Before and After: This Once-Bland, Personality-Free Kitchen Got A Cheery Refresh

Laura Goodwin and her husband, Wade, had a beautiful kitchen in Perth, Western Australia, that was less than 10 years old. The problem? It just wasn’t very them.

“It was the perfect-sized kitchen with a long island that was perfect for our kids to sit at and help us cook,” Laura says. “But the colors felt drab and boring, so we wanted to create a sense of fun and add personality to this space.”

So the couple made small, incremental tweaks, focusing on cosmetic things like lighting, paint, and wallpaper.

“The first thing we did was to swap out the boring pendant lights for these gorgeous concrete-style ones,” says Laura. “They instantly lifted the feeling in the kitchen.”

Next up, they purchased blush bar stools and gave the backsplash a pink-over. It took just a few hours to prime the white tile, paint it with pink tile paint, then use a grout paint pen to draw in the white grout lines—way easier and cheaper than replacing it! Later, they added faux wooden herringbone removable wallpaper to the back of the island.

“And voila! A beautiful new kitchen without any demolition or construction,” says Laura.

All of those changes cost less than $1,300 total (in American dollars). “I absolutely love how much brighter and happier the kitchen is now,” says Laura. “The pink backsplash is so fun and really injects personality in the room.”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.