Kitchen Makeover on a Budget

Want to makeover your kitchen but don't have the money?  There are some simple ways to update your kitchen for pennies on the dollar!

See how outdated our kitchen was?  It made me crazy.  When we moved in we learned there had been one home insurance claim previously on our home, it was for the countertops.  The previous owners got insurance money and used it for small white tile countertops with white grout.  Seriously?  Who does that?  Word of advice - never get small tile countertops especially with white grout if you have children.  You will waste your life away scrubbing your countertops.  

Not only did I hate the countertops but I hate the builders grade oak cabinets - they just look so average to me and the white paint had been around too long.  I love having color, not just white in my house!  To top it all off see those two dining room windows?  The lack of trim around them just made them look ----  naked, boring, blah.  Our floor was also something I had wanted to replace as whoever previously installed it made sure there were gaps all through out so we would always have dirt built up in the gaps.

I finally convinced my husband we should buy a stainless steel dishwasher and microwave and that is where the kitchen model began.  After installing these we noticed the hose under the dishwasher must not be on tight because our kitchen flooded, and ruined the floor, which meant I also got to replace the flooring - luckily there was linoleum under the laminate so it didn't ruin the subfloors but the water wasn't very nice to our old laminate floor so it had to be replaced.

After replacing the laminate it was too "yellow" with those builder grade cabinets, so we refinished the cabinets with General Finishes Gel Stain (you can buy that on amazon here or if you don't want to use my affiliate link just go to Amazon and search for the product) and then we added some fairly basic cabinet hardware.

I was already liking it better but those countertops really had to go.  They had always been my least favorite part of my house.  So I convinced my husband that Granite Countertops were a necessity.

Yes, I know that all my photos have laundry baskets in the kitchen - another pet peeve with my house.  The laundry room is right by the kitchen, and not very big.  All the bedrooms are upstairs and we usually end up with laundry baskets sitting right by the kitchen - one day I will come up with a project to fix that....  but for now an updated kitchen will do!