Home Decor on a Budget: Part 3 - Kitchen Remodel on the Cheap

How We Remodeled and Decorated Our kitchen For Less Than $6000

Let me start by saying this: Yes, we did all the work ourselves. Anyone who has ever hired a contractor knows labor is half the price. That being said, $5000 for materials and decor to remodel an entire kitchen is pretty darn cheap.




How did we do that? 

Thrifting for appliances, tile, and lights

First off, we created Pinterest boards and decided the basic color palette and look we wanted for the finished product i.e. white tile, white concrete countertops, open shelving, stainless steal appliances etc. Then we started perusing Craigslist, Estate Sales, Garage Sales, Thrift Shops, Used Building Material shops like Habitat for Humanity and the ReStore center to find the things we needed. We searched these sites for about 9 months. It took me about 6 month to find the stainless steel appliances (all on Craigslist) and found them all the same weekend from different sellers.




I do have a set of parameters when buying appliances used - basically, do they appear to be well taken care of and lightly used, and are they incredibly low in price. I passed up many appliances of equal quality that were 3x the price our final purchases, knowing that if I was patient I would find what I wanted in my price range. The cooktop, double oven, and built in microwave were a total of  $675, and all in 'like new' condition. My guess? Some wealthy person bought a lavish home from another wealthy person, and updated the kitchen that was rarely used in the first place....... oh the life ;)

During that same period of time I picked up two vintage lights for $25 total at thrift shops, all the white tile we needed for the walls for $30 in the box at an estate sale, and another lot of tile for $30 in the box at a garage sale that I thought we would use for the floor. (we ended up changing our minds and buying new floor tile for much much more).

Running Total: $730



Fixing things we already had that didn't need replaced

There are some things from our kitchen we decided to keep or update, our faucet needed a $30 fix, (UPDATE we bought a new one on Amazon for $80) our black iron sink was a $40 Habitat find that still looked great, and our fridge was about 3 years old, but we found it on a deep deep discount at Sears for $1200. For the sake of not scrimping, I'll include all these in the budget even though all but $30 was money spent years before.

Running Total: $2000



New Purchases, tile & concrete for countertops

We now have all but one appliance (the dishwasher), lighting, tile (we think), and are ready to make decisions on cabinets, counters, decor, etc.

Soooooo.....after much research on pouring concrete countertops we visit a masonry supply shop and purchase the special concrete an color needed to pour these two items for $450. We then visit Lowes to make a decision on cabinets (multiple times) and in the process find some tile I can't live with out. So we purchase new floor tile for $600 for both the kitchen and dining room since they are connected along with grout, thinsett etc. for about $250. These are our first 'new' purchases for the kitchen.

Running Total: $3500



Paint and Accessories

Before moving on let me note here: When you are a thrifter - yes things take longer to get done - but ALSO, you spread your cost out over several months time while gathering supplies, so it is much easier to pay for everything in cash. We don't do credit! You should not have to go into debt to have nice things. Believe me you don't. Okay, rant done, lets move on.

At this point we know the basic layout of the kitchen i.e. approximate placement of appliances, sink etc. But it's time to fine tune the details.....oh and cabinets? What about those? I decided I wanted an industrial feel open shelving on the bottom with a few cupboard doors that my husband would build himself - why buy cookie cutter cabinets, when you can custom fit your kitchen to yourself, and build it of high quality hard wood instead of the pressboard you get with most cabinet packages? So we held off purchasing wood until tiling and shelving were done.

In the meantime, the woman in me got incredibly excited so I purchased paint for the ceiling and walls from Home Depot for $90 (I only use Behr Marquee 1 coat semi-gloss finish). Ordered special bolts for the floating shelves on Amazon for $66, knife magnet for the wall for $15, pot rack for the wall for $20 & spice rack for the wall for $60 from Etsy. In my mind if everything is hanging on the wall there is less chance for my kids to make a mess of it.

Running Total: $3736



Decor Items

While I'm on Amazon ordering necessities, I (being a woman) browse through and find three Audobon Prints totaling $135 that will look great on my newly painted wall, and two kitchen rugs totaling $170 that will look great on my newly tiled floor.....My husband informs me that we would have been able to purchase the wood for base cabinets sooner had I not purchased these amazing items, but I figure we still have to tile the entire wall and pour concrete shelves before we can start the cabinets anyway, so rug and prints were necessary. 



I also stopped by target for some groceries and noticed the cutest hanging pots in their dollar section and picked up two at $5 a piece. Then headed over to Fred Meyers where I picked up two cute wrought iron plant hangers on sale for $4 each along with two ferns for $3 each from their garden section. I had a can of white spray paint/laquer at home from a previous project so used that to paint the hooks white for aesthetic purposes. 

Running Total: $4061



Cabinets, Trim, and a dishwasher

At this point -we have everything we need except for a dishwasher & lumber for the base cabinets.....oh and trim for the kitchen window. I am guessing it will cost between 700 & 800 dollars for these few items, and will update once we have purchased and completed.

There are a few other things we had to repair but since we are always remodeling we save materials when we are done for the next project. So all the sheet rock repair, tape, & texturing we were able to do with materials we had on hand.

Cabinet UPDATE cost: Wood for the cabinets and window trim was less about $800 plus another $75 for stain. We found a barely used kitchenmaid dishwasher for $180 Bringing our running total to........
Our final product above. I feel so blessed to finally be cooking in a finished kitchen.

I made the under cabinet curtain from a scrap of fabric from a previous home decor project.

Final Bill: $5166


If you've just read through this and thought; "That sounds like too much work, I'd rather get a loan and pay somebody to make my kitchen dreams come true" More power to you. But as a mother of eight that is a luxury I have almost never had. I learned at as a young mom, how to scrimp, save, hunt, and gather in order to make ends meet. And guess what - I found that I really enjoyed the challenge of having luxuries in my home that I payed very little for. There is something very rewarding about  knowing I've saved money, built my home piece by piece with my husband and didn't have to pay for someone else to do it.



Find Many of these items and other kitchen favorites on my Amazon Storefront HERE - Links are also listed below:


I hope you've enjoyed our kitchen adventure - there will eventually be a video of our step by step process below. 

Until then Happy Thrifting!

List of expenses:

*Fridge We used our old one, but it was only $1200 on deep sale 3 years prior to our remodel
*Oven $500 like new on Craigslist (tear out from a remodel)
*Microwave $100 on Craigslist (also a tear out from remodel)
*Floor Tile $600 new
*Grout Thinset etc.: $250
*Wall Tile $30 from an estate sale
*JenAir cooktop $75 from Habitat for Humanity Used Materials Center
*Iron Sink $40 fro Habitat for Humanity
*Countertop & shelf concrete $450 new
*Special bolts for floating shelves $66
*Spice rack $60 (Etsy)
*Knife Magnet $15 (amazon) Link HERE
*Pot Rack $20 (amazon) Link HERE
*Paintings $135 (amazon) Pink Flamingo, Blue Heron, Whooping Crane
*2 hanging Plants, hooks, pots $20 (Target & Fred Meyers)
*Paint $90 (Home Depot)
*Lights $25 for both at Thrift Shop & Garage Sale
*Faucet $80 (amazon) Link HERE
*Base Cabinets & Window Trim $875 (Home Depot)
*Dishwasher $180 Craigslist
*Kitchen Rugs $170 for two (amazon) Find Them HERE

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