Before & After: A Refreshed and Revamped Kitchen For $1000
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to dramatically improve the look of a space, as proven by the kitchen Julia and her boyfriend share in Montreal. Some budget ideas, affordable products and a lot of DIY labor made this kitchen brighter and more pleasant.
From Julia:
My boyfriend and I bought a duplex house in Montreal less than a year ago. We were able to buy in the city, but we didn’t have much money for renovations after. So for the kitchen, we didn’t want to invest too much money right away.
We kept the cupboard even though we didn’t really like them (cheap melamine). But once we took out the doors, we already liked them better. The kitchen is large enough to put an island. After a lot of searching, we realized that kitchen islands are quite expensive! We used two white trestles from Ikea instead, combining it with a large bamboo panel that we bought at a local homeware center. (We also used the same bamboo panels for the counter.) We also installed subway tiles on the wall, a kitchen fan and a brand new floor. We also put reclaimed wood on a wall to add texture and painted it white. All of this cost us around $1000!
A rough breakdown of the costs of this project:
- $400 for the floor
- $300 for the counters
- $70 for the tiles
- $150 for the kitchen fan (on sale)
- $80 for the shelves + racks
- Free Ikea trestles (already had them)
Thank you Julia!
Re-edited from a post originally published 3.22.14-NT