Using Common Materials to Design a Custom Kitchen

When you’re remodeling your kitchen, you can keep costs down by using stock items in your design. You can take a standard kitchen cabinet and give it a truly unique look with just a few modifications. Here are a couple of things you can do to start with stock items and end up with a custom look.

Go to your local home improvement store and take a little trip through their model kitchen displays. You can find some great decorating ideas that can help you add your touch to an in-stock item and personalize it.

A really dynamic way to use standard cabinets and make them look custom is to use two contrasting finishes on the same cabinet style in your kitchen. For example, you can choose a light oak finish on your kitchen cabinets and showcase the area around your stove using the same cabinet with a cherry wood finish. By mixing the two cabinet colors, you have created a beautiful focal point in your kitchen.

Another option is to pull several of your upper cabinets forward just a few inches. Adding two or three inches makes a big difference visually. By screwing a 2′ X 4′ or a 2′ X 6′ to the wall, you can attach your cabinets to the brackets. Then you can add a side door and use this narrow space to store baking pans or pans.

Another little trick you can use to get a custom look out of your regular cabinets is to stagger the cabinet heights. You can design the line of cabinets in your kitchen to appear every other cabinet, or the middle cabinet on each wall can be taller. You can stagger the heights by simply mounting the cabinets at different heights, or you can install cabinets of different sizes side by side. You can also stack cabinets in unexpected ways to add interesting door configurations. For example, you can add a column of short cabinets that you would normally see above the refrigerator to make what looks like a single multi-door cabinet, adding visual interest to the cabinet faces.

You can also take this look a step further and set up two short cabinets with a shelf in the middle. This makes for a great display shelf to break the symmetry of a wall of cabinets.

By using molding to finish the top of your cabinets, you can make them look like custom built-in cabinets. You can also add molding to the edge of the shelves you install to give them a polished look.

Upgrade your cabinet hardware and complete the custom look. By finding unique drawer pulls and fun cabinet knobs, you can give your cabinets a high-end custom look. You can find knobs almost anywhere like eBay, an antique store, a flea market, or a thrift store. You may also want to check out a junkyard or a store that recycles building materials.