Kitchen

Name: Lorna Ziller Type of Project: Open plan kitchen, dining, and sitting room remodel Location: Moonah, Hobart, Tasmania Type of building: Brick cottage After planning, dreaming, destroying and shopping, Lorna’s new kitchen and living space is here! Take the full tour now. Afterwards, she crunches the numbers and offers some hard earned DIY wisdom — as well as shares her favorite things about her sleek new space.

Name: Graeme & Rebekah Molloy Type of Project: Kitchen Remodel Location: Chautauqua Park, Des Moines, Iowa Type of building: 1920 Tudor Graeme and Rebekah’s kitchen was seriously outdated, and had a crazy layout to boot. Join them on their renovation journey to a new dishwasher, complete with old-house problems, scheduling snafus and charming Pinterest finds. We’re sharing all their photos, budget, lessons learned, and the final reveal!

Suchada Eickemeyer and her husband bought their house in 2016, just as she was beginning interior design school. She knew that she would be able to put her newly-acquired skills to good use in the home's kitchen.

"I wanted a kitchen with an open aspect that I could love, enjoy, and utilize," writes Vicky Flynn of Liverpool. Instead, she had a "dark, gloomy, decrepit space" with a leaky tap and "some interesting shades of brown."

Sure, Kalila's 1975 kitchen had been updated a bit with a cooktop, dishwasher, and refrigerator. But overall, it was a wood-filled, windowless room desperately in need of a renovation.

When Andrea Jensen and her husband were house hunting, they narrowed in on a Southern California area they loved. However, "the neighborhood came with a steep price tag," Andrea writes, "so we knew whatever we bought in our price range would require a lot of work."

Bye bye, golden wood cabinets!

As soon as Hope Mendes and her husband saw their Cobb, California, cabin, they knew it was the place they'd been searching for.

Alanna and her husband Jesse purchased their tiny, two-bedroom Melbourne cottage when they were in their early 20s. The kitchen hadn’t been updated since the 1980s and was so small, the couple couldn’t comfortably cook in there together at the same time.

Cali Gabrielle must be a magician, because she made an ugly old house turn into an absolutely stunning home.

Sarah Robertson has made a career out of designing kitchens—and she finally made one of her dreams.

When it comes to kitchen design, there have really only been two options: cookie cutter IKEA or cost prohibitive custom—and not much in between. While the former is getting a lot nicer with the recent crop of third-party sellers creating design-forward cabinet fronts and various other elevated touches, the latter hasn’t seen much in the way of innovation or accessibility.

The previous owner had lived in this old house for about 70 years and it required updating.

"Nice bones." That's how Alison Caporimo and her wife described their New Jersey home the first time they walked through it.

Marble is a classic and timeless choice for countertops that’s versatile enough to look good in a wide variety of kitchens. But what about the cost and value? We regularly ask readers to share their experiences with various home projects. We hope this collective information proves helpful to anyone needing to get a basic sense of how much certain items cost, how much you can expect to pay for a service, or how long a project takes. How Much Did You Pay For Your Marble Countertops?

This place needed A LOT of updates but after six weeks of chaos, countless Home Depot trips, and tons of sweat equity, this condo now fits the couple's personalities.

Name: Dan Bailey Type of Project: Kitchen remodel Location: East Boston, Boston, Massachusetts Type of building: 2nd Floor Condo in a Greek-Revival Row House At times, it may have seemed like the Kitchen Renovation That Would Never End. In fact, Dan had the dubious honor of edging out Christine and Pierre for Longest Renovation Diary Project to Date — but through all the setbacks and pitfalls and I-had-no-idea-this-would-take-so-longs, Dan stayed strong.

It's going, going, but not quite gone.

See this "coffin of a kitchen" open up.

If I admire one home design advancement, it just might be the advent of soft-close. You never realize how annoying slamming toilet lids and cabinet doors are until you experience the calm relief of closing those things quietly. This invention is so ubiquitous now that you can even get refrigerators with soft-close drawers—which, frankly, is a little gimmicky… but I still like mine.What if you have cabinets that date back to the time before this common upgrade?

Got a bathroom or kitchen with an outdated colour palette? That burnt umber and avocado green tiling not floating your boat in the kitchen or bathroom any longer? Tiling around kitchen backsplash, floor tiles non-sink countertops, fireplace tiles and wall tiles all can be repainted even if they have a shiny finish (continually and regularly wet tiling require an epoxy formula). You might want to consider repainting those eyesore tiles rather than replacing them.

With only 75 square feet to work with these homeowners decided to go up with their renovation rather than out. Using light colors and simple lines has transformed this room incredibly. Check out the beautiful before and after here.With thoughtful design and an ability to take advantage of light incredibly well, the folks over at Design with ADD have make a dramatic impact on their tiny kitchen.Here are their thoughts on the design: Because we opted not to move the 75 sq. ft.

When I moved into my home, only one out of the three units was livable. The downstairs had been gutted and wasn’t much more than a glorified storage unit. You’ve gotten a glimpse of the bathroom via my Ace Hotel-inspired shelving post. Now I’m going to share my mostly recycled kitchen-on-a-shoestring.Diving into this project as a novice homeowner included lot of naivety and the necessity of getting a unit rented ASAP to help pay the mortgage.

Last spring, when my husband and I bought our first house, we hadn’t painted a full wall between the two of us. That changed within about two days of us getting our keys. We soon learned that the greenest (and most budget-friendly) trick in the book is to work with what you’ve got—so click through to see how our kitchen has progressed from dark and dated to light and lovely on a dime.

I love to watch the evolution of people’s spaces. As soon as you remodel or paint one thing you begin to think about what you would have done differently and what you can do next. Katy from Mom and Her Drill has documented her kitchen as she painted it, and repainted it over time. Without any major renovations she had changed up her kitchen in a sustainable way more than once. Check it out after the jump.Immediately after moving in Katy knew she needed to make a change.

This month on Apartment Therapy we’re looking at some of the biggest projects we take on when designing our homes, kitchen and bath renovations. Deciding on all the new features can be daunting, but sometimes the choice of a single element literally makes the project click, instantly transforming the space and practically guaranteeing the success of the makeover. That was the case with Rebecca’s kitchen…After!… when she decided to install a “thin brick” wall.

So many people dream about redoing their kitchen but look at the cost of new cabinets, new counters, new appliances and put it squarely in the one day pile. Thankfully, clever makeovers like this remind us that it’s not always about getting more – sometimes it’s about doing more with what you have.By removing cupboards and doors, repainting, making her own curtains, and adding DIY pieces Rita at harbour breeze completely transformed her kitchen for under $200.

Name: Stephanie Rearick and Jon Hain Location: Madison, Wisconsin Years lived in: 20 Stephanie and Jon had wanted to redo the kitchen in their 680-square-foot Madison home for 18 years. They knew the space was sad; as it was, there was little storage and workspace, cabinet doors didn’t close, and the room lacked any and all personality. Then they saw that, thanks to a grant, a local green-building consulting firm was offering design plans at a discount.

This is a great kitchen makeover. Using budget items from IKEA, repurposed materials and creatively placed chalkboard paint, this kitchen was completely transformed without ripping the cabinetry out. You don’t want to miss this one!We spotted this one over at Notes from the Heartland and don’t you just adore that island? A beadboard backsplash, chalkboard paint on the bulkhead and great lighting have made this space look fresh with a vintage vibe.

Swapping out your cabinets is one of the easiest ways to give an outdated kitchen the refresh it needs. But this particular item is one of the more expensive elements in a kitchen. Fortunately, there’s a solution: IKEA kitchen cabinets.Though much more affordable, going this route isn’t without challenges. We love IKEA, but readily admit assembly and installation can be rather tricky.

Rental kitchens are tough, you don’t want to put too much money into them but there isn’t much incentive for the landlord to make them top notch and gourmet. Here’s a great kitchen makeover that completely transforms the entire look of the kitchen for only $17. You really can’t miss this one.This great makover at HGTV really shows how far you can take $17. As the renters describe: We are renting right now and this kitchen was GROSS! I couldn’t live with it.

I know, I know, they did more than just knock out a half wall, but I would argue that it was the half wall removal that really made the difference in this kitchen. If they had done nothing else, the half wall removal would have transformed this kitchen completely. Find out more after the jump.This is a great kitchen renovation on a budget any way you slice it. The surfaces that were replaced were high impact and the surfaces that stayed were easily refinished.

While having a “green” kitchen is a desirable trait these days, it had a whole different meaning in the 1940’s. A green floor, green walls and even a green ceiling is what Linn and her husband faced when they purchased their bungalow last year. But after a month of hard work the only green they’ll have to live with now is the envious kind.

This kitchen was a total disaster when owner Dorie bought her 1916 bungalow in Mesa, Arizona. The builder-grade cabinets and oven were fixed awkwardly in the center of the room while a huge custom wine rack took up the entire back wall — perhaps because it required serious wine goggles to look at that room without cringing? Dorie’s new kitchen is gorgeous even when you’re stone-cold sober.

Jenna sent us an email about her recent renovation project: Last week we just completed our big kitchen reno… on a budget! Here are some before & after details:Before:Pink walls, beige formica counters, old white tile floors, chrome and brass fixtures, 90’s whitewashed oak cabinets, mismatched fluorescent panel lighting, empty unused walls and lack of counter space.

Many of us can relate to Gemma’s situation. She knew that, down the line, she’d be taking on a full (read:expensive) renovation. But she wanted to do something to make the kitchen a fun, fresh place to be in the meantime.

We love it when readers send us their projects to be featured. Kelly emailed us about her fabulous kitchen makeover, taking it from the dark and dated room you see above to the bright and updated space you can see after the jump…When Kelly and her husband bought their 100-year-old house that needed renovating, she was thrilled to get the chance to design her dream kitchen. And a dream kitchen it is! Kelly had the old kitchen torn out and started fresh.

After Rachel had her new wood floors installed, it was clear she had a problem- her always darker than desired kitchen was now even more basement-like because her cabinets now matched the tone of her floor. Determined to create a lighter, brighter space without spending a lot of money, Rachel decided to use paint to transform her kitchen.Rachel used a Rustoleum Countertop Transformations Kit to transform her counters from dark grey to desert sand.

While researching yesterday’s post on the comeback of wood paneling, I was delighted to discover this beautiful remodel of a kitchen from the 1960s. Homeowners Bret and Mary Peyton did a great job of updating the kitchen while keeping the design true to the home’s midcentury roots. Take a look.The wall between the kitchen and the dining room was removed, which really opens up the space.

Brooke has turned her very generic and all too common country kitchen into a classic, clean space which will no doubt increase the value of their home.It may have taken five months of work, research, hunting and juggling two two-year-olds to get this project done, but it was worth every minute. The result is simply lovely and creates an updated and warm new feel for the main area of Brooke’s home. I think it’s a good example of refreshing a kitchen on a budget without demolition.

This 80’s kitchen was in need of updated appliances, cabinetry, and an overall space adjustment. By taking extra space from adjacent rooms, the kitchen was opened up into a light and bright gourmet chef’s workplace. Check out the difference after the jump…Although it may not look like it from the before photo, this kitchen was very dark and narrow.

Here’s a great example of how paint and new cabinet hardware can easily and inexpensively upgrade a kitchen. The family over at Keeping It Cozy made over their kitchen with these upgrades, and a few other finishing touches to make the space look bright and brand new — with a budget of only $1000!

When Ashley and Greg purchased their home they knew that a kitchen remodel was in their future. The existing space was poorly designed, with dated appliances, unattractive cabinetry, and a fair amount of plumbing and electrical issues. Starting from scratch, they designed and built a beautiful, modern, and functional space that makes you wonder – is this even the same house?!Not afraid to get their hands dirty, the couple did what they could on their own.

At last night’s Apartment Therapy design meetup, we heard from Frank Potash (aka Mid-C Frank), whose quick — and very dramatic — kitchen remodel was featured on the Kitchn a few years ago. Before, the kitchen was clean and cozy, but a bit generic. Jump below to see the after, and a floor plan of the changes.Check out the full tour at The Kitchn to see how Frank re-did his whole kitchen with Ikea cabinets — in just five weeks.