Painted Kitchen Cabinets – Enjoy The Contemporary Beauty of Painted Cabinets
Painted kitchen cabinets give any kitchen a sleek and contemporary feel. Cabinets that are painted also are durable and easy to maintain. They can be purchased already painted, or you can do it yourself. If new cabinets are out of your price range, a great and inexpensive way to transform your kitchen is by painting the cabinets you already have.
Cabinets take up majority of the wall in a kitchen which is why they can be an instant make-over to the look and style of any kitchen. It is simple as lighting up darker cabinets or using bold colors to brighten them. Not all kitchen cabinets will be good with paints, though. Paint does not adhere well to laminate and melamine cabinets. Paints that are recommended for kitchen cabinets are usually either high-gloss or semi-gloss. Semi-gloss often can provide a richer finish.
Painted cabinets can be done in a short amount of time. If your kitchen is modern, perhaps a black color would fit perfectly. If you are looking for a warm and inviting kitchen bright colors such as yellow would be an option. Don’t forget stripes. Cabinets can have more than one color. If your kitchen is bright to begin with, adding painted cabinets with a few colors on each will add more spice.
There are different types of effects that you can do yourself or buy already done.
If you want an old fashioned looking kitchen, the crackle effect would look amazing on the cabinets. Splattering paint that is lighter or darker than the rest of the cabinet color would be an easy task and add another feeling to the kitchen. Another easy effect is distressing the wood. This will make the wood have dents and cracks to give the feeling of older cabinets. You can always make your own technique to add new life to your kitchen.
Once the cabinets are painted, you may want to go even further and add stencil designs. Stencils come in many varieties and can be found perfect for your kitchen. It is fairly simple to do. You can choose form thousands of stencils to find one that will match your kitchen. Not everyone is an artist, so sometimes a little mistake might happen while stenciling. That is fine because it adds a personal touch to your kitchen. This would make a great project on a rainy day.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars to get brand new cabinets for your kitchen, consider painting them. It is the most affordable option. You can choose from a wide variety of colors and effects to add new life to the room. Painted kitchen cabinets are a quick and amazing makeover for the kitchen, but it does not stop there. Painted cabinets would update your other rooms also.
By: Jeff Stevens
About the Author:
Take the guess work out of designing your dream kitchen by using free kitchen design software by visiting http://www.remodelingkitchenguide.com, a popular website that offers kitchen remodeling tips, resources and kitchen cabinet pantry ideas to make the entire pantry space usable.
Categories: Crackle Tags: bold colors, Bright Colors, Stencil Designs
Wall Faux Finishes and Selecting Colors – Designer Secrets
If you want the high-end design on a budget, try faux finishes on your walls. Besides giving your home an updated style, faux finishes add color and depth to rooms. Although every faux finishing project you tackle will be different, choosing the appropriate colors will always need to be one of your first design choices. Whichever room you’re redecorating, your choice of colors will need to take in a wide variety of criteria.
For instance, are you looking for a bold, primary color modern statement or a dark, muddy earth color Victorian look and feel? Are you trying to blend the wall in with your existing décor or are you seeking to create an accent wall that brings its own texture and drama to the room? Are you trying to hide a room’s faults or is your ultimate goal to make the wall work within the room’s existing strengths? Will you be trying to make the room seem larger or smaller? All of these questions will need to be addressed before you even begin your faux finishing project. In fact, choosing colors really is the first step of the process.
I know it can sound intimidating, but it’s not something you can’t tackle successfully with a little thoughtful consideration and doing some research. One of the easiest ways to do that is to visit your local library and pick up a few decorating magazines and books. Go through them and find rooms that have the kind of look you’re hoping to achieve, taking special note of color combinations that might work in your own room. You’re trying to create a particular look or atmosphere, and color will be a big part of creating the effect you’re looking for. Does the room need a dynamic kinetic feel or do you want a feeling of relaxation and comfort?
There are no hard-and-fast rules, and your own color choices will ultimately depend upon your own uniquely personal taste and style. You’ll also want to take your existing furniture into account when making your color choices–that is, unless you also plan to buy all new furniture to match your new color scheme. Is there a particular color in your window coverings or upholstery that you’d like to augment? That could be a good place to start.
One of the basic things to understand is that darker colors will make a room seem small, while lighter pastel colors will reflect more light, giving the room a larger appearance. If you really have a desire to make a statement with a bold color in a smaller room, consider doing just an accent wall, meant to serve as a piece of art once you’ve done your faux finishing job. That way you can leave the rest of the walls a lighter color to give the room a bigger feel and still add some drama. However, a darker faux finish over a lighter color could have the opposite effect, but sometimes you need to do an entire room to see this phenomenon. And a caution: if you only do one wall of a room as an accent, the room could feel out of balance.
In a Habitat for Humanity project house featured on Flip That House, the office was painted in a golden wheat color because the room felt cave-like. The owners were concerned when decorative painter Kari Barron wanted to add old world color to the walls with a brown powder. After she wet the sponge and applied the mixture all over the walls and ceiling, the room felt larger! This happened because the walls gained the illusion of depth.
Above all, don’t be afraid to experiment. The worst that could happen is that you’ll end up having to paint over your experiment. That should take some of the pressure off if you’re having trouble trying to decide.
For more information about decorative paint and faux finishes, see Kari Barron’s website: MakeASceneDesigns.com. For more information about the Faux Flip and free ebook on flipping, see Flip That House at FlipThatHouseWithFaux.com
Categories: Painting Tags: accent wall, bold colors, choosing colors, no hard-and-fast rules