A “Millennial Gray” Kitchen Gets a Dramatic $3,000 Makeover, Thanks to IKEA Cabinets

When Anna Ladd (@liveladdlove) moved into her 100-year-old Philadelphia home, it had everything she was looking for. It still had some of its historical charm but had been renovated enough that it didn’t feel like an overwhelming project. (This is Anna’s first home, after all.) 

However, the kitchen, which was renovated in 2022 (after being “very 2000s beige,” as Anna describes it), was a bit over-renovated for her taste. “The kitchen was very ‘millennial gray’ and ‘renovated to sell,’ and it looked out of place after doing the rest of the downstairs,” she says. 

Anna is a member of a Moody Maximalism group on Facebook and has designed her home in such a way. Everywhere you look, there are swirling, bright paint colors. When she started reimagining the kitchen, she was laid off from her job (before finding another one within a month), so she dedicated time to creating a Pinterest board for the room. Think: lots of dark and emerald-colored paints and checkered floors.

“From there, I made a list of all the elements and started playing around with all of them in [Adobe] Photoshop on a listing photo,” Anna says. “That helped with choosing all the main elements — paint, floors, backsplash, cabinets — and I installed all that before deciding on the finishing touches: lights, faucet, curtain, accessories, etc.” 

It took Anna six months to update her kitchen from start to finish. In that time, she installed IKEA IVAR and SEKTION cabinets thanks to the help of some YouTube videos (this project happens to be her proudest DIY to date!). Anna also installed black and white checkerboard peel-and-stick flooring. (These are the white tiles; these are the black tiles.) Green subway tiles from Lowe’s complement the walls painted with Sherwin-Williams’ Tricorn Black (SW 6258). 

Anna spent $3,000 total renovating the kitchen. Not only does she appreciate the room’s ample storage, but she also loves how she knows she put it all together herself. All of the little mistakes and off-kilter odds and ends make it “feel like mine, which is cool,” she says.

To see more of this maximalist home, visit the full House Tour on Apartment Therapy. 

This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: Before & After: A “Millennial Gray” Kitchen Gets a Dramatic Green $3,000 Makeover