Before and After: A Bright Budget Redo for this Lime Green Kitchen

When Hannah Otto moved into her new home last year, the kitchen was lime green, and not in a good way. “It was vibrant, yet depressing, colorful, yet completely soul-sapping, a considered choice from a bygone era,” she says. “Very little had escaped the lime gloss paint, from the shelves, cupboards, and tiles, to the radiator, hooks, and noticeboard.”

Hannah and her family hope to expand the kitchen in a few years, but she wanted to make some quick changes on the cheap in the meantime. “You can see the kitchen as soon as you walk in the front door, and as a family we spend so much time in there, it made sense to turn it into a place that, while not perfect, we can at least enjoy for the time being,” she explains.

She literally got going the day after the family moved in and completed the upgrade in three weeks, later painting the floor white and having the door stripped back to its original wood.

She says everything cost less than £500, and the money mostly went toward paint, which went on the cupboards, walls, ceiling, floor, even refrigerator handles.

She also removed some shelving, hung a new pegboard, and added additional lighting via a wall sconce.

Arguably one of the most wow-worthy changes was the cool new graphic tiling—or, rather, the tile stickers: “The kitchen had green tiles wrapping around the whole room,” says Hannah. “We painted them all white, and then added sticker decals along the left-hand side. These were super easy to attach and just required a utility knife, metal ruler, and a steady hand.”

In fact, Hannah says she thinks the tile stickers are the most successful aspect of the reno. “They were such a satisfying DIY, as the results were so quick and effective,” she says. “Most people who come to our house don’t even notice they’re not real!”

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