Updating A Kitchen Without Gutting It

Scroll through Instagram or Pinterest, and there’s no loss of gorgeous magazine-worthy kitchens. Luxurious marble slabs, high-end fixtures, ornate details. Often times after scrolling through all of those beautiful kitchens, I get kitchen envy. I want all the things. Unfortunately, my budget never allows that. Can anyone relate? But just because you have a small budget, doesn’t mean you can’t update a kitchen! And I’m here to show you how updating a kitchen doesn’t have to mean gutting it!

4 Ways To Update A Kitchen Without Gutting It

Updating a Kitchen: Paint The Cabinets

One of the easiest and most cost effective ways to update any kitchen is to paint the kitchen cabinets. Ugly honey oak cabinets? Give them a fresh coat of durable paint (here’s my tip for the ONLY paint to use). At my Airbnb cottage, I transformed these very orange looking cabinets with just one can of paint! To see what color I chose, check out this post.

Updating A Kitchen: Change The Cabinet Doors

When I purchased Flip 5, I knew the galley kitchen needed several updates. The cabinets, however, were all wood & in great shape. But to modernize the space, I opted to keep the bases but swap out the cabinet doors. You can purchase some pre-made cabinet doors at some big box stores, but I chose a local cabinet company to custom design shaker style doors with soft-close hinges. And swapping out the doors made all the difference in updating this space! To see what paint colors I chose, check out this post.

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Updating A Kitchen: Swap The Cabinet Hardware

Even if you opt not to paint or swap out the cabinet doors, just changing cabinet hardware can alter the look of a space! For Flip 8, I partnered with Emtek to swap out the hardware on the kitchen cabinets. I did end up painting the cabinets too, but even without paint hardware can give you a lot of bang for your buck. (If you’re curious, these are the colors I painted the kitchen).

Updating A Kitchen: Install a DIY Backsplash

Whether you have no backsplash currently or hideous tiles you can’t bare to look at anymore, installing a backsplash can be an easy weekend DIY project that will transform your kitchen! At Flip 6, the existing tile backsplash had been painted and was peeling. I didn’t have it in the budget to demo it all and install a new backsplash, which is why I love this option. It can be installed directly over existing tile backsplash! If you’re looking for another option, I used this at Flip 7 and loved it!

Instead of drooling over the Pinterest kitchens, find one project you can easily & affordably tackle this weekend! You’ll be so happy to see the transformation and might even love the process of updating a kitchen!