What's an easy, inexpensive way to update/reface our kitchen cabinets?

The easiest is changing the cabinet hardware, though painting the cabinets makes for a more dramatic change.

Hi Carol, They make paint for exactly this purpose. You could also make it look like wood grain using a specific tool. You could also try glazing them. I suggest talking to a paint pro for more advice on that. Good luck.

Make sure they are clean and dry. Use acrylic latex paint. Remove the doors and hardware. Mark the doors and cabinets with tape where they go. Lightly sand the doors and cabinets to remove any gloss and roughen the surface for paint. Prime with a stain blocking primer like Zinsser 123, KILZ,or BIN. Then paint with your color. Seal with at least three coats with a water based polyurethane. Use a small foam roller and foam brush for a smooth finish.

You can also hire it out, we saw our neighbor's kitchen redone with just cabinet refacing- they kept the cabinets but stained them a new color and put all new doors on. Wasn't crazy expensive.

We did our kitchen, from ugly brown to high gloss white. Took all the doors off and changed the color of the hardware. We painted, and rehung the doors, paint them flat to avoid streaks and paint globs. Good Luck!