Five Ways To Refresh Your Kitchen, Even If You’re On A Budget!

5 Simple Ways to Achieve a Quick and Easy (and Budget Friendly) Kitchen Refresh

We all feel the need for a bit of a pick-me-up now and then. And sometimes we feel like our living spaces need the same attention. However, if an entire kitchen redesign or remodel isn’t anywhere in your future, how about a little refresh?

Let’s face it, we all spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Family meals. Casual entertaining. Sunday morning coffee and paper.

Homework and afternoon snack. It’s the hub of the house. If you’re looking for a few ways to refresh this well-loved and well-used space….ideas that won’t break the bank….read on!

Paint (Yes, Paint)

You’ve heard it said that changing the paint on your walls is the fastest and most cost effective home refresh. True, but what if the kitchen is your refresh focus? Because tile is commonly the backsplash of choice, many kitchens simply don’t have a lot of wall spaces to repaint. That said, paint can still do the trick when you’re hankering for refreshment in your kitchen.

You can achieve a major kitchen refresh by painting your cabinets. I speak from personal experience. It was a welcome solution for us when we moved into our house ten years ago and couldn’t afford a full kitchen redo.

We (as in a dear and devoted friend and I) painted my kitchen cabinets over a few days with a couple of cans of Sherwin Williams French Linen.

The color is as lovely as it sounds and it served to utterly transform the kitchen’s heavy oak cabinets installed when the house was built in the late 80’s. I delighted in those painted cabinets until the day they were replaced.

We spoke to Fran Fields at Palmetto Paint Plus for some DIY tips and he said the best advice is to spend the extra money of premium paint. It will cover more thoroughly and give a better finish.

I’m really a ‘white kitchen cabinet girl’ at heart, but for the short term, the subtle blue-gray of what were my dated, imposing oak cabinets bought us a few years of appealing kitchen aesthetic before we could afford a more extensive remodel project.

Pulls

Beyond paint, changing the pulls on your kitchen cabinets is another approach to a cost-effective, eye-catching, kitchen refresh. It’s amazing what this relatively minor alteration can achieve in the way of a major change in the look of your kitchen. Your choices are extensive and varied with respect to size, shape, style and finish.

Check out kitchen posts online or in magazines to see what look grabs your aesthetic attention, and go with it! Popular finishes include burnished bronze, copper, satin nickel, brushed and satin brass, as well as classic stainless steel. Circular and oval knobs, wide pulls, and modern linear hardware offer numerous design choices sure to inspire, if not totally confuse you.

Popular today are also many vintage hardware options that can give your kitchen a completely unique look.

Lighting Can Refresh Your Kitchen!

It’s remarkable to think that changing the lighting alone in your kitchen can entirely transform it, but it can. If you’re looking for a budget conscious refresh, focus on lighting for an easy fix. A picture is worth a thousand design consultant hours, so take to kitchen posts on the internet and pin your favorite lighting looks.

They’ll run the style gamut and include traditional, modern, industrial, farmhouse, mid-century modern, antique, contemporary, colonial, nautical, unexpected zany….and the list goes on.

Lighting also is a great way to change the mood or style of the kitchen without breaking the bank. rather than placing superficial decorations around, use your funds for a nice new chandelier that will really make an impact!

Bar Stools

For a relatively small investment, new bar stools have the power to change the look of your kitchen dramatically. Consider your space and decide on size and silhouette, bearing in mind first the number of bar stools you need. Your space and kitchen layout will dictate the scale of the bar stool type you can consider.

Return to your favorite online kitchen sites to see how others have used bar stools to achieve a smart kitchen refresh. Like pulls and lighting, bar stools belong to an expansive world all their own. That’s great for you because you can carefully peruse your choices and decide in which direction to take your kitchen based on the bar stool looks you prefer.

Countertop Cleanse

Undoubtedly, the cheapest way to achieve a bit of a kitchen refresh is to execute a countertop cleanse. Clutter can (and does) make its way to kitchen countertops because, as mentioned, the kitchen is the hub. It is centrally located, it houses food, and it’s simply prime for anything that falls into the ‘I’ll just put it here’ category. I know what you’re thinking: the mere thought of clearing clutter makes me feel overwhelmed to the point of stuckness to this chair in which I sit. I’m with you!

So here’s your charge: set your kitchen timer for 15 minutes. Start at one end of your kitchen and touch every item on the countertop that you can get to in that time span. If it’s a glass or dish, put it in the dishwasher. If it’s the tech basket, clear out the Legos, hair clips, and writing utensils and then make a note to remind your family that it’s the TECH basket.

Consider your kitchen crock. Do you use everything in it regularly? If not, keep in it only the five items you use most. Relegate the rest to a kitchen drawer. Now for the mail and random papers. Decision each: keep, throw away, or remove for others to decide.

I’ve taken to putting stacks on the kitchen table for family members to claim. It (mostly) works. Lastly, evaluate the appliances taking up precious real estate on your kitchen counter. Nespresso, a clear keep, but the juicer? Yes, we keep it, but our occasional juicing doesn’t qualify it for countertop status. Stow it. Okay, time’s up. Stand back and enjoy the fruit of your labor! Free and refreshing. Take a deep breath! Well done!

There you have it. Five simple ways to give your kitchen an easy refresh. All of these ideas are budget-friendly, and all of them can be completed as a weekend project (or in even smaller increments of time.) So if you can’t do an entire remodel right now, how about a little kitchen pick-me-up? Go for it!