Put your most prized items on display instead of stacking them in a closed cabinet. Austin recommends suspending 2-inch-thick shelving from floor to ceiling; if you like, cover the wall with inexpensive subway tile to add texture to the background. “You can display pottery collections or store a beautiful assortment of brightly colored mixing bowls and glasses, which creates both visual appeal and functional storage,” she says.
Got a big budget? Austin’s dream kitchen update is one “where contemporary meets couture,” she says. Her material of choice is super-smooth glazed lava stone, or basalt, a naturally occurring rock formed from volcanic eruptions. “Lava stone is the pièce de résistance of countertops,” Austin says. “Nothing is more beautiful, but it’s rarely used, probably because of its cost per square foot [$210 per square foot and up] and shipping cost. I envision it as a glossy, vibrant yellow or green island countertop in a kitchen with simple white Shaker-style recessed-panel cabinetry, a slab of white statuary marble for a backsplash, and an antique wood floor stained a dark coffee-bean color, laid on the diagonal or in a herringbone pattern.” Delicious.

[View with PicLens]

The casual, comfortable feel of the country kitchen is reflected in this space with the light-but-earthy color and easy-going open shelves.

Materials and Tools:

drill
permanent marker
220-grit sandpaper
latex bonding primer
tack cloth or rags
flush spackling compound
paint (Blanched Almond 1060) (Benjamin Moore)

Steps:

1. Remove the door from the cabinets, and then remove the hinges and door knobs from the doors. Put a number on the top of each cabinet using a marker, and then make a map of the cabinets matching the number of the door to its exact location. If you’ll be changing the knobs and drilling new holes, fill the existing hole with flush spackling compound.
2. Sand the entire surface of the cabinet doors and frames, and then remove the dust with a tack cloth or damp rag.
3. Prime each door front. Position one on the edge of a work surface so that two of the edges are hanging over the end. Once the two edges are done, turn the door around and finish the other two. Run your finger along the bottom of the door to remove any paint that has crept underneath. Once the front dries, flip all the doors over and repeat the process for the back. Sand the doors again to smooth out the surface.
4. Paint from the inside out in the same manner as above. Let dry and flip to repeat on the other side. Apply another coat, allowing it to dry completely between layers.
5. Once the doors have been painted, reinstall the hardware and hang each door according to its number.

source: hgtv.com