DIY cabinet face-lift is affordable, easy

The Thornton kitchen after its listing agent and an Ace Hardware owner gave its cabinets face-lift. (The Denver Post | handout)

What if your kitchen's surfaces were never expected to have a 50-year life span?

The listing agent for a home in Thornton faced exactly that problem. But she had seen a product at a trade show that intrigued her.

So Kirsten Chapman called public-relations client Ann Cummiskey, who owns the Ace Hardware store in Greenwood Village, and enlisted her to test whether a few people with very basic skills could do a cabinet makeover.

Buyers who viewed the Thornton house said its solid '90s kitchen lacked excitement.

"It was kind of all over the place," Cummiskey said of the room. "Yellow walls and off-white walls, and it had those light oak cabinets that were kind of generic in homes from the last 10 years. So it needed

The kitchen before. It also got fresh paint on the walls and a new matching microwave.

When you're talking kitchen cabinets, though, change can cost big bucks. "There just wasn't $15,000 in equity in this home to tap," Chapman said. Refacing still costs in the low thousands.

But ... paint your own cabinets?

"It's kind of intimidating for most people," Cummiskey said. "They say, 'Will it really look OK?' We said, 'Let's give it a try.' And it changed these plain, builder-grade cabinets into something that looked like furniture."

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DIY cabinet face-lift is affordable, easy