Looking to spruce up your kitchen" Try these expert-recommended updates Kitchens see a lot of action, so they need some love and care in order to stay in good shape. And one way to do that is through small updates, which will not only improve your day-to-day experience at home but can also deliver great return on investment.
We spoke with a couple of industry experts to mine a few tricks of the trade and insight on what to focus on when considering kitchen updates.
1. Consider new cabinet coverings
The easiest way to get the biggest visual impact is by investing in new cabinet coverings. If you have an Ikea kitchen, there are a number of companies specializing in stylish doors for Ikea cabinets boxes, such as Reform, Semihandmade, and Kokeena. If you?re working with a designer to redo your cabinets, you might even take it one step further and conceal your refrigerator to match your cabinetry for a completely uniform look. ?We like to try to tuck the refrigerator into a bank of tall cabinetry so that it becomes more of a thickened wall than something that juts into the room,? says Portland, Oregon-based interior designer Jessica Helgerson.

Photo by Jeremy Bittermann courtesy of Jessica Helgerson Interior Design
The refrigerator in this renovation by Helgerson blends right into the rest of the cabinetry.

2. Look at simple island options

Photo by Read McKendree
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