A Budget Kitchen Makeover
Categories: Decorating, Kitchen, Your Home, Projects
Before 
Photo: Country Living
After 
Photo: Country Living
Here's what you can learn from Country Living's clever and cost-saving kitchen renovation.
1. Keep the layout the same
As soon as you start moving the position of gas and plumbing lines the higher your bills will climb.
2. White is right
For kitchens and baths, white is always a foolproof choice -- it looks clean and it makes tight spaces seem more spacious. Plus, it's always a safe color for resale purposes down the road.
Photo: Country Living
If you're blessed with real wood cabinetry, keep them, but replace tired-looking countertops. Here the fresh Vermont soapstone countertops were cut to fit the existing cabinetry and are a major upgrade to the hokey laminate that preceded it.
4. Revive old cabinets.
The owners gave the old cabinets a new life with a fresh coat of paint and new glass-paned doors on the upper cabinets.
5. Fake the details
The addition of crown moldings and designer-looking hardware give the basic kitchen cabinets a high-end look at a minimal cost.
6. Match the architecture of the house
Instead of trying to cram a sleek, modern kitchen into an older, Tudor-style house, the homeowners were true to the house's era.
Photo: Country Living
While cork isn't much less expensive per square foot than other flooring options, the homeowners were able to lay the cork tiles themselves, saving them big bucks on installation costs.
8. Think outside the box
It would have been pricey to remove an old ironing board cabinet and re-drywall the surrounding wall, but rather than let the space go to waste, the homeowners fit shelves into the space to create a spice rack.
Photos: IKEA, Schoolhouse Electric, Crate & Barrel, Container Store, Offi
By opting for clear glass, stainless steel and other neutral pieces, the homeowners can change their colorsheme with textiles or wall paint and not have to replace everything else to match.
OFFI Jim Stool 30, $299, DesignPublic.com
Westmount fixture and Opal Glass shade, $85 and $55, School House Electric
Grundtal wall shelf, $15, IKEA
Jars with Lids, $10 to $20, Crate & Barrel
Chrome Teardrop Paper Towel Holder, $20, Container Store
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Laura DirectBuy 2-09-2010 @ 1:58PM
I love this renovation! The white is beautiful and the floors are simply stunning. Doing a renovation like this yourself cannot only be satisfying but also cost-effective! These are some great tips, although I would probably replace cabinets.... :)
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Juanita 2-09-2010 @ 5:26PM
I have never understood the 'white" cabinet thing. When we were house hunting we automatically excluded any "white" kitchen cabinets. And we really have never understood painting wood....just a travesty IMO. They always look "institutional" to me. Oh well, different strokes different folks
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Andrea 2-09-2010 @ 6:35PM
Completely agree with you on the white cabinets. The only thing worse than laminate white cabinets are those that someone painted themselves.
hijacks 2-09-2010 @ 7:00PM
Not if you paint the cabinets a soft creamy shade of white...
then it wouldn't look institutional.....!!!!
Wood is not God 2-09-2010 @ 10:18PM
You bet different strokes!
What it takes to make rotten-looking wood look decent again is probably more trouble and expense than many houses are worth. I painted my dark wood kitchen cabinets just to lighten up their color a little....hated the way they darkened the whole room!...With hunter green on the walls, it looked like a dungeon in there, when I bought the house.
hijacks 2-09-2010 @ 7:01PM
I love the way they renovated the kitchen!!!
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Holly 2-09-2010 @ 10:41PM
I liked it in general, except for the boringly ubiquitous stainless appliances and granite (or in this case, soapstone) countertops. The whole granite/stainless thing reminds me of a high school science lab or possibly a morgue. Ugh!
While white is not my absolute favorite color, it works here, and the ideas were creative and they worked.
I'd just like to see someone for ONCE have the courage to swim against all the other fish and NOT use stainless & granite (or faux-granite) in a kitchen.
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Deli 2-09-2010 @ 11:49PM
Holly, thank you! Enough already! How about some soft light wood, alder or beech, for the cabinets, or even a peachy cream on the walls? I'm SO over stainless steel appliances; they've been pushed on the consumer much too much. I'm 62 so I've seen most of the trends come & go. Some soft colors & pale woods would look divine in this kitchen.
flower 2-18-2010 @ 1:38PM
those of you who re-do your kitchen and use stainless appliances (the new "avocado green") and spend all your time rubbing off the fingerprints will wish you chose differently. Those who use granite and find out it is radioactive AND not EPA approved will wish you chose differently. Even the salesman said everyone buying granite will regret it. We just remodeled and made the kitchen white with white appliances and laminate counters (easier to care for and doesn't look like a dead riverbed) and even the people who said they wouldn't have used white LOVE it. The accent colors set off the look and the next buyer of this house can change it in a heartbeat and not be locked in to dated unsafe materials.
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Tamieko 2-19-2010 @ 10:15AM
re doing my kitchen now and went with laminate countertops that "look like" granite but much less expensive.
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Summersethomes 2-24-2010 @ 10:27AM
I agree, I'm so over stainless apliances, we had to get new ones because our fridge was 20 years old and our stove was 15 years old I refused to get stainless so we got black instead. *my husband liked the color* I refuse to get granite!
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