3 Tips for a Budget Friendly Kitchen Renovation

I share the 3 main things that helped us keep our kitchen renovation budget friendly. I estimate that we only spent about $5,700 on this kitchen renovation. That is including appliances. It is possible to make a kitchen you love on a tight budget if you find yourself in that position.

100 year old farmhouse kitchen renovation

At this stage of life we are trying to slow down and aren’t throwing ourselves into work as much as we did before growing our family. We do this so we can save energy for us to be the best parents we can to these little people and so that we can spend as much time as we can supporting and preparing them for this world. That means we don’t have as much fun money to spend as we did back in the day.

Although I will say we have never really been rolling in the dough. It took me a long time to figure out which path to take career wise. I think it took having kids to really make that path more apparent to me. All that to say if you find yourself in a similar position or just want to save for whatever reason I hope these tips below help you.

Budget Friendly Kitchen Budget Tip #1: The gift of time

Because we were not under a time crunch with this kitchen renovation I had the gift of time. Time to look for deals on items I knew I wanted. A big example of this is with the appliances we purchased. We were able to wait until the store’s big holiday sales to purchase these big ticket items. I estimate this saved us almost $1,000. Which is more than we spent on the countertops to put that into perspective.

Another advantage of this gift of time is that it gives you time to use the space as is. As we changed things little by little over time we got more comfortable with how we used the space. We save how it best functioned for us. This made the overall results of the renovation that much better. It’s not glamorous but the way your space functions for your family makes such a difference in your daily life.

Kitchen Budget Tip #2: Work with what you have

Look at your space and try to see what is working. Sometimes something else is so bad that it’s bringing the whole kitchen down. There could be some good things still. Try and find the good in your existing space. Hopefully at least the overall layout is pretty good.

If you have to change walls, plumbing or electrical that can get pricey. Especially depending on your foundation. If they have to drill in to concrete to move plumbing that’s gonna add up fast. Also taking walls down can be like opening a can of worms. You never know what you are going to find.

Sometimes an item in your space might just need a fresh coat of paint. This was the case in our kitchen. The cabinets were a bit of an eye sore because they were so dark and worn down. Once I put a fresh coat of paint on them it was a night and day difference.

Farmhouse Kitchen renovation turn old cabinets into coffee bar

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The hardware is another item that could help. For some of our cabinets the pulls were in the middle of the door which really dated them and they had this backer plate under the pull. I just filled in those holes in the middle of the doors and added some paint. Now those same pulls are installed in the corner of the doors without the backer plate, and I think they look great.

I did add some inexpensive antique bronze pulls to go along with the existing hardware. So that is an option for you too. Maybe some of your existing hardware is fine, and you can replace the ones you don’t like with hardware that has a matching finish. Originally there were knobs on the drawers, but I really wanted scoops.So these scoops in a matching finish were a nice budget friendly addition to our kitchen renovation.

Kitchen Budget Tip #3: Go classic with the hard to change items

For this tip it’s kind of two fold. It usually saves the budget in the beginning and over time. The butcher block counter top is a good example of a classic choice that we went with. It was definitely a cheaper option, about $600 total for our kitchen. Thanks to it being a timeless option we won’t be stressing over replacing it in 10-15 years.

Our subway tile backsplash is another example of this. It did get a bit trendy over the last decade with the farmhouse style. However, I still consider it a classic. It was cost effective to use this for our backsplash. It also is a nice neutral backdrop that we won’t be itching to change out in the next few years.

If you find yourself wanting to add something trendy then I would do that with smaller accessories/decor and paint. Paint is pretty budget friendly, and easy to add in a kitchen renovation. You can go more bold with paint colors on the cabinets. In our kitchen I went with this whisper mint color by Valspar that is a little bold for me anyway.

I saved this bolder color for the coffee station and the range hood. I figured it would be fairly easy to change them. You totally could paint all the kitchen cabinets in a bold trendy color. It wouldn’t cost very much to change out in the future. If you are anything like me painting can be kinda fun. I think it’s really rewarding seeing how fast you can transform the look of something.

Thank you for visiting our old farmhouse!