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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