How to Remodel Your Kitchen in the Cheapest Way
A full scale kitchen renovation can take months of labor and tens of thousands of dollars or more. But giving your kitchen a little refresh doesn’t have to take all that work and all your money. While you are saving up for the big kitchen interior work, there are some subtle and inexpensive changes you can make that will help bring your kitchen into the current decade. Here’s how.
Refresh your kitchen lighting
Antiquated kitchen lighting can make even the most modern kitchen look gray. Unfortunately, changing the wiring is probably not an option on a budget, but you can change the lighting style easily and affordably. Try installing a pendant light with a decorative shade. Hanging pendant lights are an affordable way to brighten up your space without inducing electricity.
You can also replace your current lighting cover with something more modern. If you have fluorescent lighting and can’t afford the $ 300 price tag to remove it, there are upgrade options available . You can replace fluorescent lamps with LEDs, for example, to save energy and refresh the look of your kitchen.
Rotate cabinets
Restyling your cabinets sounds like a lot of work, but it can be as simple as a fresh coat of paint or new hardware. In fact, if the cabinet doors themselves are in decent shape, a combination of the two can create the illusion that you’ve wasted money on all new cabinets.
For a real look, choose a bold, modern color like navy or matcha . When it comes to knobs and handles, brass and gold are popular now and are an economical way to update the look of your kitchen. If you want to keep your old equipment (and spend even less money), buy yourself a good can of paint to turn that silver into gold.
Add a decorative wall and an apron
If you’ve only done one thing in the kitchen, so be it: create a decorative wall that will distract everyone from your tired cabinets and incompatible appliances. There are several ways to do this.
Consider a peel and stick apron
Decorative panels are often used to create a striking accent in the kitchen, but hiring professionals to install real tiles can be costly. Consider the “peel and glue” option instead.
You might be inclined to dismiss the clean and stick option as being too cheap, but these tiles have actually come a long way. This one, for example, looks like a real subway tile and costs about $ 10 per square foot. Some are even made of real stainless steel or aluminum, which will cost a little higher at around $ 16 per square foot, but they go a long way in retrofitting an outdated space.
If you have an old tile backsplash, you can also paint over it instead of ripping out and replacing it.
Paint accent wall
Painting your kitchen is one of the easiest ways to breathe new life into your kitchen space. Make sure you use semi-gloss paint to withstand the heat, splashes and spills that can inevitably occur indoors. And of course, you can freshen up your entire kitchen – either you can choose just one wall to accentuate it with a bold color, or create a pattern with masking tape .
Use wallpaper as background and accent
With hundreds of fun patterns and styles, vinyl wallpaper can be a good choice for wall or apron decoration in your kitchen. Even at the price of just $ 24 per roll , you can express yourself.
Replace that old faucet
If you’ve made a bunch of these small upgrades and still have a bit of wiggle room on your budget, you should probably replace that old faucet. Start by determining which faucet is right for your current sink (unless you want to completely replace the sink, but now the work becomes costly). Faucets can cost over $ 300, but there are some good intermediate options that will only set you back around $ 100-150.