The kitchen is the heart of your home: it’s where you cook, throw dinner parties, roast the Thanksgiving turkey, and where your kids gather for after school snacks. Since it’s such an important part of the house, the right kitchen update ideas can really make a big impact on your enjoyment of the space.
According to Nerd Wallet, “A small kitchen remodel project can be a great investment for your home. Resurfacing kitchen cabinets, changing their hardware and making other minor improvements can boost your home’s value enough that they come close to paying for themselves.”
The problem is often that the kitchen is full of items that are very expensive to upgrade. If you’re craving a much needed kitchen update, there are actually a ton of ways you can do it without spending too much money. Need to upgrade a kitchen before selling your house? Even better. There are several kitchen decor makeovers on a tight budget that will transform any old space. Here are 7 kitchen update ideas that have a low cost but a big impact on how your kitchen looks and feels.
7 Low Cost Kitchen Update Ideas
1. Replace Old or Damaged Kitchen Flooring
If you have dated old linoleum, dirty or cracking tile, or (hopefully not) carpet in the kitchen, then you should seriously consider redoing the kitchen floor. Putting hardwood, high end laminate, or engineered flooring in a house is a type of remodeling that increases home value, so you can’t really go wrong here unless you pick the wrong shade.
It will cost you around $2,800 to put in new laminate floors in a 500 square foot space, according to Home Advisor. We recommend going with a warm, mid-tone oak if you’re selling the house, and whatever finish satisfies your personal style if you’re not! This is one of the more expensive of the kitchen update ideas but it has a huge impact if you are working with an old floor.
2. Switch Out Knobs and Drawer Pulls
This trick is DIY-able, quick, affordable, and will seriously transform your space. You can buy chic silver cabinet knobs and pulls at any hardware store for around $2.00 each so this is one of the least expensive kitchen update ideas.
You’ll be surprised at how much of a difference new hardware can make–the kitchen will feel new, fresh, and clean. Here is a tutorial for how to install cabinet hardware.
3. Update the Kitchen Faucet
Kitchen faucets can cost anywhere between $80 and $500, and you can definitely find a low-cost option that is beautiful and functional. A cracked, grimey, or old faucet can really date the space, so it’s best to replace this fundamental kitchen fixture if needed.
This is another kitchen upgrade that’s easy to do yourself and shouldn’t take too long to complete.
4. Reface the Kitchen Cabinets
This may be one of the most impactful kitchen update ideas. Changing the look of your kitchen cabinets will have the biggest overall impact on the space, and you don’t have to completely rip out the old ones to do it. You’ll save thousands if you do the job yourself, and the kitchen will look just as fabulous.
The best part is that you’ll only have to pay for supplies. You’ll need cleaning supplies, sandpaper, tools to remove the hardware, painter’s tape to label the doors, paint brushes, and then stain or primer and paint.
To paint your kitchen cabinets yourself, take all of the cabinets off their hinges and number them so that you know exactly where they go. Then, do a deep clean of the doors and cabinet interiors. Now it’s time to sand down the cabinet doors. After you’ve sanded them, you’ll prime the cabinets and let that fully dry. Then you can paint!
5. Change Up the Dishwasher
This one’s a fun hack that you probably haven’t heard before. If you have a dishwasher you like but aren’t satisfied with the color, don’t order a new one just yet.
According to Lifehacker, you can unscrew the screws at the bottom of the door. Then, pull out the door panel. If there’s a different color on the other side, just flip it over and screw it back in. There you go! You just saved yourself hundreds of dollars.
6. Brighten The Palette
Sometimes, the best thing you can do for any room is simply paint it. When it comes to your kitchen, though, don’t be afraid to take a risk. Move away from the creams and tans and browns and step outside your comfort zone. Look for bolder tones that still reflect something of your personality, as well as this centralized zone in your home. Accent colors in blazing oranges or deep blues can be just the thing your kitchen needs to freshen its look. Paint is a great inexpensive way to update the kitchen look without any major time investment.
7. Throw Some Light On The Subject:
Having good lighting in the kitchen is as necessary as having good lighting in a bathroom. You want to be able to appropriately see and work with the food you’re preparing. In addition, when you consider that the kitchen is often paired with the dining room – particularly in homes with an open concept-style layout – sufficient lighting for both rooms is a must. Not only could you brighten the wattage of the bulbs you’re using, you could also upgrade the fixtures themselves. Both of these options are relatively inexpensive and doesn’t require much in the way of effort, either.
You have to decide what overall purpose your lighting upgrade is going to serve. For instance, if you’re going for a softer ambient lighting, but still require enough lighting for overhead tasks, you need to look at getting fixtures which perform several of these sorts of functions at once. Where pendant lighting might be ideal for softer, ambient lighting for when you have guests, you might require brighter lighting for when you’re working on a variety of tasks.
Which Of These Kitchen Update Ideas Is Your Favorite?
If you’re updating to create your dream modern family kitchen, then these small changes should go a long way to make the space feel perfect.
If you’re updating the kitchen because you’re selling or are having trouble selling the house, it could be just what you need to turn around the sale. A dated kitchen may be the reason why your home isn’t selling, so you’ve come to the right place.
In reality, there are many ways of updating a kitchen without spending a lot of money. You could decide you’re going to paint, upgrade your fixtures, set up some storage boxes in order to make your kitchen more efficient, or work with accent pieces throughout your kitchen in order to brighten things up. Whatever you decide to do, there is certainly a wealth of possibilities you could dream up to make your kitchen the modern, unifying place in your household for a small sum of money.
These simple kitchen update ideas will make a huge difference in transforming your kitchen, and we can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with! What are some of the things that you use for inspiration when designing your dream home? Tag us in your kitchen updates @familyfocusblog.
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Grace says
Hello!
I love these ideas, in fact I have mentioned most of these to my husband in regards to our dated, worn 1960s kitchen. I love our unique vintage oven that came with the home and the the old school porcelain sink, however the floors are an awful quick fix sticky tile from I don’t know how long age and the cabinets need a good sanding down and refinishing. My favorite suggestion is definitely the one about updated the kitchen faucet. We did this recently in not only our kitchen but the front bathroom as well and I have to say, it has made so much difference! Not only in our homes appearance but in our daily lives as well. The ease of new and updated items really proved to be a great choice for us.