This Incredibly Easy Kitchen Transformation Involved Some Paint, Sticky Tiles, and Little Else

For years Maria Jordan, the blogger behind Maria Did That, painted and updated almost every room of her house — except the kitchen. “I couldn’t afford the kitchen I wanted so I just lived with a dirty yellow vinyl floor, yellow backsplash (of an unknown material), yellow Formica countertops with scorch marks, and dark wooden cabinets,” she says. At least the dated kitchen had one good thing going for it, Maria points out: decent windows, which often flooded the room with natural light (something even the best renovation can’t always fix).

One day Maria had some friends over to watch a football game, and one of them suggested she replace the flooring with the same material he had used to get his house ready for the market. They were just stick-on tiles, but the suggestion was brilliant and caused something to click for Maria.

At that moment she thought, Maybe I can just put a Band-Aid on this kitchen until I can afford to take down a wall, put in an island, install new counters, and the like. With that, Operation Band-Aid was officially launched.

First Maria painted the cabinets, which, in our opinion, made the biggest difference in the room. (The floors are a close second!) She decided to go with a darker peninsula as an accent and made all the other cabinetry a crisp, clean white. She also changed out the cabinet hardware, opting for sleek, brushed silver knobs and bin pulls.

Next, she resurfaced the counters — using a SpreadStone countertop refinishing kit — and added Smart Tiles as a backsplash.

The final step was a new floor. She stuck the tiles directly over her old floors, which made for a super-easy installation.

The entire transformation cost Maria $3,000. (And this prices includes appliances.) Honestly, she could have stopped after she painted her cabinets — but we’re sure glad she didn’t.

• The Most Important Step When Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets
• One Surprising Thing You Don’t Have to Do Before Priming Your Kitchen Cabinets
• The Best Kind of Paint for Painting Kitchen Cabinets
• Here’s What It Costs to Paint Kitchen Cabinets (and to Have Them Painted by Someone Else)

Have you done any of these projects in your own kitchen? Tell us about the transformation in the comments below.