Welcome back for Part II of my $1000 Kitchen Mini Remodel! If you missed Part I find it HERE, and see the first five mini steps I used to makeover my kitchen. I was lucky that the kitchen had a good size and a good layout, the previous homeowners had even painted the cabinets. But it was just a bit too plain, so I wanted to jazz it up without spending a fortune. Someday we are going to rip it all out and build our dream kitchen, but I know that is still a few years away. So I wanted to warm up the space so I could enjoy it in the meantime.
Here is what we started with:
I will tell you I am just DYING to rip out our floors, but I knew that wasn’t a possibility for a few years, so I had to work with what I had! See how everything is just very PLAIN and WHITE? Without doing any major remodeling, and keeping all of the main items (cabinets, countertops, flooring, etc.) in place, we still updated the space and gave it the facelift it so needed.
Find Steps 1-5 HERE, where we added moldings and trims, created a backsplash for less than $35, and added a custom glazed finish to all of the cabinets for $5 with my tutorial.
So let’s see how the next 5 Steps added some life back into our kitchen:
MINI REMODEL STEP #6: Add in some distressed wood to add warmth
The old homeowners must have been collecters because I removed 24 glass shelves upon moving in! It was that or start a porcelain doll collection. So as part of the purge I removed the glass shelves in the kitchen too. Instead I went to Lowes, had them cut a couple of pieces of rough 2×6 lumber to the correct size (this is a free service, you just have to ask!). Then, I banged them up with a hammer and nails, and stained the shelves (using the leftover stain from when I glazed the cabinets). I made four new distressed barnwood look-alike shelves for less than $20 (I put two in our bar area, not shown)!
I’m not a collector, in fact I only have one real collection, and it’s my white cake plates collection. I started it after my sister’s wedding when she gave me one of the cake platters from her wedding dessert buffet as a bridesmaid gift. And from then, the collection grew! So when I had my new shelves, I knew just where to put them.
MINI REMODEL STEP #7: Add a wine rack to a gap in cabinetry
Upon taking out a beautiful, but sadly broken, Subzero fridge, we were left with a large space above our new fridge. It looked more than strange, but I didn’t want to try to match the door style with a new cabinet. Being a red wine kind of gal, there was only one answer…a new wine cabinet! I had our carpenter build a custom sized cabinet to slide into the opening and now we have a new home for our favorite bottles.
MINI REMODEL STEP #8: Update the plumbing
I swapped out the faucet. The old one wasn’t horrible but when it finally broke you didn’t have to ask me twice to find a new one! Our new one is chrome beauty with a little more sass than than it’s old counterpart. There are some advantages to owning your own remodeling company, and one of them was when our favorite plumbing store Ferguesons gave us ours for free! I think retail this one will set you back just over $200, from Mirabelle. We did keep the existing stainless steel sink, which is still in great shape.
MINI REMODEL STEP #9: Add some artwork: My “Wall of Gluten”
In the kitchen, there was a space for a breakfast table (something we have never had before!), so we actually plopped in an old, hand-me-down table from my hubby’s parents. He actually grew up eating on this 30+ year old table, so we thought it was fitting our kids would be eating their Wheaties here too! But the walls looked VERY blank. It took me awhile to figure out what to do with this space. I wanted to have some fun with it, so I created this bread themed gallery wall. The Hubs calls it my “Wall of Gluten”. I like that! I found this gorgeous artwork free online, sadly I never could come up with the name of the artist to give them credit. I had each picture printed onto white cardstock, then I framed them in inexpensive black frames. I spent less than $50 for the whole wall!
MINI REMODEL STEP #10: Add in a Hood
This was the BEFORE look for our cook top. Completely boring.
I saved the best for last. This hands-down was my favorite kitchen addition. I had a beautiful new faux hood built. Upon moving in, the area above the range was covered with fake tin. My curiosity finally took over at about 11:00 PM one night when my hubby was out of town. I peeled it off to find custom tile with hand-painted pictures of dead fish and game hanging from a branch. True story. In my kitchen. So that I didn’t have to explain THAT one to my children, I promptly tore it out. Along with chunks of drywall.
(What?! Who puts this in their kitchen?)
What to do? Build a custom hood. However, it is complexly fake. My existing range came with a downdraft system so there is no fan inside of my new hood. But no one needs to know that. I simply sketched what I wanted, and it is made mostly from plywood and molding trim, less than $100 in materials. I then painted and stained it to match the rest of the cabinets, so it looks like it was always meant to be.
Here is the “before” and “after” together so you can see the difference a $100 Faux Hood makes:
I’m a big fan of not recreating the wheel, so I found this great tutorial on how to build a faux hood cover from Nina Hendrick. She created a fabulous step-by-step tutorial on how to build on of these for yourself. I did make some adjustments to mine, but check it out-hers even has built-in storage. Genius.
So there you go, in 10 Simple Steps, and for about $1000 we created a Mini Kitchen Make-over:
Check out more of my kitchen makeovers at HERE! If you need improving your existing kitchen or if you’re planning the kitchen of your dreams, you’ve come to the right place. Check out my “Finishes Only” Package of Postbox Designs E-Design services. Great things come in small boxes.
And like always, we can hang out together at Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest-I love sharing design tips, amazing projects I covet, and my own Real Postbox Projects. Follow along, ask questions to get some free advice, or just be friends! Oh, and P.S. if you haven’t heard yet, for the month of July only save $100 on ANY Postbox!
See ya soon,
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