DIY Kitchen on a budget: Before & After (part 1)

Back in the Summer, my husband and I moved into our house with our son. The process was a long one. The housing market in the Greater Toronto Area is HOT and the challenges of finding a house without going into bidding wars was intense. But, long nine months later we finally found a diamond in the rough. The house itself was in great condition structurally and in reality only needed a good scrub down and cosmetic work. Originally, our thought process was to tear down the kitchen and remove a wall that leads to the living room. But, after pricing out a new kitchen and construction we decided best to wait five years. And, I am so glad I decided to wait it out. Honestly, the best advice I have for anyone thinking of doing major renos on a new house is to wait it out. Get a feel for how you live in the house and the flow. Also, cosmetic changes are so easy to do if you have the patience and foresight. Plus, if you're on a budget it's the friendliest on your wallet.
Grab a paint brush and pick your paint colours! Because paint is your biggest friend.
So here's the before...this is move in day.

And the after...

Here's the breakdown:

• prime and paint cabinets (roughly under $300 that includes a few paint shade mistakes & brushes)
• paint for the walls ($20 on sale)
• cabinet hardware (bought a value pack of five from Home Depot $60)
• appliances (obviously not a budget find however I'm not including their price in the final because the point is that you can do a kitchen if you already have appliances. In our purchase of the house we didn't want the original appliances as they weren't in the best condition)
• countertops (painted professionally by Countertop Makeovers $600) if you've never painted a countertop I highly suggest you higher a professional. Perhaps you're thinking for that price you could install a new countertop. Maybe, but once you factor in the labour and that ripping out the countertop can tear the drywall and backsplash it turns into a bigger job)
• stick-on backsplash (Yes, that's a stick on subway tile backsplash by Smart Tiles highly recommend this option if you're planning to tear down the kitchen in the future anyway and can't live with your pre-existing tiles and/or you live in a rental unit, price $ graciously offered for review)
• FINAL $990 (all numbers are approximate as I didn't total the exact amount on the receipts)

So, $990 might not be in everyone's budget. However considering my dream kitchen will cost close to $20,000 this was a do-able project. Of course, if your budget is really small you can eliminate doing the countertop professionally and try to work with what you have or paint it yourself.
In my next post, How to Paint you Kitchen (part 2), I will go into detail on how you can also do it yourself and which paint colours I used.
The third post, How to do your backsplash on a Budget (part 3), I'll show you how I installed my backsplash plus tips.

Hope you enjoyed the first part of this series. And let me know if you've ever tackled any DIY's at home.

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