Kitchen Update with 3 Different Budgets
The kitchen - AKA the heart of the home. HA! This one really makes me laugh. For those of you who know me, you KNOW that I am the furthest thing from a cook. God bless the creators of Door Dash and Uber Eats because now I can order from my favorite restaurants and have some happy driver bring it right to my door. This is truly the best time to be alive, am I right?
But let’s just talk about the love-hate relationship I have with my kitchen for a bit. Now I’d like to go on record and say that I have never been a wood cabinet kind of girl. There’s a special spot in my heart for those amazing painted kitchen cabinets I keep pinning with their sleek, clean lines and tall upper cabinets.
However, I have noticed a change in my heart that I go through every time I update something in my kitchen. Just like in The Grinch, there have been three moments in time where that painted-cabinet-adoring heart of mine has grown three times as big. And here is what I did. (OOO! That actually rhymed. Let the power of Dr. Seuss run through my veins!)
Change #1 - Hardware
The first change I made after living in our house for over two years was changing out the hardware. This is one of those AH-HA moments where I wonder what took me so long to do this.
When we moved in, the cabinets all had these teeny tiny, shiny, gold pulls and knobs. And I’m a fan of gold things, especially in the jewelry department, but they were not doing my kitchen any favors.
So, I bought a big bag of knobs and pulls from Amazon, grabbed my screwdriver, and switch out those metallic eyesores for some oil rubbed bronze beauties. And let me just say, it was like walking into a new kitchen. Ok, that’s a little exaggerated but I seriously could not believe what an impact that made. I actually found myself thinking, “Maybe that warm blonde wood isn’t so bad after all…”
Change #2 – Appliances
I’m not going to lie, this was a bit of an impulse buy. The classic white appliances that came with our home were perfectly good. The oven baked things, the refrigerator keep things cold, the microwave made it possible for me to indulge in numerous bags of buttery popcorn… you get the picture. But they just weren’t my favorite things to look at.
Here’s a quick before and after picture with our appliances:
So, kind of on a whim, we ended up snagging a delicious set of non-finger-printy Whirlpool appliances during one of Home Depot’s big kitchen sales.
And again, it was a kitchen game changer! My favorite memory of the whole process is when our sweet daughter walked into the kitchen after we moved the old appliances to the garage and just exclaimed, “Oh no!”
She 100% loves our new refrigerator though, especially since she’s a two-year-old-mini-giant and can already use the water dispenser.
Change #3 - Artwork
This one surprised me. I mean, you can understand how switching out the appliances and hardware would create a big impact, but artwork? Really? Yes! Really!
The other day I decided it was time to change up the art gallery wall in the dining area. As I was taking the pictures down (and accidentally snapping myself with those 3M Velcro things) I decided to lean one up against the faux backsplash.
It was like hearing angels singing from above. And I’m not really sure why but simply by adding that picture, our little kitchen seemed to become this cozy little space that I wanted to hang out in more often. It made the whole are feel a little more farmhouse-y. Is that a word?
Takeaway
So, my little tip for today is – If you don’t want to make a big investment in your kitchen, grab a new piece of artwork or something that you already have in your home and prop that sucker up on the counter. Maybe it’s a framed hand-written recipe card or even something seasonal. Just give it a try and let me know if you hear that choir of angels singing from above as well.
The moral of the story is, you don’t have to keep cooking in a space you hate while you’re saving up for your dream kitchen. You can start by making some small changes along the way. There’s no need to strive for perfection, as long as it makes you a little happier than it did before, you’re on the right path.