Before & After: A $90 Weekend Kitchen Refresh

Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director
Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director
For more than 10 years, I've led Apartment Therapy's real home content, producing thousands of house tours from around the world. Currently, I live in my maximalist dream home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with my partner, a perfect dog, and a cute cat.
updated May 4, 2019
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Small kitchen with wooden cabinets, black appliances, a black island, and a stool on tiled floor.
(Image credit: Meghann Shinners )

When Meghann bought her first house last year, she didn’t have enough money to do a complete remodel of her kitchen, but the home’s original “orange-y” wood cabinets just weren’t working for her. With dark appliances and only one window, her main goal was to brighten her space up, as affordably as she could. She didn’t do a lot, but the $90 she did spend over a weekend made a surprising impact!

(Image credit: Meghann Shinners )

From Meghann:

I thought I would spend the weekend painting the cabinets and refinishing the hardware just to see what happened. I was really in the anything is better than this category. There was a small amount of trial and error, the white upper cabinets actually came about because I liked the look of the primer so much, but the rest was really straightforward. The terrible counter top doesn’t even look as bad anymore!


Lucky me, it turned out to be much, much, better and for only $90 in paint, metallic spray paint and those genius little
painter’s pyramids (oh plus a full, snowy weekend of manual labor). I am so happy I didn’t spend $6k on brand new cabinets now. I may paint the inside of the open cabinets or I may put the doors back on, still deciding on that…

What a difference! Under $100 worth of paint (plus a few key, colorful accessories) and you got a new look for a lot less than a full remodel. Thank you Meghann!