Mix it up–that’s the message of kitchen designers these days. Finding new ways to work with what you have is also atop the suggestion list, especially with bumpy economic times limiting the amount you can spend on a kitchen renovation.  You don’t have to sacrifice good looks and functionality to dramatically improve the look of your kitchen cabinets and stay within a budget.

Charlotte Carolina’s WSOCTV advises consumers that mixing in elevation and depth dimensions for base cabinets and walls can dramatically change the appearance and function of your kitchen space. You can add glass inserts in the upper cabinet doors, too, to brighten up your space and show off your glassware. Other trends: natural wood finishes, stacking effects, maximizing storage.

Customizing or Refacing Cabinets

Better Homes and Gardens suggests changing out cabinet doors to spruce up the look of your kitchen in a cost-efficient, time-effective manner.  New doors take less time to complete than full replacements, so you won’t be barred from your kitchen that long. The magazine also recommends new paint or new hardware as a relatively quick and financially prudent way of changing a lot in a reasonable amount of time.

Evaluate your existing cabinets and see if they’re good candidates for new hardware (hinges, pulls, knobs, etc.) or new door fronts.  If you shop around, you’ll find slab, raised panel, or recessed panel replacement doors that fit your kitchen scheme and budget. If wood is too pricey, consider medium-density fiberboard (MDF).

Want to create a custom look and spend a little more? Hiring someone to do custom cabinet work offers you the opportunity to include pull-out pantries, full extension under-mount slides, under-cabinet lights, or deeper upper cabinets.

I read a thought-provoking article at HGTV where the writer asked homeowners to consider the cost of custom-made cabinets over less expensive, stock cabinets. Since any kitchen renovation typically includes new cabinets or refaced cabinets, you know a chunk of your budget will be devoted to them. Between the two poles of custom and stock are the semicustom models where a existing cabinet style is modified, based on the size of your available cabinet space. So which is right for you?

Custom cabinets are not always made from top-shelf materials. So even within that option, you’ll find incremental prices based on materials and workmanship. Of course, consider hardware in your budgeting. But you can generalize that custom cabinets—whether wood, glass, green materials, or metal—will be priced higher than stock models.

Refacing Options for Existing Cabinets

The greatest single cost in custom, semicustom, and stock cabinets is in the doors. So an obvious qualifying question is, how sound are the existing doors and drawer fronts? If they’re in great shape (but you want to change the color or texture pattern), you should look into refacing cabinets. You can choose among classical, modern, or hybrid style veneers in a wide range of colors and patterns that can transform your kitchen and reduce your ticket price.

You can even patch and sand slightly damaged cabinets and cover them with fresh paint or even wallpaper. Painting the kitchen walls and cabinets, swapping out old hardware for the new, and adding new backsplash colors and coordinated flooring can transform a really tired kitchen into a work of art.

Don’t feel reigned in while evaluating your cabinet options and your budget.

Are sustainable countertops a rage, a trend, a passing fancy, or a commitment to the environment?  What I know is that you see more of these inventive products introduced into the kitchen remodeling marketplace all the time. Generally speaking, to receive the sustainable tag, wood countertop materials must be approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). But today’s countertop materials in the green category may be made of products beyond wood.

The FSC does set requirements for counters made of recycled paper products. They must be certified to be manufactured with nonpetroleum, formaldehyde-free resins, according to Sunset Magazine. Appropriately named, PaperStone surfaces are compressed from 100 percent consumer paper waste into a solid block. Natural, non-toxic resins help create the durable finish. You’ll also find an assortment of recycled butcher-block countertops in standard or custom sizes that help spare deforestation of natural wood.

Going with Recycled Glass Counters

The Daily Green recommends recycled glass and concrete surfaces for kitchen countertops if you really want to be environmentally friendly. The new, Icestone counters are made through an environmentally clean manufacturing process and still have the durability of quarried stone, says the Daily Green.

Natural Home magazine reports on new recycled plastic used in countertops. Chroma, made by 3Form, is a solid, translucent surface created from 40% pre-consumer recycled materials.  They feature a dazzling array of colors.

Bamboo is also moving up in popularity among the range of countertop materials. Many manufacturers offer counters with formaldehyde-free laminates and adhesives that won’t off-gas dangerous toxins in your home. Bamboo can be machined into attractive parquet designs.  Look over your options!

I won’t say I’m in favor of what Alan Daly did to his kitchen cabinet, but I promise there are people reading this that will love it. It’s reminiscent of a Tim Allen conversion. As more than three million iPads have been built, it was only a matter of time before someone embedded one in their kitchen cabinets.

What’s great about it, I admit, is that the iPad has the Epicurious.com application installed, which means Daly can stand in his kitchen with immediate access to 28,000 recipes from magazines like Gourmet and Bon Appétit. Here’s how Daly did it: using a replacement door (just in case…) he used a jigsaw to cut the hole and smoothed around the edges with a Dremel tool.

You can view the cabinet iPad at the My Kitchen iPad upload at Flickr. Meanwhile, the project has received viral praise across the Internet. Even Engadget went wild over it, commenting that the cabinet iPad protects the streaming technology of digital recipes from the hazards of spattering tomato sauce.

What’s the Secret of the Cabinet?

I’m curious about how Daly rigged the power source to the iPad. The virtual aquarium screen saver might perk up your kitchen, but is the rear deck strewn with cable? Must he remove the iPad to recharge it and leave an opening fit for a mouse in the cabinet door? Where there’s a will, techies always have a way.

If you haven’t run off and bought an iPad, I suppose you can embed your latest cell phone or, in last resort, a flat touch-screen monitor run through a wireless connection. Let’s not go overboard, people! Wait a year and manufacturers will surely have models for you to buy and install.