DIY Kitchen Makeover Plans: It’s Time to Transform our Boring White Kitchen

It’s time to tackle the kitchen! I’m making plans for a budget-friendly no-demo kitchen makeover. This kitchen makeover is going to be all about making a big difference with just a few small changes.

The thing about the kitchen in this house is it’s totally fine. The layout is fine. It’s plenty big enough. The cabinets have already been painted an inoffensive creamy color.

It’s fine. But I think I’m ready to take things up a notch from fine. As thrilled as I am that this kitchen isn’t just a huge ugly mess like our last kitchen, I’m also ready to add a little life to this super generic white box.

Of course, I would never rip out a perfectly fine kitchen to install slightly more modern cabinets and countertops. There’s just absolutely no reason to do that. It drives me bonkers when I see people trashing great, functional kitchens on home improvement shows just because styles have changed. It’s just wasteful in every sense of the word.

But even without changing the layout or replacing any of the major components in this kitchen, I think I can really give this kitchen a whole new look.

But first, let me talk about the big obstacle in this room – that brown granite countertop.

Whew, that’s a lot of granite.

This granite really isn’t that terrible, but it definitely isn’t what I would have chosen. I’ve never been a big fan of the color brown and it really limits the color choices for the rest of the kitchen.

That being said, the granite is staying. Countertops are one of the most expensive things to change in a kitchen and this kitchen has a lot of counter space. So whatever I do in here has to work with the brown.

In my last house, I painted our laminate countertops and I would absolutely be open to painting countertops again in the future.

But those countertops were an ugly laminate and these countertops are a high quality granite. Now I don’t think there is anything wrong with painting granite, but personally I don’t think I would do it unless it was a truly hideous pattern. We all know how quickly styles and trends change. And while paint is usually a very low-commitment way to change things in your home, painting granite countertops is pretty irreversible.

So the granite stays and everything else needs to work with this granite.

Wondering if painted countertops are for you? You can read all about how our painted countertops looked after 7 years of use by our family of five.

The last owner made everything work by installing a white subway tile backsplash and painting the cabinets white. And really, that’s a pretty smart way to make sure everything coordinates. But I’m ready to play things a little less safe.

I’ll probably be keeping the white backsplash because I think anything too busy will really be overwhelming next to the granite. But the cabinets are getting some color. I haven’t chosen the exact shade yet, but it will definitely be in the blue/blue-green family.

Sidenote – any time you need to choose a paint color, don’t rush it! I would much rather spend lots of time looking at paint chips and testing paint samples than spend a ton of time painting my cabinets only to realize I hate the finished color. My tried-and-true method for choosing the right paint color takes a little more time but it never fails me.

Painting the cabinets is really the only major change I have planned for this room. Everything else is going to be about small tweaks.

I’m planning to switch out the cabinet hardware, update the corbels holding up the breakfast bar, and upgrade the pendant lights. There may be a few other minor changes but I think just the addition of some color and some small tweaks is going to make a huge difference in this room!

And now the clock is ticking because there are only six weeks until my kids get out of school for summer vacation and I do NOT want to be trying to paint cabinets with three kids running around if there is any way I can help it! Which means I’m off to get paint samples and start narrowing down that paint color!

Want more DIY kitchen inspiration?

You can check out how I completely transformed our last 1970s kitchen for less than $1000! Or you can see all my budget-friendly DIY kitchen posts right here.