DIY Thrifty Kitchen Renovation

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I have shared that we are doing some home renovations right now as we are casually looking for a bigger home for our growing family. We might stay here, we might not. We’re not sure at the moment. Either way, we are doing some much needed updates. If you follow me on Facebook, you will know that a large portion of those has been a thrifty kitchen renovation. Whether it helps the house sell or just makes it nicer for us to live in, it’s good to get them done, especially the outdated, dark kitchen.

So far we have been able to keep the costs down quite a bit by DIY’ing most of the work either ourselves or with the help of knowledgeable friends and family. Thrifty home renovations can be very possible if you are willing to do the work yourself (or can bribe friends into helping you 😉 ). We also decided instead of tearing things out like we originally planned, to work with what we had. Making repairs and using paint is a lot cheaper than buying new drywall or replacing cabinets. So far the most expensive thing has been buying new trim and crown moulding. Even going the most inexpensive route and not choosing anything fancy, trim is not cheap.

Instead of trying to show you all of our renovations to date in one post, I am breaking them up by room. The first post is on our thrifty kitchen renovation.

Kitchen Renovation

When we moved in, the cabinets were an orange stained wood with black hardware and the walls were a mix of the same color wood bead board paneling and another style of paneling behind the sink. The one drywalled wall was covered in this purply red sponge paint looking wallpaper topped with a poorly applied apple wallpaper border at the top. Most of the outlets and switches were black with ivory plates.

We updated the cabinets with white paint and I spray painted all the hardware silver. The paneling behind the sink was replaced with bead board to match the rest of the kitchen then all the bead board was painted blue. I originally wanted to take down all the bead board except for the back splash but this way was much faster and easier.

The wallpapered wall was originally stripped but the drywall behind it was in terrible condition. It was replaced and painted it the same blue as the rest of the kitchen. We still need to finish up some trim work and I have new curtains to make. The trim is purchased, it just needs to be stained and installed. But other than that, the kitchen is done.

Before:

After:

Cost Breakdown:

Paint and primer– $30

Drywall– $20

Bead board– $20

Trim– $25

Switches/outlets/plates– $10

Total cost– $105

When we first moved in 6 years ago, we had to replace the faucet ($100) and the dishwasher ($200). If you include those two things, we have spent $405 on the kitchen renovation so far. I would really like the replace the light over the sink and, if we stay here, the floor. If I get those two things done, I hope to get the whole renovation done for less than $600.

 

We have also recently done work on the bathroom and hallway. In the past we years we have done some work on the bedrooms and will be doing some more work in the big downstairs bedroom. We need to split it into a true storage room and a bedroom if we stay in this house. Without that, we have no place for two children. We also will have some outside work to do like updating the deck and building a new shed out back.