Although you don’t see them all that often, black kitchen cabinets do exist and are available if you want them.  Obviously, the most common kitchen cabinets feature different shades of natural wood, such as cherry, birch, or mahogany.  That doesn’t mean that these are the only choices though.  One important point to think about is whether you want all of your cabinets to be black or if you just want one or two that way.  I have seen kitchens that look stunning because they chose to offset light colored cabinets with one or two very dark ones mixed in.  Black and white kitchen cabinets can give a unique look that people will love. There are different types of black cabinets, so we’ll take a look at them in more detail.

There are two types of black kitchen cabinets:  Truly black cabinets and nearly black cabinets.  Most cabinets of this type fall into the latter category, since they have a little more texture and style to them than the straight black ones.  The way you get real black cabinets is by painting them.  If you are buying new cabinets for your kitchen, pretty much any cabinet manufacturer will offer them.  You can either have them made out of composite materials or solid wood that is painted black.

Unless you are intent on having your cabinets completely black, you might want to consider almost black ones.  There are wood stains that are so close to black that from afar they will look like the color of very dark brown.  Upon closer inspection however, they still show the beautiful textures of a natural wood finish a little bit.  The famous cabinet maker Thomasville has a number of very dark shades to choose from with names like “cherry chocolate”.  They also offer most of their popular kitchen cabinet styles painted black.

Another thing to consider is the other features of your kitchen, and how well the color black is going to go with them.  A light colored countertop or one made out of metal (stainless steel or another metal) will usually contrast the best with a black kitchen cabinet.  The other large pieces of your kitchen are the appliances.  Things like refrigerators, dishwashers, and microwaves are readily available in the color black.  It usually looks a little overwhelmingly dark if you have black cabinets and appliances.  An alternative is to just keep the cabinetry as wood or a lighter color and get all black kitchen appliances.  Either way you choose, just remember that a combination of light and dark usually looks the best.  Look at lots of black kitchen cabinets pictures to get a good idea of what you want before ordering.

Tags: Carts and Islands, Kitchen Cabinets by Jeffrey
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If the time has come to replace your kitchen cabinets, there is something you need to know.  In many situations, the cabinets themselves are structurally sound, but they just look a little shabby.  While most people will just rip out the old cabinets, send them off to the dump, and install new ones, the price tag of this option is enough to scare even people with money to spare.  Fortunately there is something you can do that will give you nearly the same result as a complete replacement for just a fraction of the price.  What I’m talking about is refacing kitchen cabinets.  This job involves replacing just the visible parts of the cabinets, which are the doors and other surfaces, and leaving the rest intact.  Let’s take a more detailed look at what this job entails and how much it costs.

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Cost

Fortunately for those of us who don’t want to spend half a year’s wages on our renovation, kitchen cabinet refacing can be a really economical solution to getting a new looking kitchen.  While the price of removing and installing your cabinets can cost upwards of $20,000 and more, refacing them on the other hand can cost much, much less.  The price you will pay depends on what materials you want to use for your new doors, and other surfaces, and whether or not you are willing to do it yourself.  In most western countries, doing a job like this yourself can easily cut the kitchen cabinet refacing price in half. Even if you’ve never done this before, there is a plethora of books and other information that will show you step by step how to tackle a job like this.  See them for yourself here

Let’s take a look at the work involved to reface kitchen cabinets.  Many people consider refacing kitchen cabinet doors to be the easy part of the job.  The other thing you need to do is put a layer of material on the other parts of the cabinets that are visible to the eye.  For this step, you have a choice of three materials.  The first one is plastic laminate, which is made to look like wood.  The second choice is known as rigid thermofoils, or RTF’s for short.   This material has one main advantage, which is that it can be easily molded to form various detailed shapes, such as grooves, arches, and the like.  The third type of material is wood veneer, which like its name suggests is made of real wood.  The advantage of using real wood veneer is that it you can get it in any number of types of wood, including oak, birch, cherry, and maple.  Doing this will allow you to use the same wood as the doors themselves.  This option is about 25% more expensive than using the cheaper plastic or RTF options.  As far as appearances go, real wood will obviously look the best and match the wooden doors as closely as possible, but the other materials are designed to do this as well.  If you look very closely at them, you will see a difference, but from a distance, most people will never even know!

Tags: Kitchen Cabinets by Jeffrey
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Sooner or later, there comes a time when the cabinets that are in your kitchen start to look old and worn out.  Quality cupboards can last quite a while, but eventually even the best of them start to deteriorate from wear and tear and old age.  When this happens, you pretty much have three choices.  First, and most expensive, you can tear out all of the cabinets and install new ones.  The second way to do it is called kitchen cabinet refacing, which involves removing the doors and replacing them with new ones, along with other exposed areas.  The third method is called cabinet refinishing, which involves placing a new layer of material on top of the visible parts of the cabinets.  For this article, I’m going to explain the ins and outs of kitchen cabinets refacing so you can make an informed decision about whether this is something you want to do.

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Cost

If you are trembling at the thought of dishing out tens of thousands of your hard earned dollars (or whatever currency you use), here is some good news for you:  Refacing kitchen cabinets cost about one-third of the cost of a full replacement.  In many cases, the structural integrity of your cabinets is fine, but the outside looks worn.  If you fall into this category, you really only need to replace the visible parts, which are the doors.  While a full cabinet replacement might cost $20,000 to $30,000 dollars, if you choose to reface kitchen cabinets, you might spend $5,000 to $10,000.  The reason why I can’t give you a specific price is because there are so many variables that affect the cost of the cabinets, including the type of material used the quality, and whether you pay someone to do it or try to tackle the job yourself.  If you are working on a very low budget and are either handy with tools (or are willing to give it a go anyway!), you can save yourself a heap of cash on the kitchen cabinet refacing price.

Additional Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Information

In addition to kitchen cabinet door refacing, which happens to be fairly easy to do, there is another step that many people find tricky.  The kitchen cabinets have lots of other surfaces that are visible, and you need to put a new finish on these so that they match the new doors.  You will need to put a new, thin material on these visible areas.  For this step, you generally have three choices as to materials that you can use.  All of them are designed to match the wood finish of your cabinets, but they differ in material and price.  Your choices are RTF’s, which stands for rigid thermofoils, laminates made of plastic (think of those fake wood floor panels), and wood veneer.  All of these are made to look like real wood, and while you can tell the difference right up close, from a distance they do the job quite well.  If you think you might want to tackle this job yourself, I highly recommend getting one of these books to show you the step by step methods involved in this renovation.

Tags: Kitchen Cabinets by Jeffrey
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