how can I decorate wooden cabinets without painting?

I want to decorate brown wooden cabinets without painting - they need color and patterns desperately. This is a rental apartment.

Public Comments

1. you could always replace the hardware. just make sure you take your good hardware with you when you move.
2. Since you rent, it has to be simple and easy to remove. Stick on appliques of your favorite fruit, animal, or whatever work well. You can find them at most craft stores, home stores, and discount stores in the home or craft sections. Some are a plastic/rubber material that peels off with little effort yet stick well to wood. You can also buy contact paper( like for lining cabinets) in a fancy bold pattern you like, and cut out pieces to stick to the doors. Cover part of the doors, the whole sides, or make your own pattern with multiple types. Change out the knobs to something more decorative and colorful or that you like. Try solid bold colored ceramic knobs like red, green, yellow, and blue, but mismatch them on different doors. Or just border the top of the kitchen wall with wallpaper border to draw the eye away from the cabinets completely.
3. What condition are they in? New hardware works wonders as well as a good cleaning, like using Scotts Liquid Gold on them.
4. You can starch fabric to them and then peel it off without damage once you move. Simply cut out designs or panels that fit the cabinet fronts, soak them in liquid starch, smooth on and remove bubbles with a credit card or putty knife and allow to dry. You could also embellish them by applying wooden embellishments (usually found in the molding department in the home improvement centers). You can paint the embellishments any color you like and attach them to the cabinets with removable mounting tape sold by 3M.