Back in November 2016, we (finally) made the decision to give our kitchen a budget friendly makeover, transforming our dark, dated golden oak cabinets and green countertops to light, bright and beautiful for only $500!
Click HERE to see the full details of my $500 Holiday Kitchen Makeover
Isn’t the improvement amazing??
I want to be abundantly clear that at no point, since completing my makeover did I regret it. And that even after 18 months (and the issues I’ve encountered) I still would do it all over again!
There were 2 main areas of my kitchen that were made over for the updated look; Cabinets and Countertops.
We weren’t “ready” financially to splurge on an entire new kitchen, so I updated the look of our kitchen with paint.
… you probably know where I’m going next with this…
But the paint simply didn’t hold up, not on the counters especially.
Our kitchen isn’t a space that gets used lightly… I not only cook for us in my kitchen but it’s also a main space for much of my blog-business PLUS as active homesteaders, preservers, hunters and foragers, we’ve always got a big kitchen-based project in the works.
I wasn’t naive to think that simply painting would be the solution. I had hoped that my counters would have held up better.
My makeover was done pre-holiday 2016 but within a year, my counters were so scratched they were back to gross. My kitchen looked dirty, even when it was clean.
Despite all the smoke & mirrors of being a blogger, this was my holiday kitchen reality.
Ugly.
Let’s also be honest, when you have a white kitchen you WILL need to clean more often. White shows so much more dirt than my old oak cabinets. The constant wiping and scrubbing, left much of my white cabinets with an unpleasant distressed look (that’s pretty much the nicest way to say it)
In the areas that we use the post often, the paint was VERY chipped, despite our efforts to be careful.
In a nutshell, my $500 makeover looked amazing for about 9 months, which like I said in the beginning I was still happy with our decision when I think about how inexpensive it was and how much of an impact the makeover made in our home.
I knew going into my $500 Kitchen Makeover that I would need to do maintenance to keep the light, bright and clean look. Before Christmas Eve Dinner, I touched up my cabinets and countertops the best I could, while researching BETTER options for a more durable finish.
Now, before you start trying to do the math, YES I’m writing this post in the past tense…. Because I wanted to be sure that I found amazing solutions before posting this!
I loved the look of my painted counters and my research started with ways to better seal them, after repainting them…
But the universe lead me to a BETTER, HEALTHIER solution!
Long story short, a few days before Christmas I headed to Colorado for a 1:1 Countertop workshop.
Am I purposefully begin vague?
Yes!
I’m totally teasing you for the NEXT big reveal post, showing you how I resurfaced my countertops to look like natural stone.. that is food-safe, guaranteed durable and looks simply stunning.
And ECO-FRIENDLY.
Here’s a sneak peek…..
Those were photos that I took for some sponsored work, and I was able to use my actual countertops as a part of the composition!
No need to ‘create’ a pretty scene, when real life is so beautiful!
We’ve been living with these gorgeous counters for about 3 months and I’m fully confident in sharing them with you.. I can’t wait to show your our latest Kitchen Makeover!
Wow the power of paint! I know that was a lot of work! I had a contractor in a few years back and i wanted him to paint all my cabinets white I had him install subway tile everywhere and new counters and tile floor laid He talked me out of the white cupboards (too much work for him probably) Told me white kitchens were a trend and wood is always in style I still regret it They were refinished with polyurethane and he made new bottoms to match the top That was a lot of work too I should’ve insisted here I am 7+ years later regretting it all I love your new kitchen and can’t wait to see the counter tops You are teasing us! I hope you do your reveal soon! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes you post!