Glazing Kitchen Cabinets

Glazing kitchen cabinets is a great alternative to replacing, refacing or otherwise resurfacing your cabinets. Glazing is a cost effective process that creates an antique look for your kitchen without all of the expense of having to replace the existing cabinetry. This process takes about the same amount of work as painting, which is another option some homeowners decide to go with. But while painting tends to modernize the design, glazing kitchen cabinets hearkens back to kitchens of yesteryear.

The process of glazing kitchen cabinets is one that some people enjoy taking on for themselves. It can be satisfying to do this type of work on your home because in saving and renewing your cabinetry rather than having it replaced, you save a lot of money on material costs. But the potential complexity of the job causes a lot of homeowners to hire a painting or resurfacing specialist to handle the job. Some homeowners even opt to purchase unfinished cabinet products and then finish them with a glazed coat to create a one of a kind look.

Cheap Kitchen Cabinet Design Ideas

Glazing creates the look of antiqued or distressed cabinetry, even on contemporary kitchen cabinets. It is a great way to make the overall design more authentic if you are trying to make the room more authentic. It can be applied over a fresh coat of paint or other coverings. The nice thing about this process is that glazing kitchen cabinets can take tired looking cabinetry and turn their age and wear into a design feature and advantage. It looks great in homes with antique furniture and in cabins and cottages as well. The process is also perfect for bathrooms with claw foot tubs and other old fashioned design accessories. Applying glazing to the doors and even to the side panels brings out a whole new old character in any wood from maple to cherry.

Glazing kitchen cabinets is a technique that works on cabinetry that was previously stained or covered in paint. Putting a fresh coat of paint in one color over a coat in another and then distressing it adds extra colors to work off of in the rest of the room and also makes the paint job more distinctively than most cabinet refacing jobs. Some homeowners try glazing kitchen cabinets only selectively, working on the edges and corners or using a stencil.

How to Glaze Kitchen Cabinets

The actual process of glazing is very similar in nature to that of a cabinet paint job. A sensible first step is removing the doors rather than trying to work on them while they are attached. Any hardware attached to them should also be removed so that you can glaze any desired surface without having to tape or otherwise prepare the doors beforehand. Prior to beginning the application, the entire surface of the doors and any other area that will be done needs to be cleaned completely. Commercial cleaners are best; this step can be skipped if the surface was painted in order to create a distressed look.

Cabinets are glazed with a mixture containing paint and some sort of solvent or thinner. There are also premixed glazes available for glazing kitchen cabinets. When homeowners and painters mix up their own glazes, they can adjust the mix to achieve the result they desire. Different ratios of solvent to paint change the appearance of the finished product, sometimes dramatically. A professional can discuss with you how to select the right ratio and show pictures or samples of distressed furniture to give an idea of what the end result might look like.

Find Affordable Kitchen Remodelers

Glazing cabinets is similar to painting them, and sometimes a preparatory paint job is part of the process. The application of these covering materials can be done by homeowners, but a successful job does require some patience and attention to detail. In this way, glazing kitchen cabinets is similar to any other paint job on cabinets or any other items in the kitchen. There are some jobs that may require the handiwork of an expert. It is no stretch to say that there's an art to glazing. Homeowners who are skilled with the paint brush and have the time to devote to a project like this can go ahead and tackle their cabinet remodel unimpeded. But those of us who may lack in this kind of artistry are better off grabbing some quotes from local pros to find out what we'd be looking at for price.

Kitchen cabinets are some of the main focal points of the room. Updating the look of cabinetry gives kitchens a fresh new look and increases their visual appeal. One of the most unique and cost effective ways to pull off this kind of update in kitchens is by glazing kitchen cabinets.