Monday Motivation: Kitchen cabinets refreshed

I'm taking care of a few indoor projects this week as the triple Hs (hazy, hot, humid) have arrived here in southeast Virginia. 

This week I'm taking care of all of my cabinets.  Actually, I'm cleaning them inside and out but that may be too much for you to handle if your children are underfoot or your schedule is busy.

So, onto the cabinets. . .

1. Use a cleaning product designed for your particular type of cabinet.
     a.  Wood doors - use Murphy's oil soap and a soft rag.  Mix the soap per package directions with water and wash down the doors.  Don't use too much water.
     b.  Laminate - use dishwashing detergent (I like Dawn as a degreaser) in water and use a soft rag.  If stubborn dirt persists around the knobs you can use a Mr. Clean magic sponge. 

2.  After washing, use a dry cloth to dry the doors.

3.  If your wood cabinets are not protected with a finish, use Liquid Gold  to restore them to a beautiful shine.
     * I recently did a staging consultation with a client who had wood cabinets in her 30 year old home.  She has treated her solid wood cabinets with Liquid Gold every year for 30 years and they look brand new.  Now she has a very nice selling feature in her home that only cost her pennies and a little bit of elbow grease once a year.

4.  If your cabinets are a little bit worse for the wear, you can touch them up with paint or stain markers to cover scratches and marks.  The stain markers are sold in the stain dept. at Lowes and Home Depot.  I've used leftover paint to touch up scratches on painted cabinets and even laminate cabinets (making a custom paint with my craft acrylic paint). 

5.  If your cabinets need a makeover but you don't want to paint them, you might try changing out the knobs.  When we moved into our current home I knew immediately that I would change the knobs on the kitchen cabinets.  There were white knobs on the wood doors and, to me, it looked like polka-dots.  By changing the knobs to a simple bronze knob, the kitchen had better flow.  I was able to buy a "builder's pack" at Home Depot for around $11.00 which had enough knobs for my kitchen and laundry room with one knob left over.

So, there you have it.  Clean cabinet doors and if you're adventurous, clean cabinets.