Do you want to redecorate your kitchen without a high-budget makeover? One of the best ways to breathe new life into your kitchen is to refinish the old cabinets instead of replacing them. See these creative and cheap DIY kitchen cabinet ideas! 1 kitchen cupboard, 10 different cabinet door designs on a budget!
How to dress up plain cabinet doors
And here is how the kitchen cupboard looks at the beginning – with plain wooden surface and no character. You can use your old kitchen cabinets as well after you’ve cleared their coating (paint, stickers, etc.).
1. Modern Tile Accent
If you have some spare tiles, you can place them on the kitchen cabinets. It would be even better if they come in bold, saturated colors that goes well with the wall color. For this design you need just a few tiles lined in the middle of the cabinet door front.
Paint the whole cabinet in a desired color and let dry. Position the tiles in the middle of the door and glue them with a suitable adhesive or a mastic. Allow to dry and treat the tiles with grout. For even more decorative effect and tidy look wooden slats are placed around the tiles such as picture frame and glued with wood adhesive.
2. Bamboo Mat Infusion
A cabinet door design inspired by Asian culture. It requires a bamboo mat that can easily be found in stores.
Remove the cabinet door panel using a suitable tool and paint the frame in dark brown. Cut the bamboo mat to size and affix it to the backside of the frame using wood adhesive.
3. Elegant Openwork Screen
This semi-transparent metal screen resembling a mesh reveals partially the contents of the cabinet, while looking very elegant.
Remove the door panel of the cabinet using a suitable tool and paint the frame in a light color like Eggshell. Glue black painted wooden slats (width – 2-3 cm) on the backside of the frame, so that only the half of their width is visible. These slats serve as a base for the metal screen, that was cut to the required dimensions and attached with a suitable adhesive.
4. Shabby Chic Charm
Give your kitchen cabinets a vintage look with a shabby chic paint technique.
Paint the cabinet light blue, apply caramel-colored enamel to the surface, and gently wipe it with a dry cloth to achieve an aged patina.
You can also check online the dry brush painting technique. It looks pretty impressive as well.
At the end, glue some decorative mouldings or embossed ornaments to the door corners.
5. Geometric Patterns
This bold kitchen cabinet door design can be achieved with just a little paint and adhesive tape.
Paint just the door fronts with brilliant white paint and use adhesive tape to create your desired pattern.
Paint over the tape with light blue, then carefully remove the tape to reveal striking white geometric shapes.
6. Functional Corkboard
This option is perfect for the kitchen, where as we can assume is the heart of the home. Family members go in and out of the kitchen more often than in any other room of the house. Here you can hang kids drawings, photos, notes, recipes and others. Use a cork contact paper or a real corkboard.
7. Embossed Wallpaper Elegance
Jazz up your dull kitchen cabinets with something very simple – a piece of embossed tin panel in the door frame. You can paint it in a desired color as well. The same effect can be achieved by using a tin ceiling tiles.
8. Chalkboard Organizer
Another functional idea – boost kitchen organization with chalkboard paint. With a layer of chalkboard paint transform cabinet doors into practical organizational boards for grocery lists, reminders, and creative doodles.
9. Monogrammed Sticker Design
Beautiful and elegant idea that is also cheap and easy to implement. Paint the cabinet with a saturated blue color and apply a sticker decoration in sparkling white (or use a stencil and a brush).
10. Decoration with a stencil
Our DIY kitchen cabinet ideas end with this simple decoration using a damask stencil in bright turquoise. The color is bold and creates immediately an interest, but is also delicate enough to harmony with the white surfaces.
