{Before & After} An Affordable Kitchen Makeover

This post has been a long time coming. We moved into our house three and a half years ago with the intentions of doing a little bit of work in our kitchen. While dreams of tearing down walls and granite counter tops may be far off in the distance, my husband and I found some great affordable alternatives using a kitchen renovation cost estimator to turn a bland, dated kitchen into an updated, garden-inspired breath of fresh air. With most of the major portions being done over a year ago, nothing ever seems to be “done,” which is why it has taken me awhile to post this. But the last few finishing touches have turned a once uninspiring room to a place where I could stay and cook all day.

So here are some pictures of what our kitchen looked like prior to the changes:

How about that floor? Gross. My husband and I agreed. It had to go. But first, we decided to attack the walls and cabinets. And by “we,” I mean, I did some wall painting and my husband attacked all the rest. We followed the same steps that Anne and her family used for painting kitchen cabinets and it worked fabulously. It is a lot of taping and draping, but once the process gets going it is pretty smooth sailing.Though hanging cabinets back up is not fun, especially if they were not hung correctly from the beginning.

I had a vision of a bright garden kitchen. I decided to take a huge leap and paint the walls and backsplash a bright green. We used Behr Thyme Green paint. I was a bit nervous as we started slathering it on that I was transforming my kitchen into that of an over zealous Packers fan (being an avid Bears fan, this did not sit well). As you can see from the picture below, the green paint made the kitchen look very dated when next to the old wood work and dark blinds. We fixed that later by painting all of the trim and adding bright white blinds.

After painting the walls and cabinets, next came the floor. We have a bit of a strange set up with our kitchen/den like area. Before taking up part of the carpet from the den, we got used to the idea of eating in the “other” room. We moved the table over by the small bay window. In doing that, we had room to add a kitchen cart for storage and extra counter space (and maybe some day a whole wall of extra counter). Best decision we made! It makes the kitchen look ten times bigger and allows for much more space to move around while cooking.

My dutiful husband did lots of internet research and with no prior experience, tore up the old floor and installed new laminate wood flooring. We decided to go with a dark cherry laminate. It is easy to clean, saves money and is durable with the likes of a little Bam-Bam running around.

When the big stuff was complete, I moved onto the small touches. I switched out the old curtains for airy and flowery floor length ones. I received the adorable hanging fruit plates from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law as a wedding thank you gift. Perfect little space saver for all of our fresh fruit and vegetables.

I ordered the rustic mason jar key holder from the Etsy store Old New Again. I contemplated recreating this, but loved their version so much I decided to make the purchase. I did, however, create my own chalkboard from an old window I found at a flea market, similar to Katie’s post awhile back.

My friend’s sent me the awesome donut print for my birthday, something I had “pinned” from an Etsy shop. I’m not shy about my love for donuts and this just shouts it from the rooftops, with a slight bit of subtlety. I also designed a few whimsy kitchen prints to hang on the walls. I found I liked everything better on the green when surrounded by white. Hence, the white frames and matting.

While our kitchen is likely to undergo at least some other minor changes here and there, I am pleased with my new kitchen. Look for a future post on how I am filling that blank wall by our kitchen table.

A thousand thanks to my hubby for making it happen! A happy kitchen makes a happy cook!