At some point every person wants to do a kitchen makeover.
Perhaps you just helped a friend move. Maybe you saw a great picture of a kitchen in a magazine.
Maybe you went to your local home supply store and fell in love with some new (and very pretty) appliances. Maybe you’re just in need of a spruce.
It happens to all of us sooner or later: we look around our homes and say “you know what?
I know exactly what this place needs!”
So where do you start when you think you want to do a kitchen makeover?
Take a look at these new kitchen makeover tips.
The first thing you need to do when you decide that it is time to makeover the kitchen in your home is to decide how extensive you want your kitchen makeover to be and to take a look at some kitchen makeover ideas.
This will also depend on what budget you have for your kitchen makeover.
Some people like to pull everything out and put all new everything back in.
Others decide that a few small decorative touches are all that they need.
Still others give their kitchens a thorough cleaning and call the project done.
How much time, energy and money do you want to put into making over your kitchen?
There are many different levels of kitchen makeovers from the changing of a few decorations to the knocking down of a wall or two and everything in between.
Thankfully, no matter what your budget or experience, you should be able to create a whole new look for your kitchen.
As long as you are creative and don’t mind doing some research or getting a little dirty and dusty, your kitchen makeover is completely within your reach!
Table of contents
Budget
The very important step that you need to look at is your household budget.
Do you have enough money to do a complete overhaul of your kitchen?
Not everybody has that kind of money sitting around.
After all, expansions, renovations and remodels are expensive!
How much money do you have to spare?
Do not worry if you do not have a lot of money to spend on a brand new kitchen.
There are plenty of budget friendly ways to spruce up the place!
You need to decide from the beginning how extensive you want to go with the makeover:
Quick, Simple and Cheap Kitchen Makeovers
Believe it or not, sometimes a good, deep and thorough cleaning is all you need to do to completely makeover your kitchen.
Dirt and grime have a way of going unnoticed in kitchens and sometimes an intense and thorough cleaning is all that is needed to completely change the look of your kitchen.
Another quick and simple makeover kitchen project is taking down your current decorative objects and turning the kitchen into a clean and uncluttered space.
Contrasting this is pulling things out of hiding and displaying them as decorative objects.
Hanging pots and pans and large kitchen utensils on the wall can create a three dimensional mural and add some distinct personality to your kitchen.
Rearranging the furniture is also a quick and easy way to makeover your kitchen.
Mid Level Kitchen Makeovers
If you don’t mind putting more work into your kitchen makeovers, perhaps you should consider repainting your kitchen walls and refinishing your kitchen cabinets.
A new color and stain in your kitchen can do wonders for making over your kitchen.
Other mid level projects include bringing in some new furnishings or a new appliance.
Some people find that installing new countertops can help you with your kitchen makeover project.
At this level of kitchen makeovers is also the changing or replacing of your kitchen flooring.
All it takes is changing one of the major features of your kitchen to make it over.
Extensive and Extreme Kitchen Makeovers
Extensive and extreme kitchen makeovers are for those who have large budgets or extensive construction and design experience.
These projects often involve completely overhauling your kitchen.
The project can include the pushing out of walls, the rewiring and re-plumbing of your fixtures as well as new paint, new counters and new appliances.
These types of kitchen makeovers are usually called kitchen renovations.
When you are doing an extensive or extreme kitchen renovation it is not uncommon to change everything about your kitchen to make it a completely new room.
Research
Once you know how much money you have to spend on your kitchen makeover, you will want to do some research.
Your remodeling and makeover budget will dictate what kind of research you do.
If your budget is larger and you can spare the time to supervise, you will probably want to start looking at contractors and designers for designer kitchen makeovers.
If your budget is smaller, you will want to hit the magazines and “design on a budget” websites. Remember to look into specific items as well.
Do you have enough money to afford a new refrigerator?
Research the brands and styles that will work best for your family!
Can you only afford smaller items like decorations?
Start looking into crafts and thrift stores.
Shopping
Shopping is, for most people, the best part of doing a kitchen makeover.
This is when you get to go out and try out all of the things you want to buy or purchase supplies for the things you want to make.
Combing the thrift stores can be a great way to spend an afternoon if you are trying to remodel your kitchen on a tight budget.
Some towns have thrift and second hand stores solely for household furnishings.
Make sure you check these places out.
You never know when you’ll find the perfect cabinet doors for a fraction of what you hoped to spend on sprucing up your kitchen!
Obviously there is more to a kitchen makeover than just the kitchen makeover cost, research and shopping.
There is also designing, building, painting and cleaning. For the most part, however, kitchen makeovers center around these three activities.
After all you won’t be able to begin your redesign until you have done your budgeting and your research and you will not be able to begin building until you have gone shopping!
Above all else, make sure that you have fun with your kitchen make over. You want to enjoy the space when it is finished.
Kitchen Makeover Tips
All of these hints are endorsed by the kitchen makeover experts at Good Housekeeping Magazine.
Switch from closed cabinets to shelves
Switch your closed cabinets for shelving units or cabinets with clear doors that allow you to see everything inside.
This will open up the space in your kitchen and save you time later when you need to find something quickly.
What’s more, having your cabinet contents available for the world to see will give you the extra boost you need to make sure that your cabinets stay neat and orderly.
In fact, the way you arrange your dishes and cooking items in your cabinets will become part of your decorating scheme!
Combine Styles
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they attempt a small kitchen makeover is to choose only one style and go for it—all ultra modern and sterile or all old fashioned country (or 1950s urban housewife, you get the idea).
Why not mix and match. Keep the classic furniture but combine it with ultra modern appliances.
Or keep the old fashioned appliances but combine them with ultra modern furnishings?
You can carry this idea over to your color scheme as well.
When done well, having contrasting colors in your kitchen can work quite nicely!
Add light
If you can afford to have a bigger window or a sliding glass door put in to your kitchen, do it!
Adding natural light will brighten up your kitchen quite a bit.
A good idea is to, when you are installing the window or door; install blinds and screens that retract into the walls instead of hanging on hooks on the walls.
This saves you wall space and creates a more unified look when you need to close the blinds at night.
Skylights are also wonderful additions to every kitchen, though they can be expensive to install.
Change your countertops
If you have dark granite, think about getting light grained butcher block counters (or vice versa).
Bringing in new countertops will go a long way to helping you accomplish your home kitchen makeover and can often be the only thing you need to change to completely update the look of your kitchen.
The trick to doing a home kitchen makeover is to make practical choices.
Do you want to open up the space or close it up? What are practical ways to do that?
Sometimes all it takes is a single change, like getting new counters.
Other times it takes something more drastic like adding new (and more) windows to give the kitchen more light.
How you update your kitchen and do your kitchen makeover is up to you—after all it is your style that is important!