Whether you’re doing the work yourself, or hiring a contractor to install new kitchen countertops, you’ll need to plot out the arrangement of your current counters, measuring as accurately as you can to help determine the materials cost for the project. Most major home improvement stores have graph paper charts that you can take home for measuring kitchen countertops.

In short, you draw a layout of your entire kitchen area, including the countertop sections, the appliance locations and dimensions, as well as the island and sink positions. You’ll use a tape measure to take readings of the distance from the end of the end of the section of the countertop to the wall, or from the end to the next section of kitchen counter. Then, you’ll need to record the depth, measuring from the wall to the front edge of the counters.

Don’t forget to measure the height and length of the backsplashes, too. It’s basic math: multiplying length times depth, then adding all the countertop area together to get your total number of square inches. The next part of the equation is to divide total square inches by 144 to get the total for square footage. Then it becomes a matter of multiplying the price per square foot for the countertops you’re evaluating against total footage needed to cost your project materials.

Using Kitchen Countertop Templates

Countertop manufacturers often have their own templates to take home for measurement. Laminate Tops has a chart and directions on its website. And Home Depot has an online graph to print to paper, along with concise instructions for charting and computing prices for your project.

Possibly the biggest mistake homeowners make in painting or refinishing kitchen cabinets is in not knowing–or accepting–that they’re in over their heads. Blunders in prepping cabinets for paint may not necessarily be irreparable. But they can be costly.

If the doors and cabinet faces are not stripped and sanded, the cabinets may end up looking worse than they did when you decided to do the work yourself and save money. It’s usually better to remove the hardware and doors ahead of time and paint them in a ventilated space outside the kitchen. If you insist on doing the work in the kitchen, you’ll really end up frustrated if you don’t prep the floors, counters, and other kitchen areas against dust, drips, and spatters.

Know the Process Completely

One homeowner, writing for the Asheville Remodeling Resource site, describes the disastrous effect of rolling out primer with a low nap microfiber product, instead of using a high density foam roller. The result: a bumpy surface that had to be corrected before even adding the paint.

If you’re considering using paint or stain on your wood cabinets, consider a high-quality brush. The difference in cost over a chintzy brush more than pays you back by creating a uniform finish.

For those with cabinet drawers mounted on side tracks, Lowe’s recommends that you remove the faces, rather than pull out the entire drawer set. It’s easier to paint the faces separately rather than risk gumming up the mechanism.

Another common homeowner mistake is in not sanding the primed drawer fronts and doors with a super-fine, 600-grit sandpaper. If you want the paint to hold, you need to prep the surface!

Putting a new face or paint on your kitchen cabinets may change the look of your kitchen. Isn’t that the idea? That’s fine, if the cabinets are now well coordinated with the kitchen paint, countertops, and flooring. But what about the kitchen backsplashes? Many a homeowner skimps on treating the backsplashes as part of their overall kitchen remodeling project. The end result may be like having a wonderful smile, with a front tooth that’s missing.

Backsplash materials come in an inexhaustible selection of materials, colors, and patterns. I always suggest that you coordinate the colors and materials with your overall kitchen color schemes, but never compromise on ease of maintenance. After all, the backsplash is for catching spattering cooking sauce, dust from flour and other ingredients and, sad to say, grease and grime.

Backsplash Materials that Complement New Kitchen Cabinets

Personally, I favor tile backsplashes for their ease of installation and trouble-free maintenance. They clean up with soap and water. Like any other part of kitchen cleanup, you should get on the splashes and spills right away before they cake up. Ceramic tiles are also among the most affordable selections.

Look around your home improvement store and you’ll find backsplash materials in glass, granite, stainless steel and other metals. Lowes sells bronze backsplash tiles that are really attractive–if they go along with your overall décor. They’re put up with tape or adhesives especially created for mounting them.

Better Homes and Gardens has ideas for using recycled sea shells that were cast into molds of concrete and stamped into the tile surface. Stunning. Or, you can use recycled bricks for a backsplash if you’re into green, repurposed materials.

Medium density fiberboard (MDF) doors are considered mid-range in the cost of kitchen cabinet refacing products. These seamless products, manufactured from wood fibers that are glued together with PVA glue under extreme heat, are less pricey than wood veneer or solid wood. Unlike doors with seams, MDF won’t crack under the range of temperatures in your kitchen.

The materials are manufactured to resemble stained or natural woods, although they typically are not manufactured with a faux wood grain finish. Another plus for MDF products is that they’re very easy to maintain. Thermofoil doors have their share of enthusiasts and detractors.

Deciding on Your New Cabinet Look

First, you’ll need to decide whether you should reface–or replace–your cabinets. Hiring a contractor to help you decide will take some discernment on your part. Ask yourself if the prospective contractor only represents one kind of replacement and is keen on selling you on something you may not need.

Be sure to call in at least two contractors to determine how much it will cost to have the right solution installed in your home. If you decide on MDF, be sure your workspace is well-ventilated and put on a mask or set of goggles if you’re walking into the work area. The urea formaldehyde released into the environment during cutting or sanding can be a serious irritant.

That’s why you might insist that any MDF you select for your kitchen cabinets is completely installed and painted before the work begins, rather than during the project. Paint is a good sealant against urea formaldehyde gasses. Ask any potential contractor about the process as part of getting your written estimate.

Depending on your choice, your kitchen cabinets are faced with solid wood, wood veneer, paper, engineered melamine, or vinyl . Veneers may be wrapped around a core of medium-density fiberboard (MDF). While everything decays from hard use, you can extend the life of your kitchen cabinet facing with proper upkeep.

Responding to spills, splashes, light damage, loose hardware and other natural enemies of wood products can make all the difference between long-life and the need for cabinet refacing. You can clean and safeguard cabinet doors without having to spend a lot of money on solvent cleaners that only end up harming the wood and veneers.

Do’s and Don’ts of Kitchen Cabinet Care

Amazingly enough, these do’s and don’ts are generally the right way to respond to wear and tear for all cabinet styles.

Do: respond immediately when food or liquids are spilled or splashed on your cabinets. The longer they coat the facing, the more potential damage they pose. Blot spills with paper towels, a sponge, and warm soapy dishwater.

Don’t: swab the spills with scouring surface sponges, cleaning pads, and harsh cleaning chemicals. While ammonia or chlorine products work well on tough stains on other materials, they most likely will harm the finish of your kitchen cabinets.

Do: remove grease and grime as soon as you see it. If you allow it to build up, you may put yourself in line for a thorough cleaning with tsp or another safe product after taking down the doors and drawer fronts.

Don’t: use an abrasive sink cleaner or bleach product to remove grease, finger or hand-prints. If your cabinets are made of finished wood, only use furniture products expressly designed for cleaning them.

For times when you don’t need to install entire new sets of cabinets, you can transform your kitchen by replacing existing cabinet doors. If you’re thinking of doing the job yourself, you can do an eight-foot run of lower cabinets in four or five hours using a drill, clamps, screws, masking tape, cabinet doors, and new hardware (handles, knobs, and hinges).

Home Depot has a pictorial review of the procedure online, and they make it seem simple–if you know your way around home improvement projects and can use simple power tools. The first step is putting the hinges on the new doors securely, using two for standard sized cabinets, and three hinges for doors 30 inches or longer.

Masking tape is the indispensable tool in lining out the top face frame rail and marking the hinge locations along the edge of the face frame. You mark the location tape for drilling the holes and after starting pilot holes with the drill, you strip off the tape and anchor the new door with the screws. You put in the hardware last.

Using Care with High End Woods

If you plan to replace cherry cabinet doors, you may want to call in a cabinet contractor to protect your investment. Don’t put cheesy or cheap hardware on expensive wood, please!

Some homeowners are choosing eco-friendly cabinet doors for their replacements. Bamboo and cork are among the favorites in this new category. Cork is the more flexible material in terms of matching the stain color and feel of your original design.

We offer a great review of the varieties of door styles, stains, and woods available if you need some fresh ideas.

Kitchen designers, interior decorators, and color consultants agree that the color of your kitchen cabinets, flooring, backsplashes, and wall paint say a lot about you. But that’s as far as their agreement goes. I should think that they’d agree that faded or chipped paint on your cabinets does say that you don’t much care what people think, or that you lack sufficient funds to even repaint them.

Each year, home improvement writers trundle out a color trends list, and I love reading it–but mostly to gather great ideas or see what I don’t like. Cabinet color trends for 2010 include the use of gray for its neutrality and ability to give relief from brighter colors.

Earth tones like beige, light green, and warm browns are also in vogue this year for their subtlety and for the way they complete a “green” kitchen with bamboo counters and cork flooring. Spot splashes of bold reds, greens, yellow, and blues are also popular these days, but they shouldn’t overwhelm the entire look.

Noticing How Cabinet Colors Feel

Better Homes and Gardens says that yellow is a warm color that can add light to a kitchen on the dimmer, north wall of a house. A buttery yellow tone is trending for Tuscan kitchen themes and distressed paint effects. A dusty blue paint can soften the look of your kitchen, complementing white walls, backsplashes, or ceilings.

Your colors should also match the cabinet styles in your home. For example, country kitchen cabinets typically are stained to show their natural wood colors, although bright yellows or glass doors may be your favorite choice.

Look at lots of photos and examples at home improvement stores to get color ideas.