UPGRADE your kitchen with these 10 HACKS!

Hi everybody, welcome back to my channel. Drew here from Lone Fox and today we are talking all about kitchen hacks and little things you can do, tweaks that you can make to your kitchen that you might not have thought about, things you can add in addition, even if you are planning or you have an upcoming kitchen renovation scheduled, you're a designer working on a kitchen renovation, and of course I'm sure a majority of you just want to add some things or update your current kitchen, which I'm also having a ton of tips for that in today's video because as many of you know, I purchased my home about a year ago and I did an entire kitchen renovation from top to bottom, new floors, the only thing we didn't have to replace was the cabinetry because it was so nice, I just ended up repainting it, and I just feel like I gained and have so many different tips and things that I thought about when I was doing my kitchen renovation that I thought I could put into a video to share with you. So today I'm going to be sharing those 10 hacks and I'm just excited to jump on in, I'm sure this is going to be a very chatty video, so I honestly feel like we should start off with number 1. Just a friendly reminder before jumping in, today is our 4th vintage dropover on lonefox.com, so check it out at 10am pacific time. The first hack that I love doing and the one that I really loved in my own personal space was removing the cabinet door fronts to create open shelving, and I feel like sometimes you forget that there is open shelving behind your cabinet faces, and if it's pretty, you could remove those, you can either wallpaper in the back, you can kind of redo the fronts of your shelves if you want to, give them like a wood face, you can really do quite a bit and create open shelving, and that's exactly what I did in my kitchen to create the coffee bar area, because there was quite a bit of closed off cabinetry, and once I removed those cabinet fronts, I was able to free up the way that it looked, and we ended up installing marble in the back of that, these were remnant off cuts from my countertops, and it just looks so incredibly grand in this space, and it really feels so custom when all I did was remove the door faces and then fill the holes where the door faces were attached onto the cabinets, super simple and easy, and this actually leads into today's video sponsor, which is Ritual, because this happens to be where I store my Symbiotic Plus from Ritual, and I love this product you guys, if you've never heard of Ritual Symbiotic Plus, it is incredible because I actually use their daily multivitamin, and I have for probably a solid two years now, it's my favorite one because it has a little mint tablet in it, but this here is the Symbiotic Plus, which is a probiotic, prebiotic, and postbiotic, all in one, and it basically supports digestive and gut health, and the thing that I have noticed the absolute most with myself, in the past like two years I would say, I just bloat so easy, like I swear to you guys, and I never knew what it was, or what you can even take for, something like that, but I started taking this and adding it to my multivitamin that I take, and it is absolutely incredible to just calm down bloating, probiotics of course have a bunch of different great benefits when it comes to gut health, but on top of that they're also really great for your immune system, because about 70% of your immune system is within your gut, so making sure that that's functioning properly, and all the bad bacterias out and all the good bacterias in, daily life disturbances such as stress, your work, diet, whatever it might be, travel for example, these are all things that can throw your gut health just off kilter, and something like Symbiotic Plus can just make sure everything stays in line and in check, you just take one a day, you don't have to refrigerate it, it has a little minty tablet inside, can you see that little minty tablet, it is the most genius little addition, because it makes the capsules taste minty, like you're taking a breath mint, and they're actually giving me a great offer for you guys, which is 30% off of your first month, so you can tap the link at the top of the description box below, or head to ritual.com slash lonefox30 to take advantage of that, the promo code is lonefox30 as well, our second hack is something that I discovered when I was designing my kitchen, and that was that I actually used my stone as the inspo point, kind of kickoff point, to designing my kitchen, so the first thing I did was I went out and I found the countertops that I wanted, because I knew I wanted that to be the statement, and you kind of have to choose what your statement is going to be, and that's kind of the overall arching premise of this tip, is to find what you want your statement to be, and in my case it was the marble, so I found this really beautiful Calacutta Monet marble, and from there I was able to pull colors from it to add color to the walls, to the backsplash, to the cabinetry, to the floor tile, everything else was selected from there, so I really found my one piece that was the focal, and what I really wanted the kitchen to be designed around, and then went from there, and that could be in your case maybe a floor tile, it could be a wall tile, a backsplash, it could be a wallpaper, whatever it is, start with one facet, and then build off of it. For our third tip, this one is all about removing upper cabinets where they might feel off, or just kind of out of place, and this is something I did in my kitchen, because in my kitchen it had two just very skinny random kind of upper cabinets on either side of the stove that just didn't make sense, but the ugliest little range hood in the middle of it, that was not the vibe, and same thing on the opposite side, there was two cabinets that just didn't really feel like they made sense, and I wanted to make the kitchen overall feel a bit bigger, so I removed those. Now something this kitchen did great was they actually had the cabinetry go all the way to the ceiling, and I think it's really beautiful how they did it too, because it has this crown molding detail on the top that I really love, and it just overall makes it feel custom, but if your cabinetry does not go all the way to the ceiling, consider adding some bit of crown molding or additional cabinetry on top of that, because even if it's not something that you're functioning and you're using, just extending those kitchen cabinets up, it's gonna make it visually look so much better, and if you think about it, those are really just dust collectors, those upper cabinets that have space above them, it's like a wasted bit of space where you could actually additionally add some storage up there, so consider adding additional storage above, or just adding a crown molding, you can get crown molding rather high as well if you need to do large gaps, and just do a crown molding at the top of your kitchen cabinetry. For our fourth tip, this is a fun idea and DIY project I did in my kitchen, and that was actually wrapping my appliance in a new sheet of metal, and I know right off the bat you're like, huh? Like, what do you mean? And I will tell you guys, it was not as hard and as challenging as it sounds. Now, I actually ended up ordering a sheet of aged copper online, and with that aged copper, I was able to wrap the front of my dishwasher, because when I moved into the home, all the appliances were new, but they weren't pretty appliances, you know, they were just purchased to essentially sell the house, so they weren't gonna put a lot of money into these appliances. However, they function really nicely, so I wanted to consider using the dishwasher, so I ended up wrapping the front of it in a sheet of copper, so that's something that you can also consider is wrapping appliances. I think another great one could even be a fridge, because normally fridges are pretty smooth, and you can do the same exact technique that I did with adhering the copper on the front of the dishwasher, and this is probably my most highlighted and most- one of my most viral projects I've ever shared, and I've actually seen a bunch of people recreate it as well, so I'll link below the copper sheet that I used, but I know that the restoration company that I buy it from, they also have other different metals you can do, like patina copper and brass and lacquered brass, so I mean, you have a bunch of options if you kind of want to update an appliance. A really cute, decorative, and kind of charming touch to any kitchen is a pot rack, and I feel like sometimes they're overlooked in spaces, and they really can add a great amount of, first of all, vertical storage, but also visual interest, because in my kitchen, for example, the pot rack kind of replaces those two upper cabinets, like what was in those upper cabinets essentially can now live on the pot rack, and it's serving, like, both a functional and also beautiful purpose, which I love. We love form and function. That's the great thing about it. I'm able to hang pots that I do actually use for cooking, but I also have, like, a little candelabra hanging on here that goes back to the style of my home, and just some additional bits and elements that you can add to your pot rack that overall just adds the cutest little charm, and you can find so many great pot rack options on Etsy. That's exactly where I got mine, so even if it's not on a backsplash, even if you have an empty wall, consider adding a pot rack there and hanging some pots, some spoons, a dish towel. This is just a great way to add some visual interest, but also some functional interest as well. If you watched the office makeover that I did for my manager, we actually ended up converting one of the can lights into a pendant light, and I did not know this was a thing until Justin told me about it, and I just have to let you all know about it. I mean, I did let you know in that video, but you can actually convert any just simple can ceiling light so easily and simply into a full-on pendant light, and it's actually just like a $10 kit that you could buy at the store, but if you pull it off, essentially a can light is kind of like a can shape, and then there's just a bulb screwed into it, so what you get is you get the bulb that screws in, but instead of it being a bulb, it's two wires that come off, and you actually connect your pendant to that, and then you mount a bracket across the top of it, and you're able to hang a light, so this is actually great for people that might have a bunch of can lights in their kitchen, or one over the sink, one over the island, anywhere that can add like a prominent focal point, consider adding a pendant light, and sometimes that could be missed, and you might think that it will be a expensive kind of change or fix to add one, but it definitely is not. Even if it's not in the kitchen, wherever you have a can light, you can always change it to a pendant light really easily. Still sticking on the realm of lighting, this is kind of about mood lighting in the kitchen, and something that I absolutely love in a kitchen, and I feel like a bunch of designers do, and has kind of become more of a common trend that you see in kitchens nowadays, having some form of mood lighting, whether it be some sconces, or a little lamp, or something, and I really love mood lighting myself, because at night time, we just turn the lamp on the kitchen, and it's like you can walk in and out, you can flow in and out, and it just creates this ambiance, and this vibe. It's just really comforting, and a warm glow is always nice, so a lamp in the kitchen is something to not overlook, and you could just do a simple small one from like Facebook Marketplace, or if you do have the option to install some sconces throughout the kitchen, that's another way to free up counter space if you still want kind of that mood lighting element. We are on to our eighth tip here, and this one is one that you might have seen me do in my windows throughout the entire home so far. I've been adding these pieces, which some people call them mullions, some people call them muntins. I've heard of them called both. Now, I actually purchased these off of Etsy, and I'm sure you can actually create them yourself, but the reason I love getting them off Etsy is because you can give them like direct dimensions, and they actually laser cut them out, and what it is is an insert for your window or your glass cabinet door, your china cabinet. You can use these anywhere that kind of has a glass panel, and you can turn it into what looks more like panes or just a vintage style window. I actually have two different styles throughout my home. I have diamonds in the kitchen area, and I love the way the diamonds kind of just make this kitchen feel so much more authentic and original, and then in my living room and office area and all the other windows throughout the house are just simple kind of four-pane windows or a two-by-four grid, if that makes sense, and I love just how you can add these into your windows in your space. So, consider adding them to your kitchen windows, even kitchen cabinets that have glass in them if you want to update them a little bit or give them a different look. It's just an additional element that I feel like is nice to know about. Our second to last tip is for anyone that has hinges on the outside of their cabinets. Now, if you have inset cabinets, you are very, very lucky. I, when I purchased this home, they had just put an inset cabinetry in the top, which I'm so, so thankful for. In the bottom unit down here, it's all just exposed hinge cabinetry, like what I'm talking about in this video, and that is where the hinges are on the outside of the cabinets, and I really feel like this just totally dates your cabinetry. You can just convert them to inner hinges that actually mount on the inside of the door, and I think you just get this little router attachment or like a drill attachment that drills the holes. Then you put the hinges on the inside, and then you just attach them back to the door, and it kind of swings open from the inside. It's just reducing the visual mechanism of the actual hinge that kind of makes it just feel a little bit more seamless. And my last and final tip is for people that kind of want to maintain that designer-looking kitchen. This is about kind of keeping appliances hidden away or creating an appliance garage if you have that option. I probably could have found a way to do an appliance garage somewhere. However, I really needed as much space as I was able to utilize in here, so I didn't want to have to either get rid of counter space to create this because there was just a minimal amount in the kitchen already. So an appliance garage is essentially where you create this area that you can actually pull up or slide open. You can even do it inside of cabinetry. So we have our microwave and our toaster oven kind of hidden away in cabinetry currently, which gives a more clean and cohesive look. Now, when we actually use them, we just make sure the cabinet doors are open so there's ventilation throughout. You're not going to want to close them and kind of lock them inside. But yes, just something to keep in mind. Now, I do know there are pretty appliances out there, so if you have some pretty appliances, you know, keep those on display if you'd like to. But if you are someone that has them just kind of visually out and they aren't the most appealing to you, then that's just a consideration to make. And those are my 10 hacks on how to update your kitchen and just overall make it feel more expensive, more luxe. And of course, these are not things you have to do all at once. These are just things that I want you guys to keep in mind if you are doing a kitchen reno. You're about to do an update to your space, doing a little rework, whatever it might be. These are just nice things to know. I want to thank you all so much for watching today's video. And if you have any additional hacks or tips on how to update your kitchen, please leave them in the comment section below. And do not forget to check out today's video sponsor, which is Ritual. You should definitely try their Symbiotic Plus if you have not. It really is a great product. And if you have not already subscribed to my channel, make sure to do so by clicking that red subscribe button and turning the bell icon on next to it. That way you are notified when I upload new videos. And I will catch you all in my next one. Bye!