Kitchen renovations can be time-consuming and costly. But what if you don’t have a lot of time or money?
Maybe you rent, and don’t want to invest in someone else’s property. Or perhaps you have more important things to spend money on than new cabinets and counters.
There are lots of ways to improve your kitchen without ripping everything out, and the results can still be impressive. Even professional designers sometimes keep part of a kitchen intact — in projects for their clients, as well as in their own homes — to avoid waste and unnecessary expense.
“A lot of times, people are looking to avoid the cost of replacing all their cabinetry,” said Amy Elbaum, of AE Design, a Los Angeles interior design firm. So if the cabinetry is well built and in decent shape, she said, “we try to work around it.”
Here are some of the shortcuts she and other designers use to save money without sacrificing style.
Step No. 1: Paint the Cabinets
One of the easiest, least expensive and most effective ways to update the look of a kitchen? Paint the cabinets.
When Ms. Elbaum was working on a client’s kitchen that had dated, orangy wood cabinetry, she kept the cabinets but had them sanded and lacquered navy blue. “The general layout and most of the appliances were fine,” she said. “Painting was the best option.”
In that project, Ms. Elbaum had the cabinets professionally spray-painted. But you could also hand-paint the cabinets with a brush. Painting with a brush tends to leave a texture of brush strokes in the finish, but that’s something many designers prefer.
When Kimberly Bevan, of New York-based Bevan Interiors, was updating the kitchen of her weekend house in Andes, N.Y., she wanted to see brushstrokes. “I chose to do that hand-painted look, as opposed to a sprayed shop finish, which looks very smooth,” she said. “For the traditional style of these cabinets, the hand-brushed look really worked best.”
But Don’t Stop There …
After you’ve tackled the cabinets, don’t put the paintbrush away. In Ms. Bevan’s kitchen, she also painted the walls and the ceiling — and, yes, even the tiled backsplash.
“Paint was the big way I created a lot of change,” she said.
After painting the walls and ceiling taupe, she painted the patterned yellow tile behind the sink a solid light pink. “It’s been three years, and it’s held up very well,” she said, adding that she primed the tile before applying paint with a satin finish.
“You can paint tile, you can paint brick, you can paint melamine, you can paint metals,” said Ruth Mottershead, the creative director of the British paint company Little Greene.
Some products, like the company’s Intelligent paints, don’t even require a primer: “I’ve done it in my own kitchen,” Ms. Mottershead added, where she painted her walls, cabinets and tile.
Painting a whole kitchen is an opportunity to play with color blocking, she noted, by painting various elements in contrasting colors. In her own kitchen, she painted most of the room light pink, but two walls deep green.
Other options, Ms. Mottershead said, would be to paint the backsplash and cabinetry in contrasting colors, or to mimic the look of wainscoting by painting the tops and bottoms of the walls in different colors, with the help of masking tape: “It creates a bit more interest in a room, and a bit more dynamism.”
Change the Backsplash
Instead of painting the backsplash, you could replace it altogether (or install one, if there is only drywall).
When Jessica Geller, a founder of the interior design firm Toledo Geller, moved into a house with a new kitchen, she changed the backsplash to reflect her own taste.
“The previous owners had installed a glass backsplash, which didn’t feel like it would have been part of the original architecture,” said Ms. Geller, who also works under the New York Design Center’s Access to Design program. “The biggest change we made was taking that out and replacing it with hand-painted terra-cotta tile.”
Now, she said, “it feels like a completely different kitchen.”
Swap Out the Hardware
Whether or not you change the color of the cabinets, putting new hardware on them can help give your kitchen a new look.
After Ms. Elbaum had her client’s kitchen cabinets painted navy blue, she drilled additional holes to change the hardware from simple knobs to handle-shaped pulls.
Rebekah Zaveloff, a founder of Imparfait Design Studio and KitchenLab Interiors in Chicago, likes to mix various kinds of hardware with a similar finish, giving her kitchens a bespoke look.
But “you have to be careful,” Ms. Zaveloff cautioned, to make sure the pulls match. “Order samples first.”
And if they don’t match, it needs to look intentional: In one kitchen she designed, she mixed large-scale handles from Alno with knobs from Classic Brass, both in unlacquered brass. Then, on feature cabinets with metal-mesh drawers, she introduced handles from Rocky Mountain Hardware in white bronze.
Try New Lighting
Another high-impact move: Install new light fixtures. Many people have recessed can lights in their kitchens; replacing them with sculptural pendants can instantly change the look of the space.
“I don’t like kitchens that look like hospitals, where you could do surgery on the island,” said Ms. Zaveloff, who likes to use vintage chandeliers and large-scale pendants to illuminate islands. In a kitchen where the ceiling height didn’t allow for a suspension lamp, she used a distinctive bronze Stamp Square ceiling light from Urban Electric Co.
Even if you don’t have wiring in place, you can add decorative light fixtures. Ms. Zaveloff recommended battery-powered cordless sconces, like ones made by Pooky, which are rechargeable but resemble hard-wired lamps.
Or try corded sconces, which can be plugged into outlets, suggested Laura W. Jenkins, an interior designer in Atlanta.
In her previous home, she used a corded swing-arm lamp to illuminate a dining area in the kitchen. “It just mounts on the wall, and I love it because you can take it with you when you go,” Ms. Jenkins said. “If you’re renting, it moves with you.”
Add Some Furniture
Need more storage or food-preparation space? That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to buy traditional kitchen cabinets.
Free-standing pieces of furniture can help — and like those corded light fixtures, they can go with you if you move. In a kitchen Ms. Jenkins designed for herself, she used an antique French baker’s cart on casters as an island. “I love to mix and match new pieces and antiques,” she said. “I like that juxtaposition.”
In a small kitchen, she noted, an island on wheels also provides flexibility: “You can move it around. You can have it in the middle or to one side. You can prep food on it, but you can also serve food on it.”
And a tall, free-standing cabinet can serve as a pantry.
Both Ms. Bevan and Ms. Zaveloff have used antique cabinets with glass doors in their kitchens. Rather than looking out of place, the vintage cabinetry can add character to a kitchen.
“I actually bought that cabinet before I did any design work in the kitchen,” said Ms. Zaveloff, who often looks for vintage pieces to accompany new cabinetry when she gut renovates kitchens for her clients.
It’s not just a stopgap measure, she emphasized: “I loved that piece, and I wanted it in my kitchen.”
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