Sick of your old kitchen? Here’s Our Oak Kitchen Update on a Budget!

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by Robin

What do you do when you’ve got a dated golden oak kitchen, but not the budget to replace it?

What if those same cabinets are in too good of shape to take a sledgehammer to? 

What if your life is maxed out busy and you can’t have your kitchen out of commission for even a few days?

That was us.  And maybe you too? Do you need an oak kitchen update?

We were tired of our tired kitchen.  It had it’s flaws, not just in style, but in substance too. 

The storage and counterspace were limited and what we did have just wasn’t functioning well.

We needed an oak kitchen update – but not a complete and costly renovation.

So we got creative.  And busy.  And patient.

Patient? 

Well, this reno took us more than a few days.  It was a few months.  By our own choosing mind you. 

We had many small windows of time in which to tackle this reno.  If we had the luxury of some days in a row we could have banged it all out in a week.  But that’s not our reality.

So we coined this makeover “The Slow Mo Kitchen Reno”. 

We didn’t have a single day that the kitchen was out of commission, but we had a few months where the kitchen looked half-baked.

We will share lots of Oak Kitchen Updates and how-to’s in future posts, this one is all about the Before and Afters!

Here’s a sample of what we did for our oak kitchen update, and what’s to come in our how-to posts:

1. We installed an over-the-range microwave.  (What a space saver!)  You can read here how to cut a cabinet for over the range microwave.)

2. In the spot where the microwave was, we built open shelving.  (Sigh.  So much prettier.)  Click here to read about it.

3. We tore out our old black granite-like countertops – which were dark and damaged.  We found a pretty marble-like laminate to install in its place.  (So many reasons to love laminate!)

4. We tore out the fruity old backsplash and installed a new one. (Classic subway tile, with a twist.)

5. We painted the old cabinets.  (Time-consuming – but worth every second.  Except when we tried to spray them, that was a worthless, drippy mess.)

6. We hacked some big-box drawer bases to fix our space.  We made drawer faces ourselves (- can you believe it?!?)

7. We installed butcher block counters over this new bank of cupboards.  (Love that tung oil!)

8. We created a built-in wine rack that solved a clunky layout problem. (Not pictured…yet.)

9. We did a board and batten wall treatment (when we realized the time and effort the all tile wall I originally envisioned would cost us.)

10. I made no-sew faux roman blinds.  (And screwed them up, like I do when I rush, but in the end it all worked out.)

11. We learned to wait patiently for the hardwood floors that we want to install here, and throughout our main floor. Saving takes time (and waiting’s the worst.) UPDATE: After some research and looking into the luxury vinyl plank pros and cons we finally changed out the flooring! Keep reading here for all our tips on luxury vinyl plank installation. The floors look so good now!)

Speaking of saving, we did this all on a pretty tight budget.  Our whole “Slo-Mo Kitchen Reno” was half the cost of the marble countertops I priced out at the start of all this.  I love that!

Want to see another of our cheap DIY kitchen makeovers? This one is pretty dramatic!
The Reveal: Our 3-Day DIY Kitchen Makeover on a Budget ~ under $1300!

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