My $500 Kitchen Refresh Reveal with Cost Breakdown

Miranda Schroeder

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I knew exactly where I wanted to go with this kitchen, but our tiny budget took me in a slightly different direction. We will likely revisit this space after the wedding for a few more updates.

I’m obsessed with black, so my heart was set on black cabinets, brass fixtures, and revealing the gorgeous original hardwoods which were hiding under the vinyl. Looking back at these pictures, I can’t believe this is the same kitchen!

I’m finally ready to share some photos of our budget kitchen updates. Initially, I wanted to gut this thing, but I knew that was not financially smart for us. That said, I couldn’t live with our disgusting, outdated kitchen.

A little, jk a lot, of paint, and some elbow grease have gone a long way on this kitchen. It might not be my dream kitchen, but it feels so much fresher than it did with what we were able to do on a $500 budget!

The kitchen was SO bad that it was almost a deal breaker when I saw this house, but Andrew was in love, and I couldn’t say no to his cute face. It was gross, dirty, dingy, and soooo beige. This house was not taken care of and that was very evident in the kitchen.

The handles were falling off the cabinets, an inch of dirt on everything, missing cabinet drawers, sheet vinyl peeling off the floor, cobwebs draped from the ceiling fan, purple circle curtains covering the windows, and the list goes on.

I’m embarrassed that we actually threw a New Years party with our kitchen looking like this. Yikes! Thankfully, the previous owners had installed a stainless steel dishwasher and purchased a large stainless refrigerator. That made a huge impact on keeping our budget extremely low.

The Kitchen Budget Breakdown

I ripped out the vinyl floor, painted everything besides the floor, brought in an affordable kitchen island from target, used stickpretty self adhesive tile details, replaced the cabinet hardware, replaced the nasty ceiling fan, replaced the over sink light fixture, and decorated the shelves with a thrifted painting and some things I found around the house.

Kitchen Makeover Shopping List:

  1. Two Gallons of Satin Paint: Behr Marquee Polar Bear White $37.98 X 2 – Home Depot
  2. One Gallon of Black Semi-gloss Paint: Behr Marquee Black Limousine $37.98 – Home Depot
  3. Tile Decals: Stickpretty Gifted (Thank you Stickpretty!) – I can’t tell you how many compliments we get on these!
  4. Stainless Steel Stove: Gifted (Thak you Mama & Pops for replacing your stove)
  5. Ceiling Light Fixture: Home Depot LED fixture $49.97 (I spray painted it black)
  6. Kitchen Island: Target $199.00
  7. Brass Cabinet Pulls: Menards $129.00
  8. Light Fixture: Menards Clearance $26.69
  9. Grand Total: $518.60

Even this simple refresh took me forever. I had to squeeze in the work around my crazy schedule. I started at the beginning of the year and just now feel happy enough with the kitchen to take a picture.

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I still plan on refinishing the floors, tiling the back splash with subway tile, covering the shelves with wood, and replacing the counter tops and sink. I also want to add some kind of storage solution over by the refrigerator.

All of that said, I wanted you guys to see what I was able to do with just $500! I’ve been sharing some of these updates on my Instagram account, and will continue to do so as this space evolves!

Here’s How to Get the Look

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