RENOVATIONS: Penny-pleasing kitchen makeovers

It can be argued a recession is the perfect opportunity to make over your kitchen.

It's a time when people are opting to stay home and save their pennies, choosing home-cooked meals over extravagant dinners out.

And if you're going to be spending more time at home, having an updated and fresh-looking kitchen is both welcoming and inspiring.

And it doesn't have to cost a lot to spruce up your space.

Sometimes all you need is a can of paint.

"Paint the cabinets," says Howard Mulholland, kitchen specialist at Lowe's.

"Even if you have outdated wooden oak cabinets -- sand them, clean them, prime them and paint them. Sometimes it takes a lot of work but it makes a huge difference."

Apartment dwellers or homeowners with small galley kitchens can also use paint to bring a focal point into their kitchens.

Peter Fallico, host of HGTV's Home to Stay and Home to Flip, advises painting the end wall of a galley-style kitchen with a strong colour that's fun, fresh and lively.

"When people do their kitchens, they do that white, bland, almost hospital-like colour," says Fallico.

"That may be part of the problem. Take chances. Throw in colour."

Paint can also be a cost-effective way to update the look of a concrete kitchen floor.

Condominium or loft dwellers with a more contemporary-style space are the best candidates for this treatment that can create an industrial, modern feel.

"You can buy concrete paint and it comes in all sorts of different colours," says Justin Horn, president of Vancouver-based Paradigm Kitchen Design. "Remove any of the flooring that's on there now and get it right down to the concrete. You can do it in [solid] colours or mask off sections and put patterns on it. It can be quite effective and it doesn't cost that much to do."

Although paint can bring new life to a kitchen, it can only do so much.

If the kitchen is old and tired and the drawers on the cabinets are falling apart, you might need to give the space more than a superficial boost.

And for those who want to make over their kitchens with new cabinetry, there are cost-effective products on the market that will allow them to do so without breaking the bank.

"When it comes to cabinetry, the least expensive way to go is to buy cabinets that are ready to assemble, knocked down and mass produced," says Horn.

"They're available at home centres and there's a real price advantage with them because they are produced on a massive scale and they're not assembled."

The downside to taking this route is the limited choice.

These types of cabinets will only be available in certain modules, sizes and finishes, and might not work with the space you have.

If it turns out you need to build cabinetry from scratch, there are still affordable ways to do it.

Stay away from wood and opt for cabinetry made of plastic laminate.

"The plastic laminates are available in all sorts of different grains to mimic wood and they do look quite spectacular," says Horn.

"We have full kitchens set up with it in our showroom and a lot of people are hard-pressed to even tell they're not real wood."

Keeping the bulk of your cabinets and simply replacing the doors is another savvy approach, as is getting rid of the cabinet doors completely.

"Remove the doors and do open storage," says Fallico. "It means selectively choosing what you're putting in those cabinets -- whether it's a stack of white dishes or clear glasses -- but it creates a European-style kitchen. It looks great and it's as inexpensive as just pulling off doors."

Mixing and matching open-style cabinets with the closed-door variety is also a great way to break up the sea of wood that often dictates homestyle kitchens.

"It's more eclectic," says Fallico. "It's more natural looking, more real. It doesn't look so utilitarian. It's about taking that stuff that's usually hidden and showcasing [it] in some way."

Introducing message, bulletin or inspirational boards into the kitchen is also a fun way to showcase photographs and memos while creating a focal point within the space.

Families can use them to communicate with one another as well as utilize them for pinning up recipes, lists and receipts.

"I love message boards," says Fallico.

"It makes the kitchen more than just about the cooking. Even if they get pinned with tons of stuff, they just look so real."

(prepared by Rachel Naud/Vancouver Sun)