Kitchen renovations can increase the marketability and resale value of your home. In fact, kitchen renovations have one of the highest return on investments compared to other home improvements. This cost vs. value report states that homeowners can get over 81% of the cost of renovating back at resale. 

If you’re planning on selling your home and know your kitchen needs an upgrade, you don’t have to spend a fortune replacing your cabinets and countertops. Both can be refaced at a fraction of the cost and still give you that monetary boost when you sell your home. 

Cabinet Refinishing

Cabinet refinishing, also known as cabinet painting, is when you keep your original cabinets but refinish or paint all exterior surfaces. You can do-it-yourself or hire a painter that offers cabinet painting. This home improvement will completely update the look of your kitchen and cost less than 25% of a full cabinet replacement. In general, here’s the cabinet painting process:

• Remove cabinet doors and drawers and remove all hardware. 
• Use a chemical stripper to remove the old finish.
• Lightly sand the surface to make it rough. This will allow the new finish to stick to it better. 
• Use a primer or purchase a quality paint that has a primer in it. 
• Paint the cabinet doors, drawer fronts and all exposed panels. 
• After they’re dry, replace the drawers and cabinet fronts. 
• Put on new hardware.

Read more articles about cabinet refinishing.

Countertop Refinishing

This is a less common home improvement and is a little trickier, but it can have great results for a fraction of the cost of a full countertop replacement. Countertop refinishing has been around for years, but new technology and products have made it a more accessible, durable and attractive option. When refinishing a natural stone countertop, the process involves sanding the surface and an application of an acrylic or epoxy coating.  There are countertop refinishing kits available at building supply stores. 

For laminate countertops, you can paint them, and the process is like cabinet refinishing: 

• Clean the countertops to remove grease and dirt. Then wipe it with denatured alcohol.
• Remove old caulking around sinks and faucets. 
• Use a laminate repair paste to fill in and repair chips and cracks. This is available at a hardware store. 
• Sand the surface down and wipe up the residue. Don’t miss any dust!
• Apply painters tape around the wall and sink edges to protect them from the paint. 
• Use a good primer and let it dry. 
• Apply the paint. 
• Finish with two coats of an acrylic or epoxy coating. 

Learn how to paint laminate countertops.