Kitchen Remodel on A Budget!

6 Materials
$800
1 Week
Medium
Earlier this year I went "back home" and helped remodel the kitchen in the home I grew up in. My brother currently lives in the house with his brand new baby! Since they had their hands full, my mom and I went to help after they had a water heater mishap. The water heater flooded the house and ruined the floors in the kitchen. We thought this would be the prefect time to do a budget remodel! While they would love to gut the kitchen and get all new cabinets - that simply wasn't in the budget! Instead we updated the old kitchen cabinets, added some paint, and replaced those floors!
One of the hardest parts was tearing up that yucky old floor. Man was this stuff STUCK!
The old cabinet doors were in good shape, they just looked dated with that 70s design on the front. We sanded them down really well and stripped off the glossy finish, etc.
We then filled in the designs with wood filler. My brother does auto body work so he was REALLY good with that putty knife!
After the designs were filled in, we framed out the doors for a more modern look. This was a bit pricey as the trim alone cost over $100 dollars but it was much cheaper than replacing the doors! (You can get all the details as well as a tutorial on doing this from my blog - the link is at the bottom of this post!)
We also added new peel and stick backsplash (you can get all the details as well as a tutorial on doing this from my blog - the link is at the bottom of this post!)
My mom wanted us to stick with a darker color on the cabinets (I would have loved to paint them white!!) because there's now a little boy living in the house. These won't show dirty from little hands as badly!
You can see a TON more photos as well as detailed information on everything we used in the project (with separate tutorials for each one!) on my blog!
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Amber Oliver
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  3 questions
  • Donna Emerick Trainor Donna Emerick Trainor on Nov 13, 2017

    Did you just paint the cabinets with a brush from Morgan Sage?

  • Barbara Barbara on Nov 13, 2017

    How did you finish off the exposed edges of the peel n stick backsplash?

  • War23876331 War23876331 on Nov 19, 2017

    the first photo with the old cabinets has a wood floor... did you not take a photo before putting down the new flooring just wondering the whole kitchen looks great

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  • Robyn.reviere Robyn.reviere on Jul 26, 2018

    The cabinets look excellent, however the microwave is too close to the stove and a safety hazard. There is a new half sized microwave on the market and it may be a good investment to save for this item. Other than that kudos for a job well done.

    • Robyn.reviere Robyn.reviere on Jul 26, 2018

      PS if it were only an inch or two it wouldn't matter but the National Kitchen and Bath Association recommends: 18. Cooking Surface Clearance: Allow 24 inches of clearance between the cooking surface and a protected noncombustible surface [e.g., a range hood] above it. At least 30 inches of clearance is required between the cooking surface and an unprotected/combustible surface [e.g., cabinetry] above it. If a microwave hood is used, then the manufacturer's specifications should be followed.

  • Donna Wise Donna Wise on Jul 26, 2018

    What a difference a little update can make!! You did a great job! I've done all of this work before (without the luxury of someone telling me how) so I'm pretty familiar with it all. But, I have never installed the peel and stick backsplash, which is something I have been wanting to do in my kitchen forever! I will head to your blog to see how hard it is. I am eventually going to redo my island also . . somehow. Oh, and I'll be needing your brother . . lol. I'm terrible with any kind of putty . . yikes! Thanks for sharing your talent!!

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