This Kitchen Makeover Features Upcycled Cabinets from 1988
Denmark-based homeowner Allan Torp’s (@bungalow5dk) style leans more minimalist and Scandinavian. In fact, the only thing he liked about his kitchen that “felt stuck in another decade — possibly the ’90s” was its basic white tile backsplash. He also liked the natural light the kitchen got.
The rest was lacking. “There was barely any storage, the tiny fridge was inconveniently low, and the overhead cupboards blocked a lot of light,” Allan says. “The layout didn’t make good use of the space, and the dark ceiling just made it feel more closed-in. It felt like a room that could work really well with the right updates. It just needed a complete rethink.”
But to give the design a push forward, Allan had to take a trip back to the 1980s.
The kitchen cabinets were free (and from 1988).
Allan wanted to redo his kitchen on a budget, so he scoured Facebook Marketplace for free materials. After months of searching, he found a set of cabinets for free on the platform, but they were from 1988, so they would need some updating.
He set up a temporary “camping kitchen,” demoed out his old kitchen, and got to work giving new life to the old cabinets. “It took a lot of searching and patience, but finding something solid and well-made to work from saved me thousands,” Allan says. His total kitchen redo cost was about $7,480, including all new appliances.
Getting the cabinets to fit was “like solving a 3D puzzle.”
Allan is a former kitchen designer, so he had a good vision of how it would all come together, but the actual fitting of the cabinets involved many DIY firsts.
“I had to make quite a few alterations to get the layout to work, adjusting cabinets, trimming pieces, and reconfiguring sections to make it all line up properly,” he says. (For instance, because he chose to forgo upper cabinets in the “after,” he used the 1988 overhead cabinets to make some tall floor-to-ceiling cabinets.)
“I also had a few extra cabinets to practice on, so that was a nice help,” he adds. Allan’s takeaways? Don’t be afraid to take on a big project you’ve never tried before, measure twice (if not three times), and “materials and craftsmanship from past decades are often far better than what’s common today,” he says — with some modifications to upgrade their aesthetic, that is.
The countertop and backsplash were splurges.
“Because the rest of the kitchen was secondhand, I decided to invest a bit more in the surfaces — the Dekton countertop and backsplash from Cosentino — to give the room a more high-end, long-lasting finish,” Allan says.
He describes the “after” as “a nice balance of old and new: durable, beautiful materials paired with solid vintage cabinetry that was built to last.”
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