Not everyone starts out as a confident DIYer, but all of us can get there if we just give it a go. One of my favorite parts of our House Tour survey is the "Proudest DIY" section. The expression of pride in a job that someone really helped made happen is always great to see. To up our collective bravery and know-how, I pulled projects from our House Tours featuring a room that many of us don't dare DIY - the kitchen. Read on and get inspired!
Check out these smart and stylish kitchen projects that our House Tour participants are most proud of and then click through to view their whole home:
House Tour: Anna & Luby's Home Meets Showroom
Proudest DIY: Kitchen cabinets. When we moved in we knew we wanted to keep the original Geneva cabinets, but because they were too far gone from smoke damage they needed to be repainted or replaced. The top cabinets were mustard yellow and the bottom were brown. We took all the doors and drawers off, as well as the oven face and door and took them to Maaco. We were able to have them all painted for about $300. We painted the original cabinets in place ourselves. It really made the original orange boomerang Formica countertop pop.
House Tour: Albie Design's Family Home
Proudest DIY: The kitchen table, a team effort (as many of the DIY projects in my house are). My husband spotted the table at a construction site that was about to be demo'd. The table was originally a commercial butcher block, so he removed the legs and racks & sanded the top. Together we designed legs to be made be a welder. I love the way it turned out!!! Rustic meets modern.
House Tour: Mandy & Michael's Crafty Charm
Proudest DIY: I painted the cabinets and installed the floor in the kitchen. I was pretty proud of the floor because I'd never done anything like that before.
House Tour: Caitlin and Levi's Youthful Loft with His and Hers Offices
Proudest DIY: My kitchen was painted a really bright yellow when I moved in that I didn’t like. Instead of trying to paint over it, I decided to attach cardboard wall tiles from Mio Culture using a removable tacky. When we move out, cleanup will be a cinch.
House Tour: Bernard's Time Traveller's Life
Proudest DIY: Having the balls to put up the kitchen walls, and using the paint color specified by my designer friend.
House Tour: Mike's Masculine Vintage
Proudest DIY: Have you seen my kitchen?
Have you got a kitchen-based DIY project to share with the Apartment Therapy community? Send me an email with pictures and info - I'd love to hear from you!
Images: Apartment Therapy/as linked in each House Tour above
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun and Functional Workspace
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
A Work Week Menu Plan That You Can Do
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
What a great idea, to group all of these together as motivation.
The idea of taking on our kitchen as a DIY project was daunting, but we just finished it for $6000 including appliances, and it was SOOOO worth getting over that hurdle. See pics here if you're interested. :-)
The kitchen cabinets to Maaco...Brilliant idea and the look is just spectacular!
Excellent job TanjaLA!
Thanks, roguedesigns!
Oh my mother's kitchen had orange laminate countertops.
TanjaLA, great job!
I love the first and the second one. I have to do something but in this moment I don't have money to renew :(
Love that Anna & Luby kept their original Geneva cabinets!!!
Wow, that looks great Geneva kitchens ere great, I own one complete w/ original hardware and original paint 50 years old, I just had to replace the original counter top too damaged with cutting on the laminate white w/ gold flakes and s.steel trims. I just had to polish up the lacquer with car wax now they look like new and can go for another 5o years no modern kichen today will hold out like the metal one. My counters are now black honed granite with bone colored cabinets looks great!
So beautiful, all of them!
I also love how Mandy & Michael expanded storage space in their small kitchen by hanging pots/pans & cooking utensils on a peg board painted in that same lovely green they have throughout their kitchen.
@ giozi you can do a lot with very little money like cast your counter tops in concrete at a fraction of the price of other materials. I saw a post here where the floor had been covered with a bunch of those rag rugs to cover the ugly floor also something as basic as a good all over cleaning can make a huge difference.
Orange countertops <3 !
Loads of great ideas and good work. I am nowhere near as talented and creative as these homeowners are, sad to say.
Okay, now lets see the bathrooms!
My house is just too big of a mess for me to DIY the kitchen. The whole damn thing has to be gutted -- EXTREMELY poor construction -- and I'm just going to hand the job over to Lowe's when I have the money.