Remodeling With Laminates: Giving Your Kitchen An Affordable Facelift

(HIT) - If your kitchen looks tired, but you aren’t ready for an all-out overhaul, it’s time to get acquainted with today’s great decorative laminate designs and colors. For example, you can remodel your kitchen cabinets with a decorative laminate for roughly one third of what it would cost to replace them with new ones. Or perhaps just resurfacing the countertops with a new laminate look will be enough.

Remodeling with laminates was often considered a bit of a tacky process, admits Westinghouse Micarta, the company that invented laminates. But that has changed, first because of the sleek Eurostyle look, which popularized laminate as the finishing material of choices, and secondly because of the high style that has come to laminates.

"Laminates have come a far way since we all used to hang around gold-flecked diner counters," notes Holbrook Platts, Westinghouse Micarta’s director of design. "Today, laminates come in hundreds of solid colors, mimic the gloss of lacquer and the luxury of marbles and granites, look to splatterware for inspiration, and offer the beauty of exotic woods without endangering rain forests."

"Micarta even looked to outer space and mines deep in the Andes Mountains for inspiration for its newest remodeling design ideas," adds Platts. "The resulting fashions are extraordinary and are sure to win over any doubting Thomases."

Remodeling With Laminates: What To Use Where

Remodeling with laminates offers a wide range of design possibilities today. Some remodeling laminates feature tiny metallic particles deeply embedded in an opalescent background, a look that is particularly effective in dark colors. Westinghouse Micarta says these laminates will produce a very contemporary look in cabinetry.

Reflective or metallic accents in remodeling laminates offer a great look for countertops and backsplashes. Platts likes the sinuously veined Aztec designs for countertops in Art Deco-styled spaces, while he recommends the luxurious Agate designs for any kitchen at all, from traditional to contemporary.

Solid color remodeling laminates offer a veritable rainbow of choices for cabinetry resurfacing. There are many whites, almonds, creams, light grays, and other pale colors available that can produce a sleek, contemporary cabinet look, but the most popular colors in recent years continue to be the greens and earthtones.
"Green and earthtone remodeling laminates are the manifestations of our new interest in the environment," explains Platts. "Earthtones, which include the hues of deserts and beaches, are especially easy to work with. Yes, they add sleekness to cabinetry, but they are also soft and easy on the eye. As the trees and meadows of nature, the greens have a calming influence, too," adds Platts. "The pale greens produce a contemporary look, while the deep greens can easily assume a traditional role."

Platts recommends looking at such colors as Firethorne and Sunflower Yellow for remodeling countertops with laminates in all-white kitchens that need warming up. And don’t worry, if you are an incurable traditionalist and simply like woods. There are remodeling laminates simulating woodgrains from mahogany and cherry to oak and teak, and all are so real-looking, you’ll fear splinters. There are also barnwood looks and woodgrains in fantasy colors like teal and pearl, so you can create any mood at all, from rustic warmth to traditional formality.

When remodeling with laminates, the old cabinet doors and drawer fronts are removed and replaced with new ones. Simultaneously, the cabinet box is sanded down and recovered to match the new doors and drawer fronts. Moldings around the soffit, decorative valances, etc., are resurfaced, too, and this is also the time to upgrade the insiders with roll-out shelves, Lazy Susans and other convenience features.

While you have a laminate remodeling expert at the house, you might as well replace the counters, too. This way you will truly have a "new" kitchen.

Remodeling with laminates can be done over wood, paint, old laminate and even metal, but it stands to reason that your existing cabinets should be solid and sturdy. Most laminate remodeling companies charge "per opening" or "per door," and typically a resurfacing job should cost you from $3000 to $5000.

Laminates can be seen at home centers, lumberyards and kitchen showrooms. For more information about Micarta laminates, visit the company’s website at www.norplex-micarta.com.


Courtesy: Home Improvement News and Information Center