Remodeling your kitchen for a fraction of the standard cost is possible if you DIY it!
We are already half way through our budget kitchen remodel. I am sharing all the week 3 kitchen remodel progress, including a budget breakdown of what we have spent so far.
If you haven’t been following along, you can check out our Budget Farmhouse Kitchen Design here and the DIY Kitchen Remodel progress {week 2} here.
We are participating in the One Room Challenge™ hosted by Calling it Home and tackling a budget kitchen remodel.
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Because we are cheap, and always looking to save money, we are doing the entire kitchen (from gut to glory) on a tight budget. But that does not mean we are giving up anything, just putting in a lot more sweat equity.
I’m not going to lie, I am stressing out a little bit!!!
According to my very planned out schedule I should have half the cabinets installed already. Not to mention the cabinet doors should be built and painted. But alas, they are not.
However, I do feel like we have made progress on the budget kitchen remodel last week and I am excited to share it with you.
Before the cabinets can even get installed, the drywall had to be finished. Last week I mentioned our little delay with the first guy we had planned to do it.
I am so glad we ended up going with someone else and they did an amazing job. But the drywall and all those layers of mud were not done until Sunday at 6PM.
So first thing Monday morning I started painting the walls. I was super excited about the drywall going in (yay for no more falling insulation), but I was even more excited about the paint on the walls. It is amazing was a fresh coat of paint can do for a room.
Because this is the kitchen and the back walls will be completely covered with either cabinets or our beautiful tiled backsplash, I didn’t bother painting the back walls (and it saved me a gallon of paint).
But the side walls were painted a couple coats of Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray. This is the color we used in our living room and then I also used in the hallway.
So it made sense to continue it into the kitchen since it will only be around the corners. It made even more sense to our budget because I was able to use left-over paint to do it!
Next was the ceiling. My sweet husband was such a trooper to help me paint it, even after a very long day at work.
For all our ceilings I use Behr Pot of Cream in Eggshell. Since I do not plan on having to clean my ceilings (who does that?!?), I prefer the flatter sheen. It just disappears.
And the slightly warm white is the perfect clean/fresh color without being too cool. Even my hubby remarked how much cleaner it looked with the bright fresh paint on the ceiling!
And who would have thought I would be soooo obsessed over a ceiling?!
Unless you have been living with a funky 70’s drop ceiling, you cannot understand how much of an impact that 12 inches can make.
And our ceiling soffit was even weirder because it was an open kitchen/dining room, but only the ceiling in the kitchen was dropped. It made no sense!
Now our room is unified and open and I cannot touch the ceiling anywhere. That is amazing!
Even though the ceiling cost us time, it was a relatively cheap fix that is making a huge impact on our budget kitchen remodel.
Removing the soffit not only give me room for taller kitchen cabinets (and that means more storage, yay!), but it also makes the whole room look modern. Tall ceilings are in!
After the walls and ceiling were done, I was ready to install those beautiful new cabinets. I have been eating and sleeping cabinets since I started building them a couple weeks ago, but Mother Nature was not doing me any favors last week.
I know I should be grateful that we only got a couple inches of snow compared to the crazy spring storms some people have had. But even if it was not a blizzard, it was too cold to paint the cabinet face frames.
We could not install the cabinet until the face frames were painted. So while the snow fell yesterday, I decided to work on the floor and get it prepped for flooring instead (and stay warm in the process).
Since we removed 2 pantries, we had to fix the subfloor before we can add our new vinyl flooring. And since the subfloor under the cabinets was not great, I decided to rip up the subfloor in the entire kitchen area.
Then it was like piecing a puzzle together. I cut the subfloor into rectangles with my circular saw to fit into the space.
Then I secured it to the floor with 3/4″ staples. My daughter thought the pneumatic stapler was fun and insisted on helping me. These new subfloors are not going anywhere because she wanted to put staples EVERYWHERE.
Now with the new ceiling and new floors, the dust and dirt that we have been tracking through the entire house seems to be way less.
We were able to wipe things down and actually eat in the dining room again! That is a huge improvement over huddling around a makeshift table in the basement (because no one is eating on mom’s pretty coffee table).
And finally today was almost 60 degrees. I managed to get 2 coats of paint sprayed on all the upper cabinet face frames (and there are way more uppers than lowers) and the pantry. It made me giddy with excitement.
We brought the face frames into the house to dry fully overnight in the warmth and I caught a glimpse of them leaning up against the wall from the corner of my eye.
It almost brought me to tears. I can practically taste the new kitchen, it is that close. I keep telling everyone that we will have cabinets installed by Friday.
FRIDAY! Then it will actually look like a kitchen instead of just an empty room.
Kitchen remodels usually cost a pretty penny (okay, lots and lots of pennies), but we are trying really hard to do ours on a budget. That is one of the big reasons we are DIYing most of it.
But I know everyone else wants to know how much it really is costing. Is a DIY remodel really worth it?
So now that I have spent most of the money, I thought I would share a budget breakdown so far. These totals are not complete yet (and won’t be until the kitchen is done), but it is fun to follow along and see how things progress over the last half of the remodel.
- Electrical: $220 (my dad is an electrician and only charges me cost plus gas money)
- Drywall: $582
- Paint: $200 (the walls are left over greige paint from the living room)
- Flooring: $1178 (plus an estimate of $350 for install)
- Cabinets: $1400 spent so far includes most of the wood for drawer boxes and door fronts
- Countertops: $2011
- Backsplash: $165 for tile (will also need thinset and grout)
- Appliances: $1877 for new fridge and dishwasher, we are keeping our microwave and stove
- Sink: $625 (farmhouse sinks are pricey but we found a reasonably priced option)
- Faucet: $0 (we are using our old one that I replaced a couple years ago)
- Lighting: $259
We still need to figure in costs for cabinet hardware and finish work. And the possibility for more wood needed for the cabinets, installation of floor and countertops, and a few more DIY supplies.
But so far our budget kitchen remodel has cost us $8517! Compared to the average kitchen remodel cost of $35,000-$55,000 I would say we are doing pretty AMAZING!
I am planning on our entire kitchen remodel coming in under $10,000. For custom cabinets and lots of modern amenities and charm, I’d say that is a killer deal!
Stay tuned for next weeks update that will actually look like a kitchen, and hopefully I will have more time to get a blog post done about building those beautiful budget kitchen cabinets (I know a lot of you have been asking and I have not been ignoring you, just really busy).
And don’t forget to check out the other guest participants of the One Room Challenge™ . There are so many amazing rooms being redone, I cannot wait to see how they all turn out!
Brenda Godwin
Friday 18th of October 2019
Do you have instructions on how you built your sink base?
Kati
Monday 11th of November 2019
I do not have that on the website yet, but it is on my schedule to get formally written up after the holidays. Stay tuned!
CoCo
Thursday 26th of April 2018
You guys are rocking it Kati! I'm so excited about all the progress you've made so far. I know it's hard when you're ready to get everything back in order but you should be really proud of how things are coming together. It's going to be fabulous. Hugs, CoCo
Kati
Tuesday 8th of May 2018
Thanks so much for the love CoCo! Life will be back to normal soon and we can enjoy the new space :)
Ana
Tuesday 24th of April 2018
Katie, it's looking great! That ceiling is a huge makeover itself! Can't wait to see the rest! Amazing, talented friend!
Kati
Tuesday 8th of May 2018
thanks so much! I can't believe how much bigger things look by lifting up the ceiling. Cant wait to show it off ;)
Vicki and Jenn 2 Bees in a Pod
Sunday 22nd of April 2018
You always do the most ambitious projects and knock it out of the park! You should definitely be excited about that ceiling :) and all of the hard work that has already gone into this kitchen...well done!
Kati
Monday 23rd of April 2018
My husband would definitely agree with the ambitious part. But I keep reminding myself it will be worth it ;)