Kitchen Reno on a Budget

Kitchen Reno showing before and after renovation from all wood cabinets to upper white cabinets and white quartz countertops.

Looking for kitchen renovation ideas? We’re doing our kitchen Reno on a budget and bringing it into the 21st century. It’s a 40 year old kitchen and it’s looking dated with the orange stained oak cabinets and sunshine ceiling from the 80’s and it’s time for a new kitchen look. Read on to see what we did for our kitchen Reno on a budget.

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With our kitchen renovation we wanted to brighten up the kitchen but still incorporate the wood look on a budget, so instead of replacing the kitchen cabinets we painted the upper cabinets white and added a different stain to the lower cabinets. We painted all the lower cabinets on the island white.

Kitchen Reno Plan

For this kitchen makeover we not only wanted to bring new life to the cabinets, we wanted to update the lighting, countertops, hardware, backsplash and remove the window valances to complete the look. Here are a couple of before pictures:

Kitchen Reno before.
Kitchen Reno before.

We removed the old breadbox from the counter as well as the kitchen backsplash. We started out by doing a light sanding on the cabinets and then tried bleaching a few for a lighter look but didn’t like the results. The look was a patchy and uneven color.

We tried stripping the old stain but an expensive stain stripper wasn’t any good and toxic to breathe and an oven cleaner did a better job but still patchy. We also found that due to the varying degrees of old stain on the cabinets, the stain removal resulted in poor results.

Kitchen Reno cabinets before renovation.

We then painted the upper cabinets with 3 coats of an eggshell finish in “Chantilly Lace” white and the lower cabinets with one coat of a white stain brand name “Saman” through Benjamin Moore with an extender added so it wouldn’t dry so quickly for us amateurs with staining.

Kitchen Reno paints used.
Kitchen Reno paints used.

We loved the results. We ordered the hardware (kitchen cabinets and drawer pulls) online which we found to be less expensive than going into the stores.

Kitchen Reno cabinets after renovation.
Kitchen Reno cabinets after renovation.
Kitchen Reno cabinets after renovation.

We added a coat of Polyacrylic protective finish on the drawer of the island for extra resilience on a heavy use area.

Kitchen Reno island after renovation.
Kitchen Reno protective finish for island drawer.

We purchased lights for above the kitchen island and table from IKEA.

Kitchen Reno lighting.
Kitchen Reno lighting over island.
Kitchen Reno lighting over table.

Part of our kitchen makeover included replacing the backsplash and countertops. We replaced the countertops with quartz (Jade stone) through Home Hardware. We purchased a subway tile backsplash from The Home Depot and love the results.

Kitchen Reno after backsplash and cabinets.

Kitchen island ideas included keeping the cooktop where it was, painting the island white and replacing the countertop with quartz.

Completely kitchen Reno after.

We replaced the old sink with an undermount sink.

Kitchen Reno after sink.

We purchased new appliances including a wall oven, microwave and island cooktop.

After kitchen Reno appliances-cooktop, oven and microwave

Our kitchen Reno on a budget came to $12,000 and we’re really pleased with the results. We hope you found some kitchen ideas you liked and kitchen inspiration that’s helpful to you.

Kitchen renovation before and after:

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Warmly,