Affordable Kitchen Updates in a Weekend

Recently one of my best friends from college purchased her first home! She’s a single teacher and it is a very practical first time home. She wasn’t loving all of the 90’s oak and dated fixtures, so I came to town to help her bring some character to her new home. We made a ton of affordable kitchen updates in a weekend!

As you can see with just paint and new light fixtures we were able to drastically transform this kitchen! We used my tutorial for painting cabinets to spray all of the grey cabinets.

We installed faux shiplap on the peninsula and the divider wall the same way that I did in this tutorial. In order to help the cabinets pop, we just painted the walls and backsplash white.

A can of spray paint was enough to transform all of the hardware. Erin doesn’t use a microwave and prefers the look of a range hood rather than a microwave above the range. Sadly the range hood didn’t arrive on time to make it into the pictures. We also swapped out all of the electrical fixtures and cover plates for new bright ones.

We discovered that Wal-mart has a great selection of modern affordable light fixtures, and we ended up installing them throughout the whole house! A few weeks ago I rounded up a bunch of chandeliers all under $200, we ended up choosing this one, but we’re afraid it might be a bit too big. If she decides to switch it out for something smaller I’ll try and get an updated picture with the new chandelier! Erin hasn’t actually moved into her new home yet, but she has SO many beautiful LIVE plants that we grabbed a few from her rental to use for staging the photos! We pulled the bistro table in from her patio, but she’ll be using a larger wood table in here once she gets moved in.

Over the course of three days we completely transformed this kitchen, as well as both of her bathrooms! If you’re not a fan of your kitchen here is a list of the easiest changes that will totally transform it:

• Paint Cabinets
• Replace or Paint Hardware
• Replace Light Fixtures
• Paint Walls
• Add an accent like shiplap or wallpaper
• Update Appliances
• Swap out yellowed electrical plates
• Add plants and art
  

Sources (contains affiliate links):

• Chandelier
• Faucet Pendant Light
• Flush Mount Light
• Cabinet Paint Color- Pittsburgh Paint Padlock Gray
• White Paint Color- Benjamin Moore Simply White
• Under Cabinet Hood (didn’t arrive on time)
• Cabinet Knobs (similar)
• Bistro Table
• Sailboat Art (vintage)

For full transparency, I decided to share a budget breakdown! Many of these items were also used on the bathrooms as well making those updates even more affordable!

• Pendant Light- $20
• Flush Mount Light- $50
• Chandelier- $150
• Spray Paint for Cabinet Hardware- $6 (also used for bathroom)
• Gray Primer- $16 (also used for bathroom)
• Gray Paint- $32 (also used for bathroom)
• White Paint- $32
• Polycrilic Sealer- $45 (also used for bathroom)
• Shiplap- $30
• Shiplap Outside Corners- $16
• Range Hood- $100
• Electrical Cover Plates- $5
• Paint Supplies (rollers, trays, brushes, tape, etc)- $40 (also used for bathroom)

TOTAL= $543

I hope you love these affordable kitchen updates in a weekend! My friend is SO much happier with how her home looks now, and can’t wait to move into this space! We also completely transformed her bathrooms.. all in the same three days, here is the post with those details! Needless to say we didn’t sleep much in those three days!