One of the best ways to add new value to your kitchen is to upgrade your standard cabinets to glass cabinet doors. There are many visual benefits to upgrading to glass doors. Your kitchen will appear more spacious, due to the fact that you can now see all the cabinet space. You will also be able to display your best dishes and glasses in a creative way to add more flair to your kitchen.
There are many ways you can get creative with glass cabinet doors in your kitchen. Some of these will be more expensive than others, but the end result will be a kitchen that is beautiful, unique and one of a kind. Firstly, you can create intricate designs using the muntins. The muntins are the strips of wood or metal that holds the glass in place and separate the panes. You can select cupboard doors with arched muntins, criss-crossing muntins, curving muntins and many, many more.
Lead The Way
The next style is cupboard doors with leaded glass inserts. Leaded glass can also accommodate several different patterns or shapes in the glass inserts and makes for a wonderful old world feel. This type of glass cabinet door would work best in a country kitchen design or a brick walled kitchen.
One unique idea that makes the most of glass cabinet doors is to build the cabinets over a window to the outside. The resulting effect is that sunlight streams into your kitchen through your cabinets, highlighting anything displayed in the cabinets. This idea is especially good for those with crystal dishes or glasses they want displayed.
Which Style?
There is a wide array of types of glass to choose from for your new look. Frosted glass is a soft, warm choice. While it does not necessarily give the illusion of more space, it still keeps things relatively hidden from sight, while still offering a more luxurious appearance than standard cupboard doors. You can also try stained glass doors in your kitchen! Stained glass is also an incredibly delightful way to add colours, themed images, and a touch of special personality to your kitchen.
The most obvious option is clear glass doors. When choosing clear glass, you have the opportunity to present your dishes regally! Invest in matching dish sets and find ways to display them proudly, while still utilising space. Play with stacking and ordering, and even throw in a few odds and ends to create a lovely shelf appearance.
Privacy
If you don’t like the idea of your cabinet’s contents being shown to the world, but still want to incorporate the look of a glass cabinet door in your kitchen there are a few things you can do.
The option that will provide the most privacy and the most class is to put stained glass in your kitchen cabinets. Stained glass windows will obscure the contents of the cabinet while providing a very unique and stylish look to the kitchen. Stained glass also provides a large variety of design options, as you can create patterns, pictures and more for display.
Another option is to use frosted or bevelled glass for the glass inserts. Frosted glass is similar to the glass used in some shower doors. It provides a soothing aesthetic, while obscuring the contents of your cupboard.
Bevelled glass will not completely remove your dishes from sight, but the bevels will distort and distract from the things that lay beyond the glass.
Lighting
Take it one step further and add some under the shelf lighting. This is an especially great look for china, or beautiful dinnerware. The lighting creates a showcase effect that will wow any guest. Suddenly, with under the shelf lighting, your dishes become a piece of art behind the glass doors.
If you have the pleasure of designing your kitchen from the ground up, try putting your glass cabinet doors on a glass wall! The double layer of glass enclosing your dishes and appliances will make you feel like you’re out in the garden while you bustle away in the kitchen. This is also a great design to optimise natural lighting. The glass will allow your kitchen to be flooded with warm sunlight and fill your space with joy. Be careful not to put light-sensitive items in this area though!
Glass Cabinet Doors: The Next Generation
If you want to take your cabinet doors to the next level, you can re-purpose doors from other cabinets or locations into the kitchen. Visits to estate sales, antique stores and other such businesses can provide you with a variety of cabinet doors that can be re-decorated and re-purposed for your kitchen needs. This method can also be used to just find glass inserts for your current cabinet doors.
It is quite evident that there are many different types of ways to change the look of your kitchen just by changing the doors on your cabinets. If you are short on time or money but want to improve your kitchen, this is definitely the way to go!