20 Easy Ways to Update Your Kitchen - Part 5

17. Be Bold with Color

This homeowner took cues from old '50s wares such as Pyrex bowls and printed tablecloths.

18. Try a Rich Wall Color

The rich wall paint in this kitchen highlights the gray veins of the marble, and a flea market chandelier warms up the space. Although most experts caution against using marble countertops in a kitchen, because they easily scratch, some choose the material to get that exact worn-in look.

19. Make it Cozy

A well-placed window seat looks out to a gorgeous yard. The handmade quilts, rugs, and pillows add bursts of color to the all-white room.

20. Reuse and Recycle

A repurposed cast-off hardware–store counter serves as an island. Exposed shelves offer a convenient display opportunity and keep the room from feeling confined. Spray paint transformed a black fixture into a gleaming pendant.

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20 Easy Ways to Update Your Kitchen - Part 4

13. Be Playful with Your Backsplash

The color palette in this kitchen, and on the penny-tile backsplash, was inspired by a cache of old blue barn wood.

14. Mix Old and New

Classic country details—an apron-front sink, beadboard cabinets, and a barn-wood island—provide a warm contrast to stainless steel appliances.

15. Add Memorable Details

Butcher-block counters and original hand-carved scrollwork surrounding the window leave a lasting impression.

16. Indulge in an Extra Deep Sink

An extra-deep farmhouse sink and convenient shelving make clean up a breeze.

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20 Easy Ways to Update Your Kitchen - Part 3

9. Add a Fresh Coat of White

Unify everything with white paint. Ditch laminate countertops for affordable oak. A silver-plated tray strikes a luxe note and serves as a spot for holding recipes: Just add magnets!

10. Be Creative with Lighting

Antique milk-glass pendant lamps illuminate the kitchen, which sports custom cabinetry. Give a kitchen living-room elegance with a wall of framed—even lighted!—art.

11. Try Open Shelving

Create a sense of space with open wall shelves. In this kitchen, simple white planks and custom brackets are set against a playful chalkboard-painted wall.

12: Mix Up Your Furniture Choices

Windsor stools and a red-patterned rug may be more expected in the living room but add a fun surprise in the kitchen. Boat hardware takes a supporting role as kitchen cabinet latches.

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20 Easy Ways to Update Your Kitchen - Part 2

5. Swap Out Hardware

Cabinets from the 1930s get an easy update with the addition of beadboard doors plus new, modern knobs and pulls.

6. Give Dishes Room to Breathe

Instead of claustrophobia-inducing wall-to-wall cabinetry, this kitchen has two open upper storage units, including this plate rack. The lower cabinets, with solid doors, offer hidden storage.

7. Indulge in Luxe Appliances

New appliances make a huge difference. This kitchen is home to some big splurges: a large industrial stove, and marble and steel countertops.

8. Experiment With Wood

A custom island, topped with sheet metal, echoes this home's barnwood beams. Why stop at the usual overheads? Additional sconces make any countertop an enlightened spot for prep work.

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20 Easy Ways to Update Your Kitchen

You don't need to invest in a huge remodel to re-do your kitchen. Try these 20 clever design ideas to give your favorite room a fabulous face lift.

1. Vary Textures

Give instant visual interest to your kitchen by mixing and matching multiple materials and textures. In this kitchen, cream-colored custom kitchen cabinets lighten the space and add contrast to the steel stove. The island is made of repurposed cypress wood.

2. Stick to One Splurge

To indulge the splurge on marble countertops, these homeowners saved elsewhere by keeping the original room layout and plumbing as is. Off-the-shelf cabinets and inexpensive tile also helped cut costs.

3. Show Off Collectibles

Free up cabinet space, and create a clever spot for collectibles, with above-window shelving. This kitchen gets additional warmth from cherry counters, an antique island, gingham-check wallpaper, and an apron sink.

4. Embrace Contrast

Honed black granite countertops and black-painted oak cabinets offer a dramatic counterpoint to this kitchen's white plank walls. Plumbing-pipe fittings make for unexpected wall art.

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A Budget-Friendly Kitchen Makeover - Part 2

After

Tip 5. Luxury lies in the details. Like an outfit-changing handbag or belt, Anthro's iron-and-jute drawer pulls trick folk into assuming that everything else is fancy, too. ($12 each; anthropologie.com)

Tip 6. There's a website for that! Searching for a skinny stove or diminutive dishwasher? Check out compactappliance.com, where I ordered my slender oven, a space-saving splurge at $500.

Tip 7. Sometimes, form should trump function. Practical it's not, but this midcentury refrigerator—an $80 gem gleaned from the local Penny Saver circular—scores major points for old-school cool. Besides, it serves the necessary purpose in guest quarters: chilling beer and butter.

Tip 8. Even recycling bins deserve a little soul. Why live with an unattractive plastic trash can when a crate brings character to the task? I snagged this "combustion chamber" box for $10 during my town's annual yard-sale day. (visithistoricathens.com)

Tip 9. A shortcut can be long on style. Ripping out the linoleum revealed wide-plank—and cat-pee stains galore. Green porch paint (custom-mixed to match the trading post sign I found at the Country Living Fair) hid the evidence, sans countless sandings.

Tip 10. Eliminate confusion with easy-access cubbies. Rather than force weekend visitors to hunt for plates and glasses—not to mention booze—I stash all the necessities in plain sight on Pottery Barn units that line the wall opposite the sink. And lest you think visible storage dictates expensive dishes: I purchased my whiteware at Home Goods and stemware at Walmart. (For similar storage unit, $139; ikea.com)

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A Budget-Friendly Kitchen Makeover

How Country Living's editor-in-chief, Sarah Gray Miller, overhauled an outrageously dated space on the cheap. (Psst: She shops at Walmart!)

Total Kitchen Makeover

When I bought my house in Athens, New York, the rental unit off the back smelled of cat urine and was covered tan linoleum. Because I planned to use the apartment as guest quarters, I aimed to redo the unit on a meager budget. So I scoured the local flea markets and—yep—Walmart, and persuaded my carpenter pal, CL contributing editor Ryan McPhail to lend a hand. In the end, we accomplished a minor miracle, if I do say so myself.

Tip 1. Let's start with the obvious: Salvage = industrial chic for a song. My kitchen's tiny island—actually a machine-shop table and a butcher block—set me back a mere $25 at an area junk store. The vintage scale, $35, hails from one of my favorite upstate New York sources, the Coxsackie Antique Center.

Tip 2. White makes big-box right. When the goal is rustic simplicity, there's no need to spend tons on custom cabinetry and granite counters. Paint transformed these oak cabinets, bought off the rack at Lowe's and topped with Ikea's birch slabs. I used the same white semigloss to brighten $20 stools from Walmart. (Cabinets, $218 each; lowes.com for stores. Countertops, $80 each; ikea.com. Valspar's Signature white paint, $34.98 per gallon; lowes.com. Stools, $40 per pair; walmart.com)

Tip 3. Liberate dry goods from the tyranny of ugly packaging. Classic glass canisters, also Walmart finds, allowed me to forgo upper cabinets. Instead, decanted pantry staples sit on open shelves, crafted by Ryan McPhail from reclaimed lumber. Cute chalkboard labels keep track of the jars' contents. (Jars, $7.44 each; walmart.com. Labels, $9 for 12; shopterrain.com)

Tip 4. The best pro for a job may be just around the corner. My dry cleaner charged $40 to turn an old $15 tablecloth into a skirt for this farmhouse sink—itself rescued from my next-door neighbor's kitchen redo. (Tablecloth, Leisure Time Flea Market, Ravena, New York; 518-756-8772)

Before

The old kitchen in the rental unit proved especially depressing, with its scant 120 square feet crowded by mismatched cabinetry and an arsenal of window treatments: Valencias, café curtains, and venetian blinds conspired to obscure the Hudson River views.

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Kitchen Makeovers - Part 7

Before: Old Fashioned Layout

On the surface, this dark, old-fashioned kitchen needed an update. But of deeper concern to the owners was the poor layout. Cabinets and appliances lined the walls, leaving an unused area at the center, and the pellet stove occupied more potential storage space.

After: Light-Filled Neutrals

To maximize efficiency, the stove was replaced with an L-shaped counter that houses the range, sink, and dishwasher and doubles as a breakfast bar.

The countertop, Silestone's Tea Leaf pattern, is a dappled brown, tan, and green, and it complements the new color scheme nicely.

Before: Unattractive and Tired

The owners of this Connecticut kitchen wanted to create find a way to update this tired kitchen, with its outdated appliances and "solid but ugly" cabinets, with a small budget and without any demolition.

After: Sleek and Functional

By rearranging and painting the cabinets, replacing tired surfaces, and installing new appliances, a bright, efficient space was created—on a budget, and with no demolition.

To improve the flow in the cooking center, the cabinet units were repositioned. Then, they extended the countertop across the window, creating an eating area and prep zone. The re-vamped layout keeps all the essentials—the Maytag electric range and microwave, the KitchenAid mixer, and the classic Waring blender—in one compact corner.

Schoolhouse Electric's reproduction lighting fixtures, vintage-style Ikea pot rack, and subway tiles from Home Depot make for an effect that's country, but crisp.

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Kitchen Makeovers - Part 6

Before: Poor Layout

The inefficient layout in this outdated kitchen posed quite a challenge, however a full redesign was in the budget. The only stipulations were that the chosen materials be easy to maintain, and that the overall look should stay true to the home's country roots.

After: Modern Country

The refrigerator was moved to create a functional "work triangle." Removing a bank of cabinets that separated the kitchen from the dining room resulted in a more open plan. Cabinets were then added on either side of the granite bar countertop for both storage and symmetry.

Before: "Fixer-Upper" in Texas

For Cathy Clark of Elgin, Texas, a kitchen makeover was long overdue. Living in a 1920s "fixer-upper" with five kids and a carpenter-husband who was busy remodeling everyone's home but their own, she took matters in her own hands and entered the eBay/Country Living Remodeling Challenge.

After: Prize-Winning Thrift

Cathy was able to purchase everything from drawer slides to an exotic Brazilian granite countertop on eBay. "I was stunned with the amount of stuff that I found," said Cathy, whose prior online shopping centered primarily on children's toys and clothing. By researching items online and comparing costs at retail, she knew how to spot the bargains. The stainless-steel Maytag refrigerator and range and GE dishwasher were purchased as a set for $3,600, including shipping—a savings of more than $1,500 at retail. "I even got a free upgrade on the dishwasher," she added.

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Kitchen Makeovers - Part 5

Before: Plain Jane

This basic, plain kitchen felt heavy with its dark wood and army of cabinets.

After: Country Glam

The homeowner relished the opportunity to swap laminate floors for hardwood—but saved more than $1,000 with grade 2 red oak, which shows natural flaws.

The wall of cabinets was replaced with a $200 hutch scored on Craigslist. A vintage chandelier, rewired for $45, brings a sense of opulence to the space.

Before: Retro Galley

This small galley kitchen—though kitschy and retro—proved unsuitable for cooking. The space hadn't been renovated in years, so the appliances were repositioned and the layout reconfigured for a more efficient work space.

After: Small But Sleek

Reordering the appliances in the kitchen captured more counter space, including a serving area next to the new breakfast nook. The gas range, now situated to the right of the sink, is topped with a new microwave. The dishwasher, between the table and the sink, is perfectly positioned for quick cleanups.

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Kitchen Makeovers - Part 4

Before: Needs Some TLC

The owner of this Pennsylvania home, Mary Jane McCarty, planned a "kitchen de-modernization" project that included replacing dated linoleum with stock tile from Home Depot, laid at an angle to achieve the charming look of an old pharmacy.

After: Updated Vintage-Look

McCarty also hung custom cupboards above a vintage basin, installed a teakwood countertop around the sink, and added a marble backsplash. The flower-shaped table belonged to her grandmother.

Before: Unfinished Shell

This unfinished kitchen was basically an empty shell and needed a lot of work. The renovation team started from scratch.

After: Finished Favorite

"Now the kitchen's my favorite place in the house," says owner Sacha Dunn, who updated the space with stainless-steel appliances and custom maple cabinets with butcher-block tops.

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