Kitchen Revamp Challenge: Part I

Been a while! This has been a crazy month for Dave and I. He's trying to get everything wrapped up for school and I'm working on a few new projects for work...all the while managing the kids and trying to live within our newly formed budget. (That's going pretty well...but more on that at the end of the month...)

Recently, we decided that the kitchen in this house needs a lot of work. Okay...it wasn't so much a decision as an acknowledgment. I've been dying to replace my kitchen cupboards and countertop for many years now. Dave suggested that we could just paint the cupboards and replace the countertop and maybe do a backsplash and that would give it a whole new look and feel. I hemmed and hawed for a few minutes because I detest the cupboards, but then I saw his point and also accepted the fact that I want it done and don't have the finances to afford a full kitchen reno. (I have long ago accepted the fact that I won't be applying for any more credit, so anything I do or buy has to be with cash.)

So we started pricing stuff out and came up with a budget that was roughly $1,000 (see the table below). We think this is a reasonable estimate for what we want to do. But then the spark of genius; let's see just how far under budget we can do this for! That's the challenge: we will paint the cupboards, replace the hinges (the knobs are newer and very nice, so we will reuse those), replace the countertop and get some new countertop lighting, and do a backsplash for as inexpensively as possible against our original estimated budget of $1,000. The table below shows our budget and I will keep reposting it as we purchase the different parts required with the actual costs filled in.

We achieved our first big savings this past week when we took an impromptu trip to Lowes, just to look around, and found gallons of paint on sale. We purchased 2 gallons of paint, regularly priced at just over $33 each for $8.49 each. (As a side note, we also found a small can of white touch up paint that we needed for the ceiling on sale for $3.49.) This brought our budget for paint down from $60 to just under $20 (see table below)!

Another idea we had was to have some paint that I have in my garage re-tinted. Some places will do this for you for free or a nominal charge. That is another great way to save money and also spare the environmental costs of disposing of unused paint. We will still do that for another project, if at all possible.

Supplies                                  Budget                          Actual
Paint                                        $60                                $16.98
36 Hinges                                $150
Countertop                              $220 (Ikea)                  
Backsplash                              $347
Countertop lighting                   $60 
Miscellaneous                          $50

Subtotal                                  $887                               $16.98
Taxes                                     $133.05                           $2.21

Total                                      $1,020.05                        $19.19

We'll keep you posted as to how this is going as it develops! If you have any time/space/money saving ideas for a kitchen project, let us know!!

'Til next time!


-Erin and Dave