Somehow, once the rush of Christmas is over, we have time on our hands. But usually at this time of the year, it has to be indoor time, so how about a low-key face lift for your place, specifically to 'brighten' your kitchen?

Even if you are on a limited budget (like most of us after Christmas!) there are still ways to improve and really brighten up your kitchen. The biggest way to change the look of a kitchen (and give yourself an instant psychological lift) is to change the color scheme. Certain colors are known to give a cheery boost, particularly yellows, oranges, turquoises and pinks.

Now this need not mean change all your kitchen cabinets and appliances. You will have to work around the expensive items if you are on a budget. These days, most of us have replaced the avocado green stoves and mustard yellow fridges with white or almond appliances, and these neutral colors are easy to incorporate into most color schemes.

Before we get started, a word about kitchen cabinets, the two most popular choices are wood doors or laminate doors - usually white or cream. Ideally, for the sake of your wallet, you will want to stick with what you have got. Ensure that your choice of paintwork will complement the specific color of your wooden cabinet doors.

Kitchen cupboards are a very expensive outlay which can be cleverly avoided in most cases. They can be painted or revamped using an intense color stain gel. Also, many companies advertise that they will replace your cabinet doors (ONLY doors) for a very modest fee.

If you feel you have to have new doors, this is the most reasonable option. These new kitchen cabinet door fronts can be as reasonable a $20.00, although an oak door can start nearer to $30.00. This idea will considerably lower the cost of a new look for your kitchen.

However, this is about brightening up, not renovating, so back to the prime mood changer of your kitchen - the color. If you paint all the walls in one color, be sure that the color is not too intense. Four walls that are intensely or darkly colored will appear to reduce the size of your room.

If you want intense color, try to put it on one wall, preferably the wall that houses the window. This is because that wall will not reflect any light coming into the kitchen from that window.

As white walls or very pale walls will reflect the most incoming daylight, the direction of the sunlight should be taken into account if you are a 'natural light' buff!

If you have no sunlight coming into your kitchen, then be sure that your artificial lighting picks up on pale areas. Small under-the-cabinet fluorescent lights can be bought very cheaply, and are also extremely easy to install.

Another way to brighten your kitchen if you have no natural light is to hang a string of colored lights, perhaps along the top of your kitchen cabinets. These will not give light but will give an atmospheric glow.

Strings of little lights can be found these days in red or green chili peppers, or baby yellow pumpkins, of course, you can only add these if they go with your color scheme, or otherwise you are stuck with the cream-colored baby garlic bulb lights!

It is probably under $100.00. to treat yourself to a quick coat or two of paint, some inexpensive lighting and perhaps new drapes or blinds. If you feel really extravagant you can buy a new set of kitchen canisters, or paint the spice rack to match and feel cheery in your kitchen, even on a gray day!

By Eric Badgley - Eric specializes in Bellingham WA real estate. If you're looking for Bellingham condos for sale, visit Eric at www.bellingham-realestate.net