The new year is a chance to make a fresh start in the kitchen. It's a good time to stand back and look at your space — is there a little project you've been meaning to take care of? Maybe you want to hang a pot rack? Rearrange your pots and pans so they are more organized? Hang a picture over the sink? This is the perfect kind of New Year's resolution — nothing that requires ongoing commitment. Just one small, well-selected improvement of your kitchen space.
A couple years ago I took the first week of January and painted over the scratched-up, dirty blue paint on my kitchen walls. It was tired and scraped up, and it felt so good to spend a night painting it a lighter, brighter color. It felt like I had a new kitchen! No, I can't do a gut renovation or get rid of the countertops I loathe with all my heart, but I could make a small improvement, and it went a long way. (I also discovered that painting the ceiling with high quality ceiling made an amazing improvement in the quality of light in my kitchen.)
What about you? Want to make a small improvement in your kitchen? Maybe you just want to really scrub the floors. Or organize your spices. Or clean out the fridge. Do it! Then come back here and tell us what you did. Here are some ideas to get you going!
A Few Small Kitchen Projects
- Paint your fridge with chalkboard paint.
- Paint the whole darn kitchen, why not?!
- Make a custom glass backsplash.
- Create your own knife storage solution.
- Replace the faucet.
- Strip the wallpaper.
- Replace your under-cabinet lighting.
- Convert a closet into a pantry.
- Make a kitchen mat.
- Build a kitchen island.
- Organize and label your spices.
- Upgrade your outlet and light switch plates.
- Cover up rusty dishwasher racks with this little hack.
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Make Chocolate Magic Shell Ice Cream Topping with Only 2 Ingredients
Our reading list
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Candy Stripe Teaspo...
30 DIY Projects for the 3-Day Weekend
Tina Wilson's Striking Style 
Comments (17)
Well, I have 2!
1) repaint the kitchen (tried out a color I had on hand-bleh! waiting for budget to improve to get another gallon.
2) install new counter tops. Sounds expensive, but we have a tiny galley kitchen. We have a piece of marble that has been in the basement forever. We are going to cut it to size & install it over our plywood, homemade cupboard & then for the other counter top, it will be replaced with IKEA butcher block.
Can't wait!
I'm painting the kitchen next week. Same color but it's been 8.5 years and it needs to be repainted.
I want to renovate so badly. I have white 1980s builder's melamine cabinets and a plastic laminate countertop. Even just changing the cabinet the doors would be a huge improvement.
What I would really love is more counter space, but there's only so much one can do with a galley kitchen.
My kitchen is terrible - it is the original kitchen installed when the house was built in 1979 and nothing has ever been upgraded. Until now, I've resisted doing anything because I kept thinking "I just need to gut the whole thing." But I recently changed my mind. I don't know if I'll *ever* have the money to completely redo the kitchen, so instead of just living with it, I'm going to start doing the little things - repaint, fix the broken drawers, new backsplash, etc. Might as well make it as good as possible while I hope to win the lottery, right?
We will be installing backsplash this year. We replaced the countertops a few years ago and we love our cabinetry so this will just complete the look.
we just remodeled in June, but still have a long way to go!
We have big things to do (like install new flooring) but in the mean time, I really want to focus on
1. getting NEW LIGHTS,
2. repainting (so hard to choose a color), and
3. finding something to do with our giant window.
I need some sort of window treatment that will brighten up the kitchen without detracting from the beautiful window :\
I can't believe 6 months have already passed since we began...
We started a 1,000.00 or under kitchen re-do last January..life & work got in the way with progress but almost finished, my daughter made fused glass tiles for backsplash, I am a woodworker so used reclaimed wood for island makeover, painted & restyled tired old dark oak cabinets, new sink, hardwood floor redo & add on..should be finished soon, it is such a change, maybe I will post pics...oh and still below the grand.
@Cattails Studio, oh please do post pics when you can. Maybe post them on the main site so we won't miss them on this portion of the blog?
I'm still feeling pretty overjoyed about our kitchen remodel from 2010, but there are a few things that aren't perfect... one corner without under-cabinet lights, an unorganized baking sheet cabinet, no slide-out cabinet under the kitchen sink. Of course, cleaning out the fridge is always a great idea!
@cattails studio - you are my hero - I so want to see!
I'm hoping to reorganize my spices (again). I do it every 6 months, oh, and organize all my flour types. And maybe paint one wall orange.
@digigirl I came to the same conclusion last year. There's no way we could afford to completely reno our kitchen, so we just decided to make it more efficient and cute and work with what we had. We painted the walls and cabinets, put on new hardware, installed pullout shelves, and purged and reorganized our stuff. I also splurged a bit and replaced my ugly builder grade chandelier in the dining room with the Firefly from cb2. It's made a huge difference and I'm amazed how much more I love my kitchen with just the few (and budget-friendly) changes we've made.
A few days ago we replaced my 17 year old microwave with a smaller stainless one and put it on an Ikea Forhoja cart and off the countertop. Hooray for more counter space!
great post! Like digigirl and changaTX, I too, don't think I'll ever be able to afford my absolute dream kitchen, but I've found that an occasional bunch of fresh flowers, a little paint, and some cheery kitchen towels go a long way!
My 1932 Tudor had a Victorian style wallpaper trim and blah beige walls. With very little wall space to paint I went with a deep red. A small amount of time was spent to make a huge difference! Now I spend lots of time there and I enjoy it so much more.
We just finished adding a cabinet in the wasted space above the fridge in our kitchen. What a difference! I may have opened up enough cupboard space in the base cabinets to install a small dishwasher. Life-changing!
I still have painting to do in my kitchen(the paint is purchased)after the reno and I would like to wax the tile floor..I have the glass for the backsplash and the pieces for behind the stove.I have new interior doors purchased and not installed.The list is endless.This is the year to finish what was started.Last year I was so happy to put the contractor out of the house that I couldn't work up the desire to move ahead with anything.
For those feeling like they will never have the kitchen they dream about....take heart.I lived in my house for years with nothing ever touched.Mine is a 150 year old house.What a dump it was.Original everything...think cloth wiring.Oh yeah...that 'good'!It needed 'everything'.I spent a small fortune upgrading and rehabbing.I'm especially proud of the two bathrooms and the kitchen.They are beautiful and way better than I had hoped for.That said...I still don't have my 'dream' kitchen or bath and I doubt I ever will either,but I love my home.I loved it the first time I walked into the house and I'm just as in love with it today.It's home.
I'd love to refinish the cabinet fronts. I saw some faux finishes that you can actually put over your existing cabinets, just not sure how great they are. The other project was painting the kitchen which my wife got me to do. I hesitated because I knew that would lead to more painting. Sure enough, she got the living room, dining room, hallway and entrance way out of me. On the topic of this article, I searched for and found some modern kitchen ideas online and shared them with others. In the spirit of the article, just start small and do one project at a time. Don't let things get too our of hand, then start feeling pressured and overwhelmed.