Sick of your old kitchen? Here’s Our Oak Kitchen Update on a Budget!
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!
Plus with how much it stuck out it limited the useful counterspace we could work with.
We’re so happy with this – you can see this spot from our entire main floor and now it looks beautiful instead of dated.
Painting the cupboards and installing a new marble-look laminate countertop didn’t hurt either.
After opening up our main floor we made do with an island on wheels and a wine fridge. Behind that is our breakfast bar.
A jumbled mess!
We made big box cabinets less deep to fit our space perfectly.
We also devised how to make simple drawer faces and saved a bundle.
We finished off the look with classic subway tile, and a gorgeous butcher block countertop.
We added DIY board and batten paneling to this wall to tie it together with our dining room. A big impact and affordable easy update!
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!
Robin and Ed are a DIY-loving couple with over 25 years of design and build experience. Also, Robin is a Nutritionist and former Registered Dietitian and Ed is an award-winning Business Educator. We share strategies for living a rich life on a DIY budget: creative money-savvy ideas for a stylish home, healthy meals and family fun. Our work has been published in the pages of Do It Yourself, Farmhouse Style and Better Homes & Gardens magazines.
A note about over-the-range microwaves. If you do a lot of canning…. they don’t like steam 🙁 ….the system makes ‘noises’ after awhile. The kitchen looks wonderful. Well done.
Thanks, Emmy! We usually do our canning outside on the BBQ side burner – so haven’t noticed this. 🙂
Thanks for all the pictures and the blow by blow account. Very helpful. And the after is gorgeous.
Thanks so much, Dorie! Happy you liked it. 🙂
And what finish of the paint cabinet did you take ?
mat..?. semi-gloss…? and did you paint the interior?
(sorry for my English, I’m French )
can you please be more specific for the paint… I’m lost in all the kind ….
thank you
viviane
Hi, Viviane! Your English is just great! We used semi-gloss latex enamel paint. We used the colour “Pussywillow” from Sherwin Williams – but had it colour matched in Behr paint. Yes – we painted the interiors – in a house with kids these get left open ALL the time!
🙂 Robin
Where did you say you got your counter tops for a great price? And what kind was it?
Your kitchen looks amazing!!! What color did you use on the cabinets?
Thank-you! It’s Pussywillow from Sherwin Williams. We had it colour matched in behr paint. 👍
This is amazing! We are wanting to brighten up our kitchen as well. So happy that you shared this as it helps us in making some tough decisions with our kitchen renos. We are just not sure on what paint to use for our cupboards.We also are not sure if we should replace the countertop first and a backslpash before we paint as we have a corner cabinent that will need to be removed to replace the counter top. So hoping I have the patience to get through it all and it turns out as beautiful as yours did.��
You can do it in either order, but if you’re planning to co-ordinate your cupboard paint colour with your countertop it’s much easier to choose paint colour after you choose counters. Counters come in a fraction of the number colours that pain is available in. Does that make sense? Good luck! And thanks for your super kind comment! 🙂
Robin, this looks AMAZING! Please do a post on how you painted the cupboards – I've done it before and they ended up textured and not nice. I love how well oiled your butcher block countertop is! 🙂
Thanks, Jenn! We plan to write it all soon. Our life has been a bit to bonkers to get fingers on keyboard but your encouragement helps! 🙂
Our first kitchen "reno" in our house involved sanding and painting cupboards so heavy with lacquer and aged that they were turning orange (the agent called it "cottage pine look"). And unlike your lovely DIY, my husband insisted on peel and stick flooring. *hangs head in shame** Although I did paint the counter a glossy black with laminate paint and that lasted for ages. Mind you, when it was time to do it up right, I did… and I'm sooooo much happier now. You guys did a great job!
Thanks, Leslie! "Cottage pine look" – sounds like realtor-spin. 😉 There's no shame in peel and stick tile – we used it in our bathroom and it turned out great (the kind with grout mind you.) We're thinking of painting the countertop at the mobile home we're fixing up – glad to hear you had success painting yours! I wasn't sure how well it would hold up. I need to come to you for tips! 🙂
Hey Robin … I don't care WHAT order you share the reno … as long as you share every last detail! Looks Fabulous – I am so inspired by you & Ed.
You're sweet, Pam! We're going to try and find some windows of time to pull all this together – thanks for your encouragement. 🙂
Lovely! I love grey cabinets- I love how everything has lightened up your kitchen. I vote to hear how you made/adapted the drawer cabinet.
It IS so much brighter, cred! Make me happy. :). Your vote is noted ;).
Love the new kitchen! What color paint did you use? Looks awesome!
Thanks, Becky! The paint is a Sherwin Williams colour: Pussywillow. We had it colour matches at Home Depot in Behr latex enamel. I love the colour!
@frugalfamilytimes, we had our cupboards painted Pussywillow, one of the very few times we ever paid to have someone paint. It has almost been 2 years and I still love the color. Our counter tops are quartz but look like your counter tops. We waited 5 years after moving into our house to complete our kitchen, it was worth the wait!