A great way to update your kitchen without spending heavily on a full redesign is to add new kitchen cabinet doors.
If you're planning to install new kitchen cabinet doors, as opposed to an entirely new cabinet set, the main structure of your cabinets will stay in place, so you'll still save on costs for demolition and construction. And you'll have less DIY labor to worry about, since you'll just be removing the existing doors and replacing them with new ones. But you'll still have plenty to decide on with regard to materials, styles and colors.
In terms of materials for new kitchen cabinet doors, it's likely you'll want the cabinets themselves to be your guide, but this isn't necessarily a requirement. If you've decided to switch materials for your cabinet doors, you can refinish the cabinets to match the doors. But in most cases you'll want the door materials to match the cabinets, in which case you'll be working with one of various woods, wood veneers or laminate materials.
You'll have a range of options to consider when it comes to materials, among them cost, durability and availability. Many of the popular woods used for kitchen cabinet doors are widely available and affordable. Higher-end or exotic woods like cherry, mahogany and ebony are more expensive and can be harder to come by. Laminate and stainless steel are also options for new kitchen cabinet doors, and these two materials are most often used in more modern-leaning kitchen designs.