Kitchen Home Projects

The owner found a smart way to make it more their style, without totally gutting it.

A quick glance at this photo might yield the following evaluation: great windows, beautiful wood floors, overall very nice (if a bit yellow)—it could perhaps use some flair. Reader Anne is here to set us straight on the fact that this kitchen needs a bit more than just a quick coat of paint… Here’s what the kitchen was really like: Yellow walls, shabby original floorboards which were impossible to clean, half-done tile job by previous owner!

If you’re tempted to skip this post because you assume the wood cabinetry—and everything else—will be painted white, please trust me when I say you’re going to want to see this one. Just don’t get too attached to that tablecloth. Before the big reveal, let’s fully examine this full-length shot of the kitchen before, which reveals both the paneled ceiling and the peeling floor.

This is an intriguing transformation, because the only difference between the before and after is the decorating. No remodeling, no renovation, no repainting or replacing anything, and yet the results are incredibly dramatic. So inspiring, especially to all of us with neither power tools nor the skills to wield them. Let’s back up to get a full view of the drop ceiling and beige floor—two standard rental features that add a fair amount of blah to any room.

Read this before you attempt yours.

After living in her Upper East Side studio for almost 20 years, Jill decided her kitchen was ready for a facelift. The problem? Her kitchen is tiny. Like, really, really tiny. This is a true small space success story — how one woman created her dream kitchen in only 56 square feet. The new kitchen has the same layout as the old one, with a few important changes. Jill chose to swap her old 24″ stove for a 20″ wide model.

From disjointed and funky to completely enviable.

The Danish fashion designer Stine Goya definitely has a unique style, so it’s no surprise that her kitchen is equally distinctive. What is surprising, though, is that all those cabinets are IKEA. Last year, I created this roundup of kitchens you won’t believe are IKEA, but I was a little flummoxed at first to see that IKEA cabinets come in GOLD.

Maxing out every inch of living room space isn’t a new idea, but these days that can mean working to turn a rarely used space into a cool new Airbnb to rent out for extra income. Redditor monkeegod recently shared his recent basement conversion, which included turning a small laundry area into a fully functioning kitchen. He turned a space that’s smaller than most sofas into a rental rockstar. The laundry area was a perfect spot for this transformation.

After living in their downtown Brooklyn condo for almost five years, Emily and Trey were ready for a kitchen overhaul. The lack of countertop space made cooking for a family of four difficult, and a loft above made the kitchen cramped and dark, as well as encouraging them to keep things they didn’t really need. “We put stuff up there that we hardly touched the entire time we have lived here,” Emily admits.

The materials in this kitchen appear to all be of high quality — stainless steel, pretty wood cabinets and floors, granite countertop—but I can also understand why reader Devann referred to this kitchen as “bland brown-on-brown-on-brown.” Sometimes even the most beautiful finishes need contrast in order to shine! Here’s a full-length shot of the original kitchen and Devann’s description of it: Before, our kitchen was very monotone.

This project has so much going for it: it was done for less than $200! It was done in a rental! It features faux DIY granite countertops and a covetable KitchenAid! (Mixer obviously not included in the $200 total.) Click through and get dangerously inspired. I love this! The pink + celadon + white + gold combination is comfortingly and charmingly vintage, but the clean lines of the cabinet doors, handles, and subway tiles keep things modern.

Although Charlotte says, “A full kitchen renovation was never in our budget,” you’ll be astounded by the changed appearance of this “renovation-free” kitchen. With a few clever moves and a lot of paint, it went from super ’70s to marvelously modern. Check out what it looks like now… Wow! This makeover was done by Charlotte of At Charlotte’s House, and the most dramatic changes were the painting of the cabinets and walls (au revoir, chartreuse!

In another real estate market, you might take a pass on that otherwise perfect place with one or two not so great features. But not in New York. When, after almost a year of searching, Gall and Ingrid found this stunning Upper East Side apartment, they knew they were onto something good — even though the kitchen left a little bit to be desired. Look at those bay windows! There were three in the living room, and one in each of the two bedrooms.

This kitchen has an enviable amount of storage, but that same storage — the hanging cabinets — make the room feel a bit claustrophobic and dark, and make the counters less accessible than would be ideal.

Touring Mona Hamilton’s 650-square-foot Montreal apartment is very inspiring. Not only is it a soothing, lovely space with enviable elements (the removable wallpaper in the kitchen being one of them), but it also features a hack that could be a great space saver for small kitchens or kitchens that need more counterspace. And the source of this hack’s furniture elements is rather surprising. Hacking IKEA components is NOT a new idea. (We have even published one or two or 100s before).

In the Queens neighborhood of Elmhurst, Romuald and his wife have something that most New Yorkers can only dream of: a whole house, and even a backyard. But after living there for ten years, there was one thing they knew they wanted to change: the kitchen. The home’s previous kitchen, while not small by any means, felt a bit tight when you factored in two avid chefs.

The kitchen in Meredith and Jason’s Chelsea apartment, while much larger than your typical NYC apartment kitchen, still had its share of issues. Style-wise, it was stuck in the late ’90s, with heavy mahogany cabinets that sucked the light from the room. A wall of cabinets partially blocked the light from the room’s one window, while a slightly raised floor made for a tripping hazard.

We feature a lot of amazing kitchen projects, but this kitchen makeover might just have the very best dollars-to-damn ratio yet. It went from oh-so-’70s to totally timeless, thanks to some hard work, tile bravery, and some stickers. So charming! I love the interplay of the hexagonal tiles of the backsplash and the ornately patterned floor tiles. The combination of black, white, grey, and stainless is fresh and modern, while the wood counters add warmth and coziness.

This kitchen has quite a bit of vintage charm, and all that white certainly does a great job reflecting the sunlight pouring in from the window. And there’s nothing better than a window over the dishwashing sink, but the room could definitely use a little something. Fortunately, that certain something was do-able in a single week.

This particular kitchen project was a major undertaking: new appliances, new flooring, new cabinetry, new countertops, new backsplashes, and a host of other major adjustments. Despite the dramatic changes, the new kitchen fits into the home perfectly and makes the most of the available space and light. Interiors Addict has done such a lovely job with this room.

Think a new kitchen is currently out of reach? If yours is bringing you down, but you don’t have the means to do a full renovation, don’t give up too soon. These budget renovations all cost under $1,000 (and some well, well under that) and prove beyond a shadow of doubt that you don’t need a wad of money to give your kitchen a brand new look. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of paint, a little bit of elbow grease, and some good ideas. Use these five as inspiration.

Sometimes, when people describe a room as “a nightmare,” they’re talking about shag carpeting or hideous laminate or cheesy ’80s style. Today’s kitchen sounds like the stuff of actual nightmares—read on lest you think I’m talking about the blue-mustard color combo you see here. (But don’t worry—the space now is totally dreamy.) What a difference a new everything makes!

Samantha’s little apartment is only about 500 square feet and it’s a rental. She wanted to make some minor changes, without putting a bunch of money into the makeover. Then she got the best news that an ambitious renter can possible get in their lifetime: when Samantha moves out, the apartment is getting renovated by the owners. Which meant it was carte blanche time! Samantha’s 1925 original kitchen had so much potential, but was a little on the lackluster side.

This kitchen had so much going for it—high, wainscoted ceilings, gorgeous black countertops, tons of cabinet space—but it needed a little something. Does that something involve pineapples? Perhaps… This renovation by change & co is one of the few Before & After projects we’ve seen recently in which so many of the original elements have been retained. The countertops, faucet, and fridge are all the same, and the cabinetry and island were simply repainted.

The galley kitchen of this Brooklyn apartment wasn’t in terrible shape, especially compared to some kitchens we’ve seen. But the builder-blah ’90s color scheme made the space seem dark and dated, and the wide-set floor tiles left lots of room for grout, which means lots of room for collecting dirt.

When Puno Puno (yes, you read that right, her name is Puno Lauren Puno!) and Daniel Chin Yee moved into their Downtown Los Angeles loft earlier this year, they knew they’d found their dream home. First, because of all the added space (their previous apartment was a modest 600 square feet to this loft’s 1,500). And secondly, because of the huge amount of light pouring in from the wall-to wall, industrial-height windows that line their corner unit.

A small investment that will make a big impact.

Can this outdated, off-white relic of a stove be transformed into a sleek stainless steel beauty? When I learned about a product designed to replicate the look of stainless steel appliances, I was itching to see if it worked — it just seemed a little too good to be true. Could this paint make appliances blend in a little bit more, or maybe look a little less decrepit? Less almond at least? For this test, I bought Rust-Oleum’s Stainless Steel from Amazon which retails for about $30.

As kitchens go, this one isn’t too shabby. There are really nice white countertops, classic subway tile on the backsplash, and basic wood cabinets that look perfectly sound and in good condition. There’s no horribly dated light fixtures, no crappy peeling wallpaper, or any odd woodwork that needs to be ripped out. Even the walls are white and ready to go. Not much you can do to improve this space, right? So very, very wrong.

The kitchen in Carrie’s 1950s Chicago bungalow was in desperate need of some updates. By going back to basics and doing most of the shopping at big box stores, she was able to keep the budget to around $15k and save herself the hassle of hiring a contractor. From Carrie: The dark kitchen in our new little home had not been touched in probably 30-40 years. It was horribly outdated, there were soffits galore, and there were a few poorly placed appliances throughout.

Never underestimate the power of well placed chalk paint. Iuliana’s kitchen was in need of a new look and a full-blown kitchen renovation wasn’t really do-able — but she would not be deterred. A couple of coats of sunshine yellow later, her kitchen is brighter, cheerier, and her budget remains intact (which we imagine made her feel bright and cheery, too).

When Emily went looking for an apartment in New York, she wanted a place with vintage charm, like the beautifully detailed old buildings she had seen while living and studying in Normandy. Instead, she found the next best thing, a fixer-upper apartment in a 1940s building, whose tiny kitchen and bathroom were badly in need of updating (and a little classic character). The kitchen, only six feet wide, suffered years of neglect during the time the apartment served as a rental.

Carleen’s kitchen didn’t offer much in the way of counter space but it did provide her with lots of poorly laid green tile, which, shockingly enough, wasn’t much consolation. She decided that she’d had enough and set about renovating her kitchen. A mix of professional help, a handy husband and some smart IKEA finds help her put together a chic new kitchen with plenty more counter space to boot.

Christopher took one look at this beige, laminate loving kitchen and thought to himself, “it’s perfect!” His enthusiasm was rewarded as after basically overhauling the entire kitchen, he found himself with crisp white cabinets and counters and a gorgeous wood island that warms up the space with rustic style. From Christopher: We knew that navigating the Denver market would be a tough one. But once we walked into this kitchen we knew this was it.

Project by: Jessica Nicolls of Bungalow 56 Interiors Location: Coronado, California There’s something so calming about well done neutral spaces isn’t there? Rather than boring or bland, they’re rooms that relax you just by looking at them. Jessica was able to turn her client’s outdated brown kitchen and bathroom into neutral yet visually pleasing rooms.

Bridgett’s old kitchen sure was something. Which makes her 100% DIY transformation of the space even more mind boggling. Updating the space not just for looks, she added an office nook to the kitchen to maximize the usability of the space. The kitchen is modern and clean, miles away from the blue and beige kitchen they started with. From Bridgett: Our house is old (1963) and the blue stained wood paneling that was floor to ceiling throughout the house totally dated it.

Project by: Leslie Murchie Cascino of Bonnie Wu Design, LLC Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Leslie’s client downsized into a home that was mostly perfect, save for the cramped and outdated kitchen. After doing some major switching around of cabinets and appliances and making some smart aesthetic upgrades, she was able to create a space with a much better flow that matched the rest of the home.

Spenser saw this mid century property and new that even though it needed some updates, it would be well worth the time, money and effort. Working on a tight timeline, they laid out their vision for a versatile yet stylish kitchen that honored the homes roots and got to work creating an open and breezy space out of a cramped ’80s kitchen. From Spenser: We bought a 1964 mid-century modern home in foreclosure. It was pretty rough, but that didn’t scare me.

Project by: Amy Jameson of Jameson Interiors Location: St. Johns – Austin, Texas Amy Jameson’s client was ready to pass their childhood home on to their daughter, but knew it needed some serious upgrading. They called in Amy to modernize the kitchen and expand the footprint of the home. The addition of an island, as well as a thorough upgrade of almost everything in the space, resulted in a bright and modern new kitchen that is sure to please generations to come.

After making some smaller, manageable repairs and updates upon first moving in, Allie and her husband decided to tackle as full of a kitchen reno as their budget would allow. By mixing in DIY projects along with hiring out a contractor and prioritizing major functional and cosmetic fixes over new appliances, they were able to keep to their budget and walk away with a bright new kitchen.

When Frans and Dalal purchased their studio apartment in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, they knew it would need a little work. The studio, while spacious and bright, had a few downsides, one of them being the tiny, cramped kitchen. Tucked into a little alcove and separated from the unit’s main living space, the kitchen was drab and dark.

Rosanna was about to put her condo on the market and knew she would have a much better go of it if she updated her kitchen. After a few contractor related stops and starts, she now has a kitchen that is modern, sleek and much more open. From Rosanna: This was the original kitchen for this condo built in the 1980s. It felt small, dark and cramped. It came with yellowed cabinets, linoleum floors, and tiled counters.

The 1900s through the 1920s was a time of tremendous change in the kitchen, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that the kitchen began to take on its modern shape. The kitchen configuration that we all know now, has its roots, like a lot of modern design, in the German school known as the Bauhaus. As I mentioned in my last post, on the design of the kitchen from 1900 through the 1920s, before the 1930s many kitchens had very little by way of built-in storage or workspace at all.

Angelica’s kitchen was functionally fine, it just felt a little cramped and generic for her tastes. With some smart DIY projects, a few cosmetic upgrades and the help of the always reliable white paint, her kitchen looks like an entirely new space without the headache of a full remodel. From Angelica: The kitchen in our new Houston, Texas home was in good condition overall, nicely sized with newer appliances, plenty of windows and decent light fixtures.

Last week we looked at the overhaul of Claudia’s bathroom, which got a beautiful, classic update in keeping with the character of her 1929 apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East side. Today, we’re diving into the renovation of her kitchen, which was similarly transformed.

Imagine you’re suddenly transported back in time by 100 years, to your great-great-grandmother’s house. Most of the rooms are quite familiar: the styles are less modern, sure, but the basic setup is the same. The kitchen, however, is different. All the major players are in place — the sink, the stove, some rudimentary form of refrigeration — but they haven’t quite evolved into their modern forms.

Cameron and Chantel’s post-renovation kitchen is basically unrecognizable. Aside from sharing the common elements of a kitchen (you can cook in it! there’s a refrigerator!) the two spaces are completely different. Their new kitchen is softly colorful, light, breezy and spacious where the old kitchen was, well, very, very beige. From Cameron and Chantel: Our kitchen is straight from the 80s!

Flirting with the idea of using affordable building materials for a kitchen remodel? Smart move for your budget. But, that doesn’t mean you want your home to look like you built it out of materials from the bargain bin. So, take notes from this minimal and modern kitchen in this Spanish hand-built home. We’ve got a breakdown of why this space doesn’t look like it was done on the cheap, despite being primarily made up of very affordable materials.

Stephanie decided to open up her kitchen for both design and keep-an-eye-on-the-kiddos reasons. Wanting to add functionality, style and maximize the natural light, the reno was a mix of big projects (like knocking down walls) and quick last minute fixes that resulted in a gorgeous, classic kitchen. From Stephanie: The kitchen in our home was closed off, isolated and a mix of semi-updated and original features.

Andrea is a stylish fashion blogger who founded the blog Blonde Bedhead. And though her expertise is in personal style, it’s clear she’s also a master at interior design, too. In fact, she’s recently been able to flex her interior design muscles thanks to her newly purchased first home. Though the house didn’t quite fit her own style when she first saw it in person, she could see the potential. Andrea says upgrading the kitchen was the most expensive project in the house.

Upon closing on their first home, Maria and Eric found themselves in a situation that will probably seem quite familiar to anyone who’s ever looked at real estate in New York: they were the proud owners of a really great apartment with a not-so-great kitchen. The 850-square-foot two-bedroom in Queens was nice and roomy, but the kitchen was small, cramped, and dark, with discolored floor tiles and old, warped cabinets that required a little effort to shut completely.

Claire’s kitchen was dark and dated, with an office-style ceiling and a tiny little rodent problem. Claire set about repurposing the kitchen and rebuilding an extension to create a kitchen and living area, perfect for hosting. Now the kitchen is bright and dance party-ready. From Claire: We bought our house in 2012 after falling in love with its large Edwardian proportions and central location.

Dating in New York is notoriously brutal, and so is buying real estate, which lends itself to a robust market for fixer-uppers. After living for six years in a rented apartment in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood, Jill and Aaron were ready to buy — but everything they could find in their desired neighborhoods, within their price range, was less than appealing.

One of the biggest challenges of living in a tiny apartment is the tiny kitchen. After purchasing her studio apartment in Brooklyn, Kelly was determined to create her dream kitchen from what was originally a less than dreamy space. Although square footage was limited, lots of smart choices resulted in a kitchen that’s colorful, beautiful, and has the functionality of a kitchen many times its size.

Sharlene’s ’70s kitchen was vivid green and laced with hard-to-clean linoleum. Instead of living with it or hiring an expensive contractor, this husband and wife team utilized their vacation days, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. From Sharlene: We had an original 1974 kitchen without the perks of the vintage appeal. The laminate cabinets were spray painted white and the laminate countertops were coming apart. No matter how much you cleaned, it always appeared dirty and worn.

"No detail was spared in this kitchen: moldings, hood detail, lovely polished nickel hardware, detailed ceiling with bead board and beams."

Stacy and her husband found themselves with a very trying kitchen on their hands. After two years of living with not enough storage, poor ventilation and dreaded pests they decided to take the plunge and create a kitchen that was clean, functional and easy on the eyes. From Stacy: Our kitchen had a hard life. We bought our home back in 2011, a recent flip after the previous owners had foreclosed.

Michelle and her husband bought their house with the anticipation of putting in some serious work on the kitchen. What they didn’t expect was a handful of undisclosed damages and, as first time renovators, just how much time a kitchen reno can take. But they survived! Smarter, saavier and with a much better kitchen. From Michelle: We spent almost a year looking at houses before we came across our current home.

When Jessica and her husband, David, moved from Westchester to New York City for work, they were lucky to find a spacious apartment in Hudson Heights with a breathtaking view of the Hudson river and the George Washington Bridge. One thing about the apartment that wasn’t so great: the kitchen. It was in decent shape, but its layout — a single row of cabinets and appliances, arranged along a single wall — left a lot to be desired when it came to counter space and storage.

For years, Jenna and her husband had been wanting to lighten and modernize the narrow kitchen in their Chelsea apartment. Finally, after living there for six years, the impending birth of their daughter gave them the hard deadline they needed to finally take the remodeling plunge. The old kitchen was full of dark, heavy finishes, which sucked all the light out of a very narrow space.

Diana Marsh spent 11 years living in Brooklyn before returning to her home state of Michigan. After purchasing this Ann Arbor house, she set to renovating it. It had “good bones” but was a bit on the small side and a lot on the dark side. As the owner of a brick and mortar store called Thistle and Bess, Diana’s has a keen eye for crafting creative spaces. Her year-long remodel of this house was no different!

Prior to the renovation, Cybele described the kitchen in her Park Slope apartment as “Functional, but…a little worn”. It was still getting the job done, but the kitchen had seen better days. There were giant holes in the walls behind the cabinets, the electrical was outdated, and a dark countertop and backsplash sucked the light out of the room. The mosaic tile floor, with its miles and miles of grout, was a nightmare to clean.

Tarah lovingly updated the kitchen in her family home, holding onto history while creating a space that meets her needs and matches her style. She’s kept pieces of the old kitchen throughout the new one, lending a true vintage charm to the room. From Tarah: My grandparents built the kitchen of my grandma’s dreams when they installed indoor plumbing in the home for the very first time in 1958. They also put the bathroom behind the kitchen .

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a bold color in the kitchen if it’s executed well. Sadly that was not the case for Shannon’s sporadically navy blue kitchen. She made some small updates to the space when she first moved in, but after living with the kitchen for a few years she decided it was time to give the space the true makeover it deserved. From Shannon: When we first bought the house six years ago the kitchen walls and cabinet panels were painted a dark navy color.

Penelope and Andrew’s outdated kitchen needed a boost. Well, not just a boost. A whole new extension and then a boost. After paying the high price of living through a kitchen reno with a toddler, they were handsomely rewarded with a gorgeous kitchen chock full of brand new functionality. From Penelope: We wanted a bigger and more useful kitchen. I’m an architect so I couldn’t help but see the potential a small addition to the house could provide — a larger kitchen!

If you were to make a list of kitchen essentials, it’s fair to say that “working oven” would be close to the top. Erica’s kitchen not only lacked the aforementioned necessity but was also chock full of heavy, dark ’80s design details. Her budget minded revamp helped give the kitchen a new airy look and some needed functionality. When I moved into my 1980s fixer upper home two years ago, one of the first projects was the kitchen.

We recently featured Ashley’s dining room makeover, and now we get to see what kind of magic she’s worked in the kitchen. She unenviably lived through a year and a half long updating process, but the result is pretty stunning. From Ashley: The kitchen had ugly wallpaper, chipped paint on the cabinets, and was closed in. We wanted to open the space up to our dining room to make it feel bigger. We did almost all the work ourselves and it took us about a year and a half.

When the lack of storage is a pain, the finishes are extraordinarily plain and you just really don’t love your small kitchen, what do you do? If you’re designer Mary Lee, you rip it all out and DIY yourself a functional, stylish modern mini kitchen. Mary’s tiny 366 square foot Seattle studio apartment — that she shares with her partner and a dog — had me drooling over all the ways she added style and function to such a small space.

Project by: Karen Nepacena of Destination Eichler Location: San Leandro, California Karen was tasked with opening up the kitchen and dining area of a 1940s bungalow. The space had a ton of natural light that was going to waste in the current layout, so she tore down some walls and gave the space a whole new look that still honored the character of the home.

Erika’s kitchen was dark, drab and crowded. Even though she couldn’t make any major changes to the layout, she was able to give the kitchen a bright and stylish new look that created the sense of oodles more space. From Erika: The original kitchen of our 1950s split level house in the Oakland Hills was remodeled by the previous owner to simply sell the house.

Knowing there would be a move at some point in the future, Heather and Doug had resolved not to remodel the less-than-attractive vintage 1980s kitchen of their Park Slope condo. But that was before the cabinets and appliances started to give out. With duct tape holding together the shelves in their fridge, Heather and Doug were faced with a challenge: creating, with budget in mind, a new kitchen that they would be happy with and that future buyers would be happy with, too.