Our kitchen is old, ugly, and our-dated and need updated terribly. Unfortunately, I have a kid that just started college and another that will be starting next year, so money is going to be at a premium.
I am looking into possibly refacing the existing cabinets but I don't know: (a) if I can reface them since they have some sort of covering on them that makes them look like (fake) oak. (b) if they are even worth refacing.
The covering is some sort or plastic-like covering; almost like a huge piece of tape that is extremely thick and durable. (I will say this: the cabinet are 25+ years old and absolutely none of this crap has peeled off or worn off.) This crap is very, well, slippery and I don't know if contact cement would even hold, would it?
Also, the cabinets are made of junk particle board. They are reasonably sturdy still although all of the shelves and such will need replaced, too. Are these even worth refacing if I could?
If I do this, I plan on buying new drawer fronts and doors off the Internet and veneering the exposed area to match them. Nothing fancy, just to spruce it up a little bit. But I fear this will be almost as much as installing new, cheap cabinets. The only thing I really save is that I don't need to rip out the old ones and install the new ones. I guess that is a little bit of a trade off but I don't know.
Finally, one big thing that is holding me back is that there is a HUGE blind corner in there now. There is a single door into the blind corner cabinet which extends at least 30-36 inches to the right of the door opening and it is REALLY hard to get to the back of this darn thing. There is a door on the cabinet immediately to the right of this one--the doors are perpendicular to each other. The biggest problem is that each door is only about 8 1/2" wide!!! the face frames are fairly wide on both of these door openings.
Can I do something to help remedy this situation? I guess I could hack the frames to widen them, especially on the blind cabinet door. Or I can possibly get rid of the entire inside corner and install one of those doors that encompasses two doors with a hinge in the middle of the doors (but I don't think that would be that easy). Or I can maybe hack the inside of the cabinet next to the blind corner so you can reach thru there, too. Or a combination of any or all of these. Or NONE of them!
Any suggestions are extremely welcome.
Thanks!