Should You Consider Softwood Cabinets?

There are two basic kinds of wood: hardwood and softwood. Hardwood is wood that comes mostly from broad leafed tree species. These are trees that typically lose their leaves over the weekend. They are species such as oak, hickory, cherry, birch, and so on. Softwoods are typically evergreens. They usually have needles and cones instead of leaves. Hardwoods in general are harder and denser than softwoods, but that’s not absolutely the case. There are some very hard softwoods, such as yew.

If you’re looking for cabinets, you’ll see some that are made of cedar or pine. Should you consider softwood cabinets? Possibly.

Cedar and Pine

 Cedar and pine are two of the most common softwoods in use for furniture and cabinetry. They are very common in utilitarian installations such as cabins and workshops. If you are deciding on kitchen cabinets for a kitchen in a cabin, softwoods might be appropriate. If you’re choosing cabinets for a workshop, a tool shed, or a ski lodge, they could evoke the proper look as well. Also, if you are building a kitchen around those themes, softwood could be the proper wood.

Softwood was used for cabins and lodges mostly because softwoods are readily available. They typically grow faster and more abundantly than hardwoods; if you’re in snowy environments, most of the trees will be softwoods.

So, if those are the reasons to choose softwood cabinets, why doesn’t everyone opt for them?

Why Not?

 Softwood is not the preferred building material for most indoor applications because of the density of the wood. Softwoods are usually not as hard and dense as hardwoods; in fact, most people can dent pine with just their fingernails. So, if you are building some shelves for your walls, that might be fine. However, the cabinet doors will get banged up over time. They’ll eventually start to take on scratches and dents from their use. Furthermore, the density of the wood means that it will absorb heat and moisture more than hardwoods. If not accounted for, your cabinets could warp and discolor.

To account for that, softwoods need to be stained and sealed or painted. Stain will keep them from discoloring somewhat. A waterproof seal, such as polyurethane, will keep it from absorbing moisture. It will also protect the cabinets from scratches and dents. The polyurethane will likely be harder than the wood itself. Paint will not protect from scratches quite as well, but it does the work of coloring and sealing.

How to Revitalize Your Old Wooden Cabinets

If your kitchen needs some revitalization, one of the best ways to do that is by updating your cabinets. Buying new cabinets is an option but it’s the more expensive option. It will cost you less money to simply update your own cabinets. While it might seem like a task that is beyond your DIY skills, most people can do it in a weekend. Here’s how to do that.

Decide On a Path and Assemble Your Tools

There are a few things you’ll need to do before you’re ready to update your cabinets. Are you going to update just the cabinet doors or the interiors as well? Are you going to change your cabinet hardware?

You’ll need a screwdriver to remove the hardware that holds the cabinet doors. You’ll need newspaper or some kind of plastic sheeting. You’ll need paint brushes, paint thinner, and sandpaper ranging from medium to very fine. If you are going to stain your cabinet doors, you’ll need wood stain and wood finish. Polyurethane makes a good wood finish. If you’re going to paint, then you just need paint.

Once you have all of that laid out, you’re ready to work.

Get to Work

First, you need to strip the original paint or stain. Paint thinner will work for this purpose. A dedicated paint stripper will be much quicker and more intense. Make sure you follow all of the directions on the paint thinner or stripper; do it in a ventilated area and protect your skin. Once it’s been allowed to work, sand off the old paint or finish until you get bare wood. Use some paint thinner to clean it up and wipe off all of the sawdust.

Once all of that is done, you should have bare wooden cabinets. Some people get to the stage of the bare wood and decide that they like the way it looks. If that’s you, then you just need to put the cabinets back on the walls. If you want to make sure they are protected against heat, humidity, and other types of damage, you should seal them with some polyurethane. A satin or matte polyurethane will preserve the bare wood look. A glossy polyurethane will enhance the look of the wood.

If you decide to continue with your update, apply your chosen stain or paint. Apply it in long, smooth brush strokes moving in the direction of the grain. If you’re staining it, apply polyurethane and you’re done. You should have cabinets that look brand new in a few days.

Should You Paint or Stain Your Old Cabinets?

If you have old cabinets that are in need of revitalizing, you have two basic options. You can repair your old ones or buy new ones. It is more economical and, in many ways, easier to just repair your old cabinets. The best way to make them look new again is by refinishing them. That could mean painting or staining. Whether you choose to paint or stain, the process begins the same.

Prepping the Cabinets

 Before you paint or stain your cabinets, you’ll need to begin with some preparation. Take off the cabinet doors so you can get around them more easily. You might also remove the hardware as well. If you’re going to replace it or refinish it too, that would be a good idea. If you have metal hardware that needs an update, you could attempt some metal cleaner to make them shine again.

Once you’ve done that, you need to strip the cabinets. If they’ve been painted or stained, stripper will remove the paint or stain. Make sure you follow the directions on the stripper carefully. Strippers are caustic chemicals that require care and ventilation to use properly. Then, once you’ve done that, allow them to dry for the proper amount of time. You’ll need to sand away any remaining paint or stain. Sand away any chips or scratches in the wood. Use a damp shop towel to clean up any sawdust.

At that point, you should have cabinets that are bare wood that has been sanded smooth. You’re ready to paint or stain. Which should you choose?

Paint or Stain?

 Painting your cabinets will give you a wider range of options for colors. Stains tend to come in many of the same colors but since they seep into the wood, they’ll be diluted in hue and the wood tones will always shine through. Paint will sit on top of the wood, which means that it will cover up some of the grain. You won’t have to seal the cabinet either; the paint acts as color and top coat.

Stain will highlight the natural grain of the wood. Stains tend to increase the contrast to make patterns in the wood stand out. There are stains available in a range of colors. You can find stains from subtle clear stains that will simply highlight the grain to bold colors such as bright blue. You can find stains to mimic different types of wood as well; for example, you might find a hickory or a cherry stain. That’s very helpful if you want to make your cabinets look like new, natural cabinets.

The Growing Trend of Blue Kitchen Cabinets

If you look through social media or home design catalogues, you’ve likely noticed a trend with kitchen cabinets: they’re blue. You’ve likely seen everything from shades of blue so light that they’re almost indistinguishable from white cabinets. Others might be a dark blue so deep that it’s almost black. There are also shades of royal blue, baby blue, and everything in between. So, what’s behind the proliferation of blue cabinets and how do you get on trend?

Why So Blue?

There are many reasons blue is trending as a color in kitchen cabinets. The main reasons are probably that blue matches the sky and is very versatile. If you want to enhance the amount of light in your kitchen, you can choose a light blue. The light blue will mimic a sunny sky without drawing too much attention to itself. If you want a dramatic pop of color, a royal blue or a turquoise can introduce bold colors. If you want to introduce some dark tones, navy blue can be used to offset bright colors elsewhere.

How to Match Blue

There are a couple of competing design schemes. One design scheme emphasizes the blue of the cabinets by matching it with other bold colors. These colors don’t have to be another shade of blue, but they can be. For example, if you have a cherry colored floor, some blue cabinets can introduce a sense of fun and brightness to your kitchen. Bold primary colors like reds and blues will create the impression that your kitchen is almost something from a comic book.

Others choose to match the blue of your cabinets with other shades of blue. For example, light blue cabinets might pair well with dark blue cabinet pulls and dark blue countertops.

Lastly, there is a scheme that seeks to make the cabinets pop by choosing muted colors or neutrals for the other parts of the kitchen. A white wall with blue cabinets will make the cabinets look very dramatic. Blue cabinets with a tan countertop can also create that striking look.

How to Achieve Blue

Some exotic woods can be blue in color; blue mahoe heartwood is an example of a wood that can be streaked with blue. These are often expensive and rare; also, they’re usually not very boldly colored. The most common way to achieve blue cabinets is either through staining the wood or painting it.

If you stain the wood, you’ll highlight the natural grain of the wood. Also, some of the natural color of the wood will likely still shine through unless you apply several coats of stain. This is the best way to achieve blue cabinets while retaining some natural look. Painting it will cover most of the grain and yield a bolder look.

Where to Find Reclaimed Wood for Cabinets

Reclaimed wood has become popular in just about every room in a home. Reclaimed wood has a somewhat vague definition. Put simply, it is wood that was processed and used for one purpose but is then repurposed. In practice, it generally means wood that has weathered or aged enough to be noticeably distressed. That can mean chipping, flaked paint, burn marks, oil stains, and more. Exterior wood from the sides of barns is one of the most sought-after types of reclaimed wood. It is sought after for many uses, cabinets included.

Old Houses

 If you keep your eyes open and your ears to the ground, you’ll likely be able to find some reclaimed wood from someone doing demolition or remodeling at an old home. When wood was more readily available and synthetics more rare, wood was the material of choice for most parts of a house. That means an old home will have thousands of board feet of reclaimed wood. A kitchen remodel is an incredible opportunity to find reclaimed wood. If someone is throwing out their old cabinets or an old wooden floor, you can easily turn that refuse into beautiful cabinets. Even if the cabinets they’re throwing out don’t fit yours perfectly, they can be shaped and sized to fit.

Wooden Floors

 Wooden floors are a great source of wood for cabinets. If you have wooden floors in your home and you are remodeling, don’t throw out those floors. Keep enough wood to at least clad your old cabinets in new wood. Hardwood flooring planks are perfect rectangles, which makes them very easy to work with for cabinetry.

Also, ask around at hardwood flooring manufacturers and suppliers. They often have odds and ends that come from manufacturing the planks. Those odds and ends might not be usable as standardized flooring planks but they might work to clad an old cabinet in hardwood. That wood is often scarred from sanders or drills; it will have a beautiful distressed look.

Pallets

 Wooden pallets are the holy grail of reclaimed wood, especially if you can find hardwood pallets. Much like wooden planks, they’re made in perfect rectangles that are easy to turn into cabinet doors. If you’re looking for hardwood pallets, look for companies that import heavy items from overseas. Many European manufacturers of heavy freight use hardwood pallets to ship their goods; just be sure to ask before taking pallets from behind a store.

The 3 Biggest Trends in Kitchen Cabinetry

Kitchen cabinets go through trends every few years. Typically, a few designers begin experimenting with new styles, materials, or looks. They share those looks on social media and interior design magazines. They grow in popularity, and a few years later, they’re bonafide trends. If you want to get on the cutting edge of some coming kitchen cabinet trends, here they are.

1 — Open Shelving

 Open shelving can mean two similar things. An open shelf can be a cabinet that simply has no cabinet doors or not full cabinet doors. It can also mean freestanding shelving such as hanging over an island.

Open shelving has a few caveats that you should be aware of. For one, the interior of your shelf will be completely visible. Therefore, you need to makes ure you match the exterior as well as the interior of your shelf to your overall decor. If you have a cabinet door, then only the outside absolutely must match. With open shelves, everything becomes part of the overall look.

Also, you’ll need to make sure you have the dishes for it. You’ll typically see matching dining sets in an open cabinet; the matching sets might even match the overall decor. That’s a very cohesive look. However, you can have mismatched dining sets as long as the sets match either each other or the overall decor. For example, if you have a lot of neutral tones in your kitchen, you want to have neutral dining sets even if they don’t match each other.

2 — Custom Colors

 For a long time, cabinets were simply painted the same color as the walls. Now, the cabinets are design items themselves. That’s especially true if you have custom-designed cabinets. You want the artistry and the beauty of the wood to stand out. To do that, you’ll need a color for your cabinets that is different from the color for the walls. Many homeowners choose a transition color. For example, if you have white walls and black floors, you might choose gray cabinets.

3 — Exposed Grain

 Oak cabinets were popular from the 1970s and into the 1990s. They were gradually replaced by vinyl and other synthetics that are considered less expensive and easier to clean. Many people with wooden cabinets simply painted over them with an opaque paint. The pendulum is now swinging back towards exposed grain. Instead of painting those cabinets, you can just stain and seal them to allow the wood to shine through.

The 3 Biggest Trends in Kitchen Cabinetry

Kitchen cabinets go through trends every few years. Typically, a few designers begin experimenting with new styles, materials, or looks. They share those looks on social media and interior design magazines. They grow in popularity, and a few years later, they’re bonafide trends. If you want to get on the cutting edge of some coming kitchen cabinet trends, here they are.

1 — Open Shelving

Open shelving can mean two similar things. An open shelf can be a cabinet that simply has no cabinet doors or not full cabinet doors. It can also mean freestanding shelving such as hanging over an island.

Open shelving has a few caveats that you should be aware of. For one, the interior of your shelf will be completely visible. Therefore, you need to makes ure you match the exterior as well as the interior of your shelf to your overall decor. If you have a cabinet door, then only the outside absolutely must match. With open shelves, everything becomes part of the overall look.

Also, you’ll need to make sure you have the dishes for it. You’ll typically see matching dining sets in an open cabinet; the matching sets might even match the overall decor. That’s a very cohesive look. However, you can have mismatched dining sets as long as the sets match either each other or the overall decor. For example, if you have a lot of neutral tones in your kitchen, you want to have neutral dining sets even if they don’t match each other.

2 — Custom Colors

For a long time, cabinets were simply painted the same color as the walls. Now, the cabinets are design items themselves. That’s especially true if you have custom-designed cabinets. You want the artistry and the beauty of the wood to stand out. To do that, you’ll need a color for your cabinets that is different from the color for the walls. Many homeowners choose a transition color. For example, if you have white walls and black floors, you might choose gray cabinets.

3 — Exposed Grain

Oak cabinets were popular from the 1970s and into the 1990s. They were gradually replaced by vinyl and other synthetics that are considered less expensive and easier to clean. Many people with wooden cabinets simply painted over them with an opaque paint. The pendulum is now swinging back towards exposed grain. Instead of painting those cabinets, you can just stain and seal them to allow the wood to shine through.

Replace vs. Reface Cabinets

Cabinets take up almost all the space in your kitchen or bathroom and the look of them can really impact how you feel about the space. The cabinets can also affect how the kitchen functions. If you cabinets are outdated, ugly or damaged you may be wondering what your options are for fixing them.

Refacing cabinets is one of your options. When cabinets are refaced it means you take the existing door fronts and drawer fronts off and replace them with updated doors. You may also reface your cabinets by painting or refinishing the fronts. Some companies even offer a service where they add a thin veneer to the existing cabinets to change the look.

There are a lot of reasons you may want to consider refacing rather than replacing your cabinets. First if your cabinets are solidly constructed and function well this is an ideal choice. IF the cabinets are worn and damaged the refacing will address the aesthetics but not fix the functionality of the cabinets. Refacing worn and damaged cabinets may give you some time before you need to fully replace your cabinets but will likely just delay the inevitable and cost you extra money. Refacing cabinets costs about more than half the cost of new cabinets so you will really want to make sure it is your ideal choice.

Cabinet replacement is necessary when you need to change the layout or functionality of the cabinets. The replacement is done to change the function of the kitchen space and may change the appearance of the space but that is generally not the main reason for the project.

If you are trying to decide between replacement and refacing you will want to sit down and think about the function. If you would keep your kitchen layout identical to how it currently is then a refacing is a great choice. If your budget is limited refacing may also be your best choice. But if you want to make structural changes, upgrade the cabinet quality or change the layout then new cabinets are your ideal choice.

Custom kitchen cabinets are an investment in your home but also a beautiful function addition you can enjoy for years and years to come.

Choosing a Cabinet Door Style for Your Kitchen

When planning out a new kitchen design you will come to the point where you need to decide what door design will work best for your home and style. Choosing a door is not as simple as choosing the design but you also have to choose the color, stain, finish and any distressing. Glazing has become a popular technique for finishing cabinet doors as well.

When looking at the design of the door you will want to consider the feel of the entire kitchen to ensure the cabinet doors will fit well into that design. If you are choosing a more modern door but want distressed glazed finishes this may clash some with the overall feel of your space.

The first step is to step back and think about the overall look you hoping to create. Do you want a modern kitchen with sleek lines? A rustic distressed kitchen? Casual? Contemporary? No matter what look you are going for there is a kitchen cabinet style that will work. Stop and think also about how you will feel about the cabinets in a few years. Choosing a trendy door style may cause you some heartbreak down the road.

Second, think about maintenance and cleaning. Some door styles work best for wiping and cleaning while others are more intriquiet and harder to clean. A flat or shaker style door are great options for homes with children that may need lots of wiping down to remove fingerprints and spills. A more ornate or decorative may work better in a home without kids. Your lifestyle can really affect the choice in this department.

Third, consider what hardwear you want. Some door styles won’t match the hardware that you are wanting. If you want a sleek modern handle you will want a sleek modern door style. If you are set on a knob or pull buy one and take it with you to choose your door style. This will help you get a better overall feel for the final look.

Designing a kitchen is a huge undertaking but when you work through each step logically you will slowly weed out the choice that don’t work for you and come down to just a few choices that work for your home. Many custom cabinet shops and designers can help you with these decisions as well based on their first hand experience.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of a Kitchen Island-

A kitchen island is a popular kitchen add on but they are not for everyone or every kitchen. When working on a kitchen remodel or design you may be wondering if a kitchen island will work for you. As kitchens become more open the kitchen island is become more popular.

First you need to think about if you have room for a kitchen island. The National Kitchen and Bath Association or NKBA says that there should be 42 inches of clearance on each side of the island. This allows you to use the space as a work area and remain functional. If it is just a walking area and not a work area 36 inches should be enough space.

Next, the cost is a big factor to consider. The cabinetry and countertops are the big costs but there are also sinks, appliances and additional features you may want to install in your island that you need to consider. Running these numbers can help you understand if an island is a feasible option.

Consider the benefits and drawbacks of the open kitchen concept. One of the big advantages of a kitchen island is the counter space and additional storage. Also many island include a bar area for eating. The island can also house small appliances and the sink freeing up other island space. If you eliminate the island you can likely regain a lot this storage and counter space by creating a u shaped kitchen. The open plan also encourages more interaction so you will have to consider if this works well for your lifestyle. It can be a great way to interact with your children while they eat lunch or do homework at the counter

An island can disrupt the natural flow of a kitchen. Most kitchens flow runs off a classic triangle layout with the sink, cooktop and fridge. The functional space is much more important than the addition of an island so you will need to be sure the kitchen will function properly. Depending on how your kitchen flow is set and the design shape of your kitchen an island may or may not be beneficial.

There are alternatives to kitchen islands. You may want to look into the idea of a table in the space, a cart or leaving the space open. A table or cart are most cost effective and give you additional space without being permanent.

In the end the choice to add an island is based on what will work for your space, budget and lifestyle. Islands are a great choice but do not fit into all kitchens so considering the specifics is important to making the best decision.