Before & After
budget
renovating

Kitchen Before & After: A Brown, Cramped Kitchen Opens Up For Under $3,500

Cambria Bold
Cambria Bold
Cambria Bold is the Managing Editor of Cubby, and one of Apartment Therapy Media’s first full-time editors from way back when. She was the founding Design and Lifestyle Editor for Kitchn and the Managing Editor for Apartment Therapy’s green living site, Re-Nest (RIP). After a few years offline and then working elsewhere, she’s back to share ideas about design, kids, and family life. It’s helpful that she now has two little kids and lots of thoughts about all those things. She lives with said kids and their father in St. Paul, MN.
updated May 2, 2019
pinterest
comments
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
(Image credit: Christina’s Adventures)

When Christina and her husband first looked at the Philadelphia house that would eventually become their home, they almost didn’t buy it because of the kitchen: “It was so small, so brown, and so ugly,” Christina writes on her blog Christina’s Adventures. But they did, after deciding they were going to figure out a way to open, brighten, and maximize every bit of space in the kitchen — and on a tiny, $3,500 budget.

And that’s exactly what they did! Check out what this brown, drab kitchen looks like now…

(Image credit: Christina’s Adventures)

What a transformation! The grand total cost of the renovation, which was a full-on DIY project and paid for completely out of pocket, was $3,395.28. Christina breaks down the cost of every part in her detailed post about it here.

A few of the major changes:

  • Removed the upper cabinets completely and replaced them with open shelving.
  • Kept and repainted the lower cabinets.
  • Installed luxury vinyl floor tiles, which Christina says “are super durable, look amazing, and will last a very very long time.”
  • Installed butcher block countertops stained with Minwax Weathered Oak & sealed with Waterlox.
(Image credit: Christina’s Adventures)
(Image credit: Christina’s Adventures)

See many more photos and get a full resource list and price breakdown at the links below:

Read More → Our Kitchen: Before & After and Our Kitchen: All the Details and the Final Cost at Christina’s Adventures

Thanks for letting us share this, Christine!

Have a kitchen tip, project, or renovation you’d like to show off?Every week we feature a reader kitchen project, and we’re always looking for submissions. To submit your own project, follow the instructions in this post and you could see it end up here on The Kitchn.

See more home Before & After surprises at Apartment Therapy!