Barker Door Cabinets

I have so many fond memories of visiting my aunt at her old country house growing up. However, the last time I went there was for a not-so-happy occasion. Her husband had recently passed away, and the house was too big for her to take care of alone, so I went to help her move. We gathered up her belongings and set out for her new, smaller home. Although this house was closer to the city, my aunt wanted to decorate it in her familiar rustic style. The place needed quite a bit of work, starting with the kitchen. It had these terrible plastic laminated cabinets which were peeling. I offered to look online to find some barker door cabinets to replace them.

Well, my dear aunt nearly had a heart attack when she heard my suggestion! You see, her late husband was an amazing woodworker, and he had handmade almost all of the furniture, doors and cabinets in their old house. Justifiably, my aunt was highly skeptical that cabinets ordered online could live up to the quality she had grown accustomed to. But I had seen these type of barker door cabinets in friends’ houses and thought they looked good. My aunt agreed to give them a try.

After reviewing all the options, my aunt settled on a color and we chose cabinet sizes that fit her cozy kitchen. Although the barker door cabinets arrived ready-to-assemble, my aunt is elderly and I’m pretty uncoordinated, so we enlisted my aunt’s college-aged grandsons to put the cabinets in. The whole process only took one day’s work. Afterwards, my aunt ordered pizza for all of us and we sat around admiring the renovated kitchen. For someone who was so used to fine woodwork, my aunt was surprisingly impressed with the material and look of her new barker door cabinets.

Cabinets for Your Home Bar

A few years ago my uncle got a huge bonus from his job and decided to put all the money into home improvements. His main project was finishing his basement, which was quite large. He and my aunt wanted to put in a guest bedroom, a bathroom, and most importantly for him - a bar. My uncle loved to have his friends over to play poker or watch football, but my aunt wasn’t too happy about the noise and mess they made. He hired a contractor to do the majority of the remodeling. When it came time to do the painting and build the bar, my uncle’s buddy came to help him. Neither of them were skilled in carpentry, so they decided to use RTA cabinets.

RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets may sound daunting, but they were in fact, as my uncle put it, ¨a piece of cake.¨ He was able to choose the layout, style and color of the cabinets, and even see the virtual blueprint using the manufacturer’s website. The cabinets came quickly after placing the order online and included clear instructions for assembly. My uncle and his buddy got a six-pack of their favorite beer and put them together in one day.

After they got some furniture and hung up their wall art, my aunt and uncle’s new finished basement looked great. The bar is definitely the centerpiece of the room, and appear so well made that no one can tell that my uncle used RTA cabinets. My uncle and his friends hang out down there at least twice a week. The room was supposed to be something of a ¨man cave,¨ but it is actually so nice that my aunt even invites her friends over for a girl´s night every once in a while!

New Appliances and RTA Kitchen Cabinets

After 15 years or more in the same house, your kitchen starts to seems a little dingy and dated. Depending on how often you use them, your appliances will begin to break down around the same time. Most people look into updating their fridge first, as it is the biggest appliance. But once you have a new, stainless steel refrigerator, your stove and dishwasher start to look even worse, so you have to purchase new ones. Yet something still doesn't feel quite right - it’s those cabinets. Years of cooking oil splatters, smoke, and constant opening and closing can leave them cracked, stained, and generally worn. You'll need to replace them without breaking the bank. Instead of hiring somebody, get down to work yourself with RTA kitchen cabinets.

The process is simple. First, dig out your measuring tape and find out the size of all your appliances and cabinets. If you want to put in a slightly bigger refrigerator, for example, you will have to subtract a few inches from your cabinet space. Next, jump online and put your kitchen’s measurements into the cabinet website’s program. It will suggest the ideal cabinets for your space. Finally, you are able to choose the finish and color of your new cabinets.

The day your RTA kitchen cabinets arrive, call up a couple of friends to help you assemble them. If you can follow simple instructions, you should have no problem putting the pieces together. Within a few hours, your new cabinets will be installed.  I bet you will be pleased by how well the updated cabinets compliment your shiny appliances. When guests come over, they will certainly ask who remodeled your kitchen. It will be up to you whether or not to share the secret of your RTA kitchen cabinets!

Updating Your Bathroom with New Cabinets

My friend and her husband had just moved into an old farmhouse. Let me stress: this place was a real fixer-upper. One of the first things she wanted to update was the bathroom on the second floor. It was pretty small and didn’t even connect to the master bedroom. However, there was a fairly large closet that she wasn’t going to use right next to the bathroom. She and her husband completely gutted the bathroom and knocked down the wall that was shared with the closet, nearly tripling the size of the bathroom. Now they had to start redesigning the bathroom from scratch. They reworked the plumbing, put in drywall, and bought new bathroom fixtures. Their next step was to look into pre-made cabinets.

The new homeowners now had the space to install his and her sinks, with plenty of cabinet space underneath. Using blueprints from an online supplier, my friend was able to find a plan from the website that matched the measurements of her bathroom. The supplier suggested the type and size of cabinets and drawers that fit with my friend’s vision. She also chose an off-white hue from a variety of colors that were available on the site. In a few days, the pre-made cabinets arrived, and my friend’s husband put them in in a matter of hours. After some tile work and painting, the bathroom appeared to have been pulled from an interior design magazine.

My friend was so impressed with the professional look of the pre-made cabinets that she decided to use them again when it came time to redo the kitchen. Now they have a beautiful home. The improvements that the couple have made to their old farmhouse over the years have increased the property’s value tenfold. The best part was that they did most of it themselves.