Kitchen Transformations on a Budget

We all watch HGTV and dream of having that $20,000 even $40,000 brand new, shiny kitchen. It consists of all new cabinets, new flooring, expensive counter tops, and high end appliances. Sure it looks fabulous and everyone would love this “picture perfect, straight out of a magazine” kitchen, but is it truly necessary?

This was what the kitchen looked like in our previous flip:

It was dark and dingy to say the least. However, I was able to look past the ugly cabinets, dated hardware, linoleum patterned floors, low ceilings, and walls the color of urine. It really had great potential. You may think I am crazy but with some serious sweat equity, this kitchen transformation was completed for just a few hundred dollars plus the cost of “new” appliances.

Here is how we did it…

1. Ceiling

The ceiling in the kitchen was lower than any other ceiling in the house. It was obvious that it was a drop ceiling that was added later. When I was looking at the house, I climbed on the counter and moved one of the panels over to investigate. What did I find? A gorgeous ceiling with very minor cracking! However, the intensity of work to pull down that ceiling was more than we expected. Whoever put that ceiling up, put it there to STAY! Once all the panels and beams were successfully removed, my dad was amazing (as usual) and spent an afternoon there spackling all the screw holes and plaster damage from the take down. Then with a little sanding and 3 coats of paint, we had beautiful 9 ft ceilings.

2. Flooring

The best part of renovating old homes is peeling back the flooring layer by layer in hopes of unearthing beautiful, original hard wood. I have no idea why people would cover up these gorgeous floors, but I sure love restoring them! Not only do they look amazing, but they add value to your home. I will always choose original hardwood over anything that can be purchased from a big box store!

3. Cabinets

At first glance, you may look at cabinets and think, “Ugh. Those cabinets are SO ugly! Rip them out!” Well just wait a minute. Are the cabinets in good condition? Do they close? Again, they just need a little TLC. If the cabinets are wood, they most likely have a finish on them that you cannot just paint over them. Without the proper prep and tools, your cabinets WILL be ugly! We took all of the cupboard doors and drawers off and gave them a light sanding just to “rough them up” enough to take on paint. We did the same to the casings. Once we were done sanding, we wiped them down and they were ready for paint. We rented a paint sprayer for the cupboards and drawers and then hand painted three coats on the casings. With the addition of some clearanced hardware, “brand new” cabinets for less than $100!

4. Walls

With any old homes, plaster walls will have cracks. Then when you take down a drop ceiling, you will make the cracks worse. Along with spackling the ceiling, my dad also tackled the walls. I can’t even tell you how many hours he spent there filling all the holes and cracks, but it was well worth it. After painting the chair rail white and the walls a medium gray, it turned out beautiful.

5. Appliances

Appliances can be the wild card in your kitchen renovation cost. For this house, we obviously weren’t going to purchase top of the  line appliances. We went and got a nice set from the scratch and dent section of a local business. The imperfections were all minor and on the backs of the appliances

To complete the kitchen transformation, we hung an antique looking fixture that I scored at a big box store clearance for $4! So for less than $200, we transformed the kitchen to look like this!