man changing out kitchen cabinet hardware


When it comes right down to it, kitchens are the nerve centers of our homes—for preparing meals, gathering and entertaining. How about sprucing up the cabinetry in your kitchen so it looks as great as it works! Here are five simple door and drawer improvements you can make with a few tools and some quality hardware and supplies from Rockler. Most can be completed in a day or two with basic woodworking skills. So, roll up your sleeves and get started—we’ll show you how!






UPGRADE YOUR DRAWER SLIDES
If you've got cabinet drawers in your kitchen that fight to keep you out, then one of most satisfying improvements you can make is to replace the old drawer slides with new, smooth operating slides. Choose soft-closing drawer slides and you'll be even happier. The type of slides you install will depend on the drawer and cabinet construction. We can't cover every type of slide in this demo, but here are a couple favorites.


open drawer with blum tandem drawer slides

These Blum TANDEM Slides with BLUMOTION require very specific drawer and cabinet dimensions, so they can be a challenge to retrofit, but if your drawers work with them, they can't be beat. They are not visible when the drawer is open, giving them a very clean appearance. And, the silky smooth soft close is sure to impress. If you're building a cabinet from scratch, these are the clear choice because you can design the drawers for a perfect fit. The Rockler JIG IT Drilling Guide and Drawer Slide Jig make installing these slides a breeze.


Watch this video to learn how to install these drawer slides:




If you’ve got drawers that work well and are mounted on common epoxy slides, you can add the soft closing feature with this easy to install Soft-Close Accessory for Epoxy Slides.

epoxy soft close slides

Watch this video to learn how to install these epoxy slide soft closers:





UPGRADE YOUR DOOR HINGES
Drawers aren’t the only thing in your kitchen that can benefit from soft closers. It’s not difficult to replace cabinet door hinges with new soft-closing hinges. Or, you can easily add the soft close function to doors that are mounted on self-closing hinges by installing the Blumotion Hinge Adapter.

installing soft closing cabinet door



INSTALL PULLOUT SHELVES IN YOUR BASE CABINETS
Sick of getting down on your knees to reach things in the back of your lower cabinets. Install a pullout shelve in your base cabinets to add convenient access to all of the contents. Download our free pullout shelf plan to build a custom-sized pullout shelf for your cabinet.

pullout shelf in cabinet



REPLACE OLD KNOBS AND PULLS
We know this isn't a groundbreaking idea, but it’s amazing how long people live with old knobs and pulls that they don’t like. It’s such an easy improvement that this upgrade can often be completed with one tool that’s probably already in your kitchen junk drawer - a screwdriver.

old and new cabinet knobs


ORGANIZE THAT JUNK DRAWER
Every kitchen has one - some have more than one. The junk drawer. That place you keep all the little random things you need around the house - rolls of tape, pens, dice, twist ties, keys that open things you can’t remember, and of course an old screwdriver. This stuff is often piled in there and you dig through until you find (or don’t find) what you need. Make your life a little easier and get it organized with the Rockler Lock-Align drawer organizer system. Use the interlocking trays, bins and dividers, and the screwdriver and pliers organizers to build a tidy grid of compartments that makes it easy to find what you need, fast. 


kitchen junk drawer with organizers


There are obviously lots of other big and small projects you can do to update a kitchen, and we can help you with many of them like replacing your cabinet doors or refacing your cabinets with wood veneer, but we’ll save those for another demo.