INSIDE : Get an inside look into renovating a kitchen for less. Find tips and tricks to save money while getting a high end look.
Before I started blogging and sharing our crazy home DIY’s with the internet world… we took our kitchen from 1970’s scary to, well… better. I’ve been debating painting the walls a new color as we’ve been done with our kitchen for about three years (so clearly I’m ready for some updating).
Painting a room is such a great and inexpensive way to give a little facelift without breaking the bank. As I start mulling over new color ideas, I thought I’d share a bit of our kitchen journey with you all.
Welcome to a new mini series I’m calling:
How to get a high end looking kitchen for a low end price!
A little back story:
Let’s rewind three years ago. The husband and I were expecting our first baby and as any normal couple who are preparing to take on that huge responsibility of parenthood and make major life changes would do… we decided it would be an ideal time to completely gut and renovate our kitchen.
This was previously our kitchen for many years (5+ years). This picture below was taken shortly after we moved in. Sometimes I wonder why we bought this house when I look back at the early pictures – ha.
We saw the potential but now all I see is a lot of dark, original to the house, cabinetry. Ridiculous fake butcher block counter tops, odd textured stripe wall paper and a single large florescent light overhead. Wow.
Not a lot of sunshine going on in this room.
Steps for creating a high end looking kitchen:
The very first step to get that high end look is to do most of the work yourself. Let me repeat, DO A LOT OF THE WORK YOURSELF.
One night when the husband was gone for a few days on travel and I grabbed a paint scrapper and decided to go to take down our awful wallpaper. Once I removed the wall paper, there was quite a bit of glue, bare drywall and a few spots of mold. Obviously, we took care of the mold areas, but the bare drywall look was left like this for quite some time. We even hosted my family for Thanksgiving while the entire kitchen was scraped down and definitely not looking nice.
Part of getting a high end look for less, is being okay with getting your end product in time and not all at once. (I was clearly not pregnant when we started this lovely update.)
Have you done a kitchen remodel yourself? Was it a multi-year process like ours? I’d love to hear your kitchen stories.
Turned out so amazing Amy! I can only hope that ours turns out so well when we finally tackle it. Did you know I featured you at Work it Wednesday too last week? Shared this again today:)
It looks SOOOO GOOD Amy, seriously amazing transformation. I love seeing the pictures and progress you guys have done and am excited to find out how you opened it up. So many people would love to know how to do that, I am one of them!
Sonnet @ Sohosonnet
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Congrats! You are featured on this week’s Do Tell Tuesday link party and have been pinned to our features board! Feel free to grab a button and link up this week too. 🙂 http://www.vintagezest.com/2014/02/do-tell-tuesday-12-with-features-co.html
Diane @ Vintage Zest
The transformation is great! I’m all about doing renovations on a low budget.
Funny! Our cabinets are a light oak, only 7 years old and I find myself saying “why did we choose that”?! I hope you share how you refinished yours, I’m planning to paint ours this Spring!
Wow!! What a wonderful transformation, Amy! I love how you got the look without the price tag! You rock, girl!!!!!
Thanks for sharing at Project Inspire{d}!!
I love this so much, you’ve been featured on The DIY’ers today! http://homecomingmn.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-diyers-51.html
I love how your kitchen came out! Love the back splash behind the stove. The whole thing looks great! Thanks so much for linking up to Sunday Best. 🙂 XO
I LOVE the paint color! Your kitchen is gorgeous and it’s such a huge improvement overall. I haven’t done any renovating of any kind ever, but I already learned just from apartment living NOT to rush the designing process. Ever.
The before and after is stunning and I can’t wait to read more about the transformation process!
Oh I so need all of your tips! Our kitchen is my least favorite room in our house, and I am stuck when it comes to figuring out how to improve it. Can’t wait to see the rest of the series! Have great weekend!
~Abby =)
Wow what a wonderful transformation!! I love everything about it!
Love the honest story behind it all!
We are remodeling a bathroom now and then the kitchen. It seems like it can take forever during the process. lol I can’t wait to hear more.Theresa @DearCreatives
We’re looking to do something to our kitchen this year. I’m excited to see the process you went through!
First of all-what a huge difference you made! Your new kitchen is light, bright, and airy. Way to go! Thanks for sharing at Fridays Unfolded!
Alison
Nancherrow
Looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful kitchen.
Looking forward to seeing more about this kitchen update. 🙂
Can’t wait to see how you worked some Kitchen Magic!
This is so true – we have done many transformations…..on the “cheap”…….and oh, what a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment comes from all of the hard work! Yours looks GREAT! Thank you for sharing it. Gentle Joy
What a great transformation! It was so dark before, but now it is lovely! Thanks for sharing at The Makers.
Great before and afters following your progress steps! I look forward to seeing more! Yes, we have done a complete kitchen gut — not on our current home, but the previous one. We were “all in” on ours and did the entire thing at once. It took about three months from start to finish. Hubby (and his trusty but weak-armed assistant, ME) did most of the work ourselves, but we had new cabinetry and hardwood floors installed by professionals. We’ve done some slightly major things on our current kitchen & may do a cabinet redo in the future.
We are going to do our kitchen this year (at least that’s the plan…) so I look forward to reading more about your process- it turned out beautifully. We had EXACTLY those dark panelled cabinets in our previous house- we painted ours white but seeing yours gives me major flashbacks!!
Oh those dark cabinets… I’m so happy to see them gone, ha! Good luck with your kitchen!
I love the difference between the original and the “new”!
Wow! What a difference! I love it! This definitely doesn’t look like a frugal update–it looks like a full on renovation!
Certainly not frugal, but amazing how we were able to buy things at Costco or Amazon and save TONS of money!
Wow! Your kitchen looks fabulous! It’s amazing what a lot of elbow grease, some white paint and backsplash tiles can do to really transform a space. Great job!
Thanks so much, Sharon! It was a TON of work, but so worth all the effort.
Great before and after! We’re thinking about buying a new (to us) home in the next year or so, and as we’ve been looking at homes we’ve been saying things like, “Of course, we will have to completely re-do this kitchen” like its no big deal. Haha… Too bad it doesn’t just work like that because I struggle with that patience thing a bit.
Thanks! It always always seems easier to DIY a room than to REALLY DIY a room and kitchens are one of the worst! Good luck in your house hunting!
I’m excited to relive this amazing renovation with you. I LOVE the transformation!
Thanks so much, Shelley. I’m still shocked when I see the kitchen we started with!