This Brown 2000s Kitchen Got a Bright and Modern Makeover for Under $4,000
The renter-to-owner evolution is a somewhat common one, but it’s a little less common that someone is able to one day own the exact apartment they once rented. Heather and John Stewart were in that unique position when their landlord put their beloved apartment of many years up for sale. “We love the apartment and location and decided to buy it,” Heather says. “Once we owned it, and were actually able to make changes, we were excited to put our stamp on it and make it feel like ours.”
The kitchen, in particular, was in need of some change, as it hadn’t seen an update since the early 2000s. “The 4-inch granite backsplash and creamy yellow wall color made everything feel dated,” Heather says. “The cabinets were MDF with a faux-wood laminate finish that was starting to peel off.”
Two things the couple liked about the kitchen? The black granite countertops, which were in good condition and could go with everything, and the overall layout.
The cabinets got a paint makeover.
They gave the cabinets an updated look by peeling off the old laminate — it came off way easier than expected — and painting with gray-black (Farrow & Ball’s Railings) for the lowers and Benjamin Moore’s White Ice for the uppers. “John did a lot of good research on types of paint that are durable on cabinets,” Heather says.
Her advice? Invest in quality cabinet paint, and “borrow a friend’s garage or maker’s space“ to lay out your cabinet doors for painting, if you can. “Painting kitchen cabinets in a one-bedroom apartment is doable but not fun,” she adds. “Our living space was entirely consumed by this project for several weeks.”
She also says she’d try to create a crisper line between her inner cabinet color and outer cabinet color with a painting hack she’s since seen online. (John and Heather only painted the front doors and sides of the cabinets, and left the interiors of the cabinets white.)
IKEA lighting brightens the kitchen.
The cabinets also got upgraded with IKEA STRÖMLINJE lights and new brass hardware from Etsy. The brand-new Moen faucet was a $30 find from Second Chance Baltimore.
“Adding under- and over-cabinet lighting made a huge difference in brightening the space overall and the countertops, specifically,” Heather says. “Finally we could actually see what we were doing!”
The walls also got an airy coat of off-white (Benjamin Moore’s Graytint) paint.
Goodbye, gray backsplash. Hello, white hex tile.
The new tile backsplash also brightens the kitchen. John ripped out the old one and installed the 6×7-inch hex tiles, probably the hardest step of the kitchen transformation.
“We realized that [the backsplash] was covering up a very uneven wall, and in places there was a huge gap between the counter and the wall,” Heather says. “John looked online and talked to his father (an avid DIYer) to get some ideas … To help with reducing the gap, John 3D-printed a ‘mesh’ that we used to regrade the wall and hold the plaster. It worked surprisingly well but took a lot of thinking and work to make!”
Small but mighty details complete the kitchen’s new look.
Another slight setback was that the old fridge stopped working at the very end of the redo, so Heather and John had to buy a new one, which now feels like it’s always been there, Heather says.
“The wood veneer floors are on their last leg and need to be replaced, but that’s a much larger project,” Heather says. “In the meantime, we repaired a gouge in the wood floor with wood filler and wood crayons to match the coloring, and we’re really happy with how it turned out.”
They added some thrifted shelving for their cookbooks, jute semicircle rugs, and a concrete utensil holder, and they’re proud of how the whole kitchen came together thanks to their DIY efforts.
The paint “made a huge difference in visually separating the kitchen from the dining room,” Heather says, and “it feels like we have a brand-new kitchen at a small fraction of the price of demoing and putting in a new kitchen.” The total cost was $3,475.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.