How we transformed our kitchen from blah to bam! (On a budget.)

Anyone who has owned a home knows that it can be a lot of work. No, they aren’t all money pits, but even if you buy one of those “move-in-ready” jobs, there’s still upkeep. Things. No matter how much you love your home, there are always things.

And while not my first love, this house wasn’t a move-in-ready by any means either.

Don’t get me wrong, it was totally livable. All the important things were present. And, while the walls weren’t adorned with our colors, they had paint we could live with until one of us felt compelled to climb a ladder. (Note: With two young kids, that didn’t happen for YEARS!)

Once our kids grew out of their “spill everything” stage, (et-hem, elementary school) we embarked on a journey to slowly transform our home. We agreed that for now, we didn’t want to take out a home equity line, so our budget was conservative. And it needed to be practical.

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Seek out professional advice before you start

Since practicality and frugality was important here, we reached out to a real estate agent friend of ours to see what improvements gave us the biggest bang for our buck. To give you a frame of reference, our home was built in 1981 and hadn’t experienced any updates since. It has a good foundation and a great flow (thank goodness), but it was still dated.

After reviewing the queue—kitchen, loft/bedroom, bathrooms and outdoor space, the kitchen ranked #1.

HUZZAH! As a pretty legit experimenter, I’m always in the kitchen. So I was euphoric when my main space became the frontrunner. As a bonus, the footprint was large and bones were good so we could approach this strategically, making the price point ideal.

Knocking down walls sounds cool, but the price tag and the six-week-plus inconvenience that comes along with it wasn’t satiating. Plus, thanks to the WFH, SFH (school from home), stuck-in-home pandemic, the open floor-plan is falling out of favor. With everyone constantly located in the same space, we’re now all craving separate rooms in which to seek refuge.

Read more tips on whether you should remodel or revamp.

Start with the biggest visual—your cabinets

We set out to revitalize our dated kitchen. The first thing we did, was focus on the cabinets. This was a lesson in itself. We contacted a cabinet maker for an assessment. HOLY $#^%%! The price tag on new cabinets was mind blowing. It was also, as I learned, not necessary. We liked the placement of our cabinets. And we didn’t need to make any significant changes or additions. They were also real wood. BONUS!

Then we looked at cabinet refacing. This method can be around 1/2 of what it cost to replace your cabinets, and improves the visuals tremendously. However, our doors were solid and it seemed like a waste for that material to be wasted.

Never underestimate the power of makeup (or fresh paint)

After ruling out the higher-priced options of remaking and refacing, we reviewed the impact of painting them. Given that we liked our cabinet location and the material they were built with, this seemed like a great option. And while we COULD have done this ourselves and saved even more money, we hired a local professional to ensure it got done right the first time.

Since our painter had equipment we didn’t (ladders, scaffolding), we contracted him to paint our entire kitchen—walls, ceiling, trim. THE WORKS! We lived with, even embraced, the bright orange walls for almost 10 years mainly because the 13-foot loft space was too intimidating for us to tackle ourselves. So since the opportunity was here, that color was outta there!

In the end, we softened up the room considerably, painting the cabinets a milky Gray Owl and the walls Storm. Together with our LTV floors done earlier, created a modern, new-build look.

Change up the backsplash for punch

Once the cabinets and walls were painted, the backsplash started to gross me out. It had never taken a front seat before, but with all the other elements freshened up, the tile just looked drab and pathetic. Thanks to the money-savings that we did for the cabinets, we could afford to update this as well.

Again, a totally DIY-type situation that I just didn’t want to do. Figured we were already saving money on other areas by being strategic, we could work with a professional to get it done right. I also like to hire pros who are willing to give me their honest opinion. Since I new my tile guy would do that, it was a no brainer.

After a few back-and-forths, we agreed on slate. It was the warm, modern look we were going for—more unique than the subway tiles you see everywhere. In a twist, our tile guy recommend shifting the placement from horizontal to vertical, making the small space we have look larger. GENIUS. (This is why I like professionals with opinions.)

The upgrade to the tile brought the whole look together, and was quite a compliment for the cabinets.

Don’t forget the details

Once the heavy lifting is done, it’s time for the final details. That means cabinet hardware, vent grates, fixtures and wall adornments (shelving, pictures).

For these, it’s important to pick a theme and keep it constant. For us, we loved the rustic look of oil rubbed bronze so we ran with it. We changed our faucet, ceiling fan, face plates and cabinet hardware all in that same scheme. (Even though we kept the sink and counter tops (that’s next), upgrading the fixture was a simple adjustment.)

Even something as simple as changing an air conditioning vent made a difference in the overall look. (Hey, folk. I didn’t even know changing those was a thing!)

The end result blew our minds

If you’re keeping track, you’ll notice that we painted our cabinets and entire kitchen, updated our ceiling fan, changed the fixtures, hardware and vents, and upgraded our tile. From start to finish, the upgrade took 2.5 weeks and cost less than $5,000. This was the initial deposit for cabinet refacing—and 1/5 the cost of brand new cabinets. Plus, we got to do some additional upgrades (tile, ceiling fan, fixture). We also didn’t do it all ourselves, so the price could even be less for those willing to tackle it themselves.

Benefits of painting your cabinets

There are some major benefits to painting as an update for your kitchen. Painting takes maybe a week. Gutting and redoing your kitchen takes at least 6. I’m ball-parking but it’s not an in-and-out job.

Painting also is easier on the wallet, but makes a HUGE impact. Couple it with other elements like new cabinet hardware, fresh paint on the walls, ceiling and trim—plus new tile and/or countertops you’ve got yourself a fresh new look that is on or under budget. Plus, if you really want to concerve, all of these are DIY-friendly.