by Erich Rosenberger M.D.

Created on: January 02, 2009

Kitchen upgrades are one of the best ways to improve your home. Done correctly, you can double or even triple the return on your investment. Unfortunately, kitchen upgrades can be extremely expensive, and the suggestion of a kitchen upgrade sends many homeowners running. If you're on a tight budget, you may believe that upgrading your kitchen is nothing more than a pipe dream. The good news is, there are some inexpensive steps you can take to upgrade your kitchen. In fact, for less than fifty dollars, you can give your old and painfully outdated laminate cabinets a makeover. Updating your laminate cabinets is a great way to give your kitchen a fresh look, and contrary to a lot of the advice you'll find online, it can be done quickly and cheaply.

The little secret behind painting your laminate cabinets is a little product called Glissen Gripper. Painting laminate can be challenging, because its slick surface isn't very paint-friendly. If you do a search on the internet, you'll find websites advising you to sand and then clean, and then sand again, and then put on some exotic primer and so on. Fortunately, this is outdated advice. Primers these days are much more powerful than the ones your grandfather used. Aptly named Glissen Gripper helps the paint "grip" to your laminate surface. Most hardware stores carry it. I bought mine from Home Depot for eight bucks a quart. In addition to Glissen Gripper, you'll need:

* A latex, water-based paint: I recommend buying paint from a store such as Frazee. Home Depot and Lowes have excellent brands as well. Expect to pay about $10 per quart for your paint. If you have a large surface area to cover, get your paint by the gallon and save yourself a few dollars.

* One paint tray

* Two small rollers (about 3")

* Two poly foam brushes (1-2")

* A small paintbrush (for edges and places where roller and poly foam brush can't fit)

* Painter's tape

* A drop cloth (optional)

* A paint can opener (optional)

After gathering all of your supplies together, you're ready to start. To turn your ugly 1960s-style laminate cabinets into modern freshly painted works of art, take the following five steps:

* Clean all of the cabinet surfaces you are going to paint. This is an important step, because it removes the dirt and oils that have built up over the years.

* Label each drawer and cabinet door so that you're not faced with a challenging puzzle when returning them all to their original place.

* Remove the knobs, pulls, and hinges from the cabinet doors.

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