Kitchen Upgrades on a Dime
For many families, the kitchen is often the most important room in your entire home. It is the one space where at some point everyone ends up either to eat, or just to gather around the table for a good time. But over time your kitchen can begin to look a little dull due to all the wear and tear. Updating your kitchen doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, in fact, there a many cheap and cheerful ways to bring new life to a tired looking kitchen.
Here are our top 10 cheap and cheerful kitchen upgrades:
1. New handles and pulls. If you’re lucky enough to have cabinetry with handles and pulls, upgrading this hardware can go a long way to completely changing the look of your kitchen. It’s easy to add a splash or color or switch over to a brushed metal to give your space more character. Try to avoid anything too cutesy or “creative”, although they’re lots of fun, they can get old fast.
2. Paint your cabinets. Nothing livens up a space quicker than a quick coat of paint, and its way cheaper than trying to replace your entire kitchen cabinetry. A little paint can completely alter the atmosphere in any room.
3. Swap out or remove cabinet doors. If your cabinetry and looking a little too last century, swapping out the doors can be an easy upgrade and there are plenty of refurbishing or second-hand options to be found. For a more modern look, remove some of the doors altogether to help create a more open feel if you think your dishes are display worthy.
4. Paint an accent wall. This is a tried and true technique which works wonders in any room of your home. It can be accomplished in one day and is great is you can only get your hands on some leftover paint. Try a bright colour, or something perhaps only a couple shades darker from another wall or the cupboards.
5. Hang a pendant light. Replacing decades old fixtures can be a costly upgrade, opt for replacing whichever fixture happens to be your main focal point of the room. Some people have a dining area with a fan and lights dating back to the 70s, try something more modern like a pendant light over the table or kitchen island to bring more light to the room. You’ll be surprised how just changing up the lighting can completely transform and create a more inviting space.
6. Use appliances as decorative accessories. If your kitchen is already pretty modern but you find that it still feels a little drab and devoid of life, try updating your small appliances like your toaster, coffee maker or blender with more colourful options. Nowadays you can find many coloured appliances in pink, red, and blue for example.
7. Treat your windows. A go-to uplift for any room can involve merely updating your window treatments. Even if you don’t want to get rid of those old blinds, just adding some curtains can really liven up a space and is an easy way to splash a bit of colour or pattern.
8. Floor mats. If you don’t already have a small mat in front of your kitchen sink, this is the perfect opportunity to add a splash of colour. You’ll also be surprise just how great it feels under your feet when you’ve been standing there mussing around in the sink. An indoor/outdoor option works best to make cleaning up spills easy, or you can opt for something that can easily be washed.
9. Add a backsplash. If you’ve got a few more dollars to spend, adding a backsplash along the wall next to the kitchen counter is a great way to not only add some colour, but also bring out your creative side. There are so many options on the market and so many ways you can mix and match patterns and colours that the possibilities are endless
10. Replace the countertop. If you’re looking to go all out because your countertop is beginning to look more like a chopping block, or perhaps that retro orange and brown has seen better days, then you’ll be surprised how just swapping up the countertop can make it feel like you have a whole new kitchen. And surprisingly, it’s not as expensive as you think to replace. There are so many nicer laminate options available now that you don’t need to spend thousands on real marble when you can spend a couple hundred on a laminate which looks like the real thing.