$600, Tenacity Pay Off in Kitchen
If you’re smart, you don’t need lots of money to redecorate. We just finished remodeling our condominium townhouse kitchen for about $600 and the difference is astonishing. We started with a modern kitchen that’s only 12 years old, but it had harvest gold-colored appliances and dark brown cabinets that had been severely neglected for all those years.
With time, tenacity and a lot of negotiation, we were able to convert the dark corner of the downstairs into a light and inviting focal point that makes many in the homeowners’ association envious. You can do it too.
Survey the latest trends. Model homes feature all of the newest colors and appliances as a result of interior designers who know how to make the tiny room look larger. We noticed all of the kitchens have cabinets that are exactly like ours, but they’re stained in a whitewash finish. Appliances are black or white. Wallpaper, often with huge borders, is used throughout the homes to hide the ugly textured wallboard and give the rooms extra pizazz. We incorporated all of these notes into our project.
Do it yourself, but act like a pro. We read books and interviewed specialists before we began our project. We weren’t surprised to learn the secret is in taking the extra time to prepare the surface before you begin to apply the finish.
Our kitchen cabinets look brand new after we invested $150 in materials, but it took three months of weekend work to do the job properly. The hardest part was sanding away all of the coats of varnish and the icy dark brown stain hiding our lovely ash wood. Each medium-sized cabinet door took about an hour of power sanding.
We were unsatisfied with the pre-mixed stain we found at a building supply store and returned it. We found something instead that has a smooth coverage and our desired look at a specialty paint store. Their trained staff knew to custom mix our shade, adding an extra shot of white to compensate for the residual dark stain.
After that we learned the benefits of steel wool. The more we rubbed on our stain, the prettier the wood became as pink, gray and blue tones appeared in the grain. We applied three coats of semi-gloss varnish on every wood surface, using steel wool in between coats to take care of each tiny bubble and dust particle that found its way onto our wood. The finish is now as beautiful as it is durable.
Know how to hunt bargains. We determined from the beginning that our kitchen would have top-quality materials but we were going to find discount prices. I always figure it’s easiest to find what you like at an expensive store, but then you must shop until you find the identical or similar item for at least 50% off that price.
Take wallpaper, for example. We went to a chain wall-covering store and looked at sample books for hours before we found the perfect wallpaper and border. The price on the pattern book read $19 a roll and we needed eight rolls to do the job.
I discovered ads in home decorating magazines for discount wall covering. I called the toll-free numbers and gave them my pattern, book and price code numbers and opened competitive bidding. I ended up with two stores who promised to beat any price and initiated a small price war until I got the quote of $9 a roll. Since the store was out of state, I also saved sales tax and the shipping was free.
Be creative. We knew the best way to change the color of our appliances was with paint, and a spray can of black (with steel wool sanding in between coats) converted our dishwasher and exhaust fan beautifully.
But the control panel on the dishwasher was brushed stainless steel with painted-on labels that were slowly peeling off with each cleaning. Where, we wondered, could we find a black panel that has the on/off markings included? How about the nameplate section of an office supply store? We supplied a template and for $10 we got a plastic panel with the proper signage and extra strong double-face tape to hold it in place. Don’t feel obligated to find all of your home decorating supplies in a store labeled the same.
Network. We’ve all learned these skills for business, why not apply them to our self-contracting needs? While we were looking for bargain linoleum and a qualified installer, we noticed a neighbor who always seemed to have a roll of floor covering in his truck. We talked and, sure enough, he turned out to be a professional tile installer.
He was more than happy to earn some extra cash working on his off hours and he gave us tile at wholesale price. Flooring for our 10-by-12-foot kitchen was $200 installed. Check among your friends, relatives and co-workers and perhaps you can find a specialist willing to assist with your project.
Barter your talents. We always love to help with our friends and family members’ home projects and that time finally paid off when we got our own place. We didn’t know how to hang wallpaper, but we have a sister and mother with hours of experience and all of the tools. For the price of a couple pizzas, they installed our paper and taught us a new skill.
Don’t forget the finishing touches. It’s the little things that count, yet most people will never notice them. Our secret weapon was white paint. It sounds terribly basic, but none of the previous owners bothered to paint the insides of the cabinets. We could never find anything in the backs of the cupboards before since they’re composed of dark-brown particleboard. Likewise, the ceramic tile countertops gleam even more now that we painted the undersides of the upper cabinets.
New hinges are barely discernible, yet worth the investment. We changed all our hardware from the dated antique brass to the classic shiny type. Under-cabinet lights are a luxury for only a few dollars. And then we wondered if we should splurge for new switch plates. At 16-cents a pop, what the heck?
The highest compliment we get when people look at our finished kitchen is when they guess how much it cost to remodel. A professional contractor said our cabinet refinishing alone would cost $1,000 if he did the work himself. We just smile and hope that figure will be added to our equity instead.
