When Kathy sent us photos of her kitchen makeover, we had to wipe the drool from our chins. Here’s her letter:
I just wanted to share some before-and-after pictures of our recent kitchen redo. I love reading your blog—your updates keep me inspired. We used your “how to” tutorial on painting cabinets as our starting point and decided to refresh our cabinets instead of replacing them. The old pickled whitewashed finish became a solid, chic gray (Fieldstone by Benjamin Moore), while the walls are Winter White, also by Benjamin Moore.
We hired professionals to handle a few key tasks: raise the cabinets to the lowest part of the ceiling, install a new sink and faucet and an exhaust fan, tile the backsplash with white subway tile, lay gray marble-look tile on the counters, and add a white shelf where the bottom of the original cabinets used to be. To save money we used tile that mimics marble instead of a full stone slab, and we spray-painted the original brass hinges silver rather than buying new ones. The project wasn’t free, but it wasn’t budget-breaking either—materials and labor came to about $1,600. The sink, exhaust fan, backsplash tile, counter tile and shelves were all purchased at Lowe’s. If you want more details, we posted additional photos and notes on our blog. Thanks for looking! — Kathy
Here’s the kitchen before the makeover:
And here’s the same space after the cabinet painting and rehanging, the new sink, the subway tile backsplash, the tiled counters and the shelf installed under the newly raised cabinets:
The transformation is dramatic. At first glance the color palette appears similar, but the updated finishes make the space feel fresh, crisp and much more refined compared to the original builder-grade look. Raising the cabinets and adding stone-look counters instantly elevated the room, creating a more luxurious and cohesive appearance. Perhaps best of all is the cost-effectiveness: comparable updates—new countertops, backsplashes, fixtures and rehung cabinets—often run $5,000 or more, so Kathy’s budget-friendly approach is especially impressive. What do you think? Isn’t this kitchen the bee’s knees?