeling...........as your microwaving a hot dog, getting a can of pop just to come back to the forum BTW, all ways have liked the pass through counter option. Had one rental house with that, really miss it in the dive we bout witch has no option of even adding it.
It's hard to see but it looks like oak in the picture, IMO I would paint it. I've been a high end kitchen and bath installer for 30 years, I can count on 1 hand with 3 fingers down how many oak kitchens I've put in. In my opinion it looks like a cheap builders grade kitchen. If you paint it take the doors off clean them and hit them with liquid sand paper to get the paint to bond, I would go oil based paint like Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo. Steve
I have been trying to decide this very point in my kitchen. We aren't selling any time soon but I just want to freshen up the room. Our 24 year old almond color fridge gave up a couple of weeks ago so we had to replace it and with that the stove was also replaced as well. The new appliaces are stainless steel and black. They look awesome. But really show how dated the kitchen looks. We have to do a little reno to the cupboard over the fridge because it won't fit. Also we are planning to replace a couple of the lower cupboards with drawers. So with all of this I believe I'm going to paint my boards, so thanks for the tip Steve. However GN300, it is very difficult to guess what a buyer will want. If your house was been on the market for awhile I would ask your realtor what he/she thinks you could do to improve your home to get it sold. Then ask them to repost new photos on your listing after the changes have been completed. Good Luck.
Yup - can't make that call for you. Maybe you can experiment with some photoshop program..... See if you can jazz it up with some new tile backsplash, change the knobs and drawer pulls. Maybe add some detail like crown moldings. New counter top. We did our kitchen in Orange County over in 2008. Replaced all the cabinets though - there was no way we were going to re-use those. Oooo - just thought of something else. Watching all these remodel shows on TV, I have heard about owners just painting either the uppers or the lowers and leaving the opposite one alone.
I would leave the cabinets alone, as getting a professional finish is not easy. I would, though, change the hardware, and put up a back splash. I would also think of a new counter top, and make it so that the dish washer looks built in, instead of having the top of the portable dishwasher as part of the counter.
I agree with Mike. If you're gonna paint, you need to do it right, or it's just going to look like a "cheap builder's grade kitchen" (quoted from batcar), or worse. Do a google search to get ideas. Or, maybe your wife is on Pinterest? My wife has created a "honey do" list a mile long, from Pinterest ideas.
Oh, geez - I missed the part about "We're still trying to sell the house...." Here I go spending OPM on cabinets, back splashes,counter tops and moldings....... sorry about that. Marshall
Never heard of "Pinterest" and going to make sure my honey doesn' also! My do list is long enough I missed the selling part also..... sure splash some new paint on the kitchen walls etc, but just clean and polish the wood
HuH? Apparently some of youze guyz read like my wife does. Just glance and make up your own wordz! Also I am glad she does not use a computer. As Tedy wrote, my honey-do list is already 10 years behind! We are still trying to sell our house.<--------------
My house was built in 1977, and the entire kitchen was dark wood, and the living room was dark wood paneling. I loved it when we first saw it....my wife HATED it, said it look like 1977... (hey I liked 1977!), and she would only let us buy the house if I agreed to paint over the wood. The cabinets are now white, and the living room is pale yellow. I guess it looks more modern, she loves it, and it did make both rooms much brighter and made them feel much bigger.... .....but I liked the wood better. Women buy homes, men buy garages. My garage is huge, made for big 1970's-size cars, so I'm happy. Just remember again that it's women that buy the house, so if "she" likes it, it'll most likely help it sell.... -Mike
Oh and related to some of the other comments, when we bought the house she wanted a stainless steel fridge. Went to Home Depot, and they had the stainless and the white side-by-side, and of course the stainless was a lot more. I got her what she wanted, and I HATE the stainless! If you have kids, it will have fingerprints on it ALL THE TIME, and you can only use magnets on the sides of the fridge...I never realized how much I missed magnets and such when I need to hang up a note or a number, or even order a pizza!! Ahaha! BUT I will say, when clean, it looks nice in the very-white kitchen..and would have looked out of place in a wooden kitchen. I put a good WHITE fridge in the garage for me...with a TV on top. If I just had a bed and microwave in the garage, I'd never have to come inside.
If I just had a bed and microwave in the garage, I'd never have to come inside. An airbed in the station wagon and a $35 micro wave.
