DIY Budget Kitchen Renovation – Our Gorgeous Kitchen Reveal!

YOU GUYS. YOU. GUYS. Our kitchen renovation is finally FINISHED!!!! It’s only been, oh I don’t know, like 6 months since we first embarked on this kitchen makeover? Holy goodness. It took us a long time, because, as you know, things like life get in the way. But oh man, was it worth it. Check out the full kitchen reveal below!

First let’s start off with a friendly little reminder of what our kitchen looked like when we moved in, almost 3 years ago. Orangey, shiny, oak cabinets with no hardware. Clunky built-in breadbox that was slightly busted. Uneven black tile counters and backsplash. Gross scratched black ceramic sink. Half finished tile by the stove. Hanging pendants that were wayyyyyyy too low and looked like they belonged in a dive bar. Gah-ross.

Functional? Yes. Pretty? Awww heck no. This kitchen was a huge eyesore and I always felt a bit self-conscious hosting people since the kitchen is the center of the house and the main congregating space for people.

Nate and I worked SUPER hard to get the ol’ kitchen up to snuff. It may have taken us 5-6 months of on and off work, but now it’s finally pretty and finished! Remember the kitchen mood board I posted a while back? Well, it’s finally come to reality 🙂 Take a little peeksy below (and get ready for a deluge of photos because I just couldn’t stop snapping pics!). We will have full tutorials up for how we painted the cabinets and did the backsplash tile, so for now just enjoy a tour of the new space!

Ahhhh, SO much better! Glorious pretty kitchen! Unfortunately we couldn’t change out the weird mismatched flooring as it wasn’t in the budget (and because we would have to replace basically the entire house’s floors since it’s all connected) but crappy flooring aside, how beautiful is this space now??

Since the microwave is now on the counter where the old bread box used to be, we used the hole in the island as a makeshift wine rack. Yay for more wine storage, amIright?

We replaced the old dive bar pendants with these light and airy glass pendants from Lowes. These ones have Edison bulbs, which is a cool design element and provides a nice warm glow when they’re on. We hung these pendant lights much higher than the old ones, so no more bonking our head on light fixtures when we are working at the island. Score!

Since the kitchen is basically the second thing you see when you walk in the front door (the first being our renovated living room) we wanted it to be something that was easy on the eyes and flowed well with the rest of the house.

The most expensive part of this renovation were the counters. You can’t exactly DIY counters, so we had to purchase ours. We went with a composite quartz from IKEA. They actually have a really awesome kitchen design section and it’s hard to see in the pictures, but the counters have beautiful flecks and little bits of shimmer to them. Our advice is to purchase counters when IKEA is running a sale, which is usually twice a year. Call your local store or ask an associate and they usually will know when the next sale will be.

We had our sink undermounted and I can’t tell you how much I love it! It’s super helpful to be able to just sweep crumbs straight into the sink and not have to worry about trying to clean around edges or caulking. The faucet was purchased at Home Depot on sale.

I picked up a little gold-edged ceramic tray from a clearance shelf at Target to house our hand and dish soap. It keeps my counters neat and ensures the soap isn’t leaving rings or marks on the counter. Plus, it’s really just adorable, isn’t it?

The old stove area had unfinished crappy black floor tiles as the counter and backsplash. No bueno.  Now it’s a bright and clean space where I can get all my cooking done. We choose a white subway tile from Build.com. (Full tutorial here!) and we love how clean it looks and how it blends into the beadboard above it.

Our little island is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen. I love that it has a little sink for rinsing vegetables for grabbing a glass of water. It’s my fave spot for a quick lunch or to catch up on mail. The little gap above the drawers is where a giant cutting board goes, we just haven’t put it back after painting yet!

We painted the cabinets with *drumroll* chalk paint! They are painted with the color ‘Pebble Beach’ from Country Chic Paint. And you know what? It was such an awesome choice and SO easy to do. No sanding or stripping or prep required! Just a coat of primer, paint, and a topcoat. (Full tutorial here!) 🙂

With the breadbox gone we have SO much more counter space and it shows of the suhweet backsplash so much better.

If you know me, or looked at my kitchen mood board, you know that one of my fave colors in the world is Aqua! So of course I had to include my DIY painted KitchenAid mixer and set out some of my Fiesta Ware mugs in the same hue. Love the pop of color!

More pops of aqua and my adorable owl cookie jar! It always brings a smile to my face 🙂

For hardware, we chose some beautiful rose gold cup pulls and knobs from Hickory Hardware. Aren’t they absolutely gorgeous? I just love the warmth and little bit of glam they bring to our space. I wanted them to stand out against the gray cabinets, which is why I went with gold instead of your typical silver or oil-rubbed bronze. Hickory Hardware has so many different types of hardware that’s really affordable. I would recommend them for any of your hardware needs!

A close up of the beautiful subway tile from Build.com. These were super nice because they came already hooked together on 12″x 12″ mats, so putting them up was a breeze. More details on the installation later!

Hubby bought me some flowers and I just couldn’t resist using them in our kitchen reveal? Love the pretty pop of color the bring to the island – fresh flowers are always the best decor!

Here you can see a view of how our new kitchen flows into our updated front living room. I love how grays and whites are a theme throughout our home. It’s sophisticated and classic and can support a wide range of design styles.

You see how shiny those appliances are? Man, before we started this kitchen renovation, they were all grimy and smudged and riddled with food stains and smears. Yuck. I found a genius (and super easy!) way to clean them in a few minutes flat. Post with the awesome cleaning trick coming soon! 😉

Our kitchen is definitely a unique space to most houses. The line with the pillar in it was actually the old outer wall of the house – previous homeowners bumped it out to where the stove is today (and apparently decided mismatched tile was the thing to put on the floor??) Ugh, really can’t wait to get rid of the flooring!

The barstools are from Target and you can get them in a pair for such a reasonable price. I love how sturdy they are and they add a nice little touch of rustic industrial flair.

And there you have it! Our completed kitchen renovation makeover! I’m seriously so in love with how it turned out and it’s so nice to be able to host parties and have guests over and be able to serve them in a nice looking space. For comparison, let’s take a couple of final looks at befores and afters, shall we?

Thank you SO much for bearing with me and taking the time to scroll through my bajillion and two photos of our kitchen reveal. It really is such a special space and I couldn’t wait to share it with you!

If you want to renovate your own kitchen on a budget, the key is to working with what you already have. Instead of completely gutting the space, we were able to reuse our old cabinets by painting them and adding hardware. They don’t even look like the same cabinets anymore! As for the backsplash and tile, look for sales or sites/stores that are trying to get rid of excess product that they have an abundance of. You can find so many great deals this way! For decor, shop your own home and see what you have in other rooms that would work well in the kitchen. Shop garage sales or thrift stores for stools, wine racks and more, for a great look at a fraction of the price. You wouldn’t believe what you can put together on a budget! 😉

Take a look at the rest of our kitchen renovation series:

Check out how to paint your cabinets with chalk paint by clicking HERE!

Check out how to install a subway tile backsplash by clicking HERE!

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What’s your favorite part of our kitchen renovation?