Kitchen: remodel on a dime

Kitchen Remodel on a Dime! 

We have completed the kitchen ... for now. 

Transforming, or updating the 1960's kitchen into something a little cleaner. 

The before photo really does not show how dirty it was. 

The reason I say "...for now" is eventually we'd like to expand the kitchen. 

Right now it is used as a "hallway" to the end of the house and it is already a tiny room. 

Also, as I had mentioned in a previous post, I really feel as though the kitchen is the heart of the home- a friendly and comfortable room. I really like open, spacious, and inviting kitchens. This one is very closed off and not a lot of counter space for food prep. 

I love chopping and making a mess in the kitchen!

But, for now this is our remodeled kitchen and I think it will do us just fine! 

How we reinvented our kitchen for under $200.00...

The previous owner had closed off one of the double hung windows 

and covered the flat rock with wall paper we decided to make it look a little more purposeful

 by making some shelving out of old wood (Christopher's idea).

We removed the cabinet doors, for exposed shelving and outlined with shelves with the same color we used for the walls. We re-painted the ceramic tile with white appliance epoxy spray paint. 

And used old wood for the counters. You can see the DIY post for the wood counters here.

We left the upper and lower cabinets for some hidden storage. Painted them white for contrast. The mix'n'matched cabinet handles had to go! We looked at home depot, building material stores, ebay, amazon- no luck! We wanted them to all match, and have simple, older...style.

Chris and I were running errands and popped into a little antique shop called A Treasure Chest on Grant & Country Club(Tucson).While talking to the shop owner we told her we were re-doing our kitchen and needed handles. She pulled out boxes of  old handles and knobs!  What a find! $12.00 for 12 knobs! 

We cleaned the floors, primed with gripper ( smelly stuff!), painted with Glidden Porch and Floor paint, and polyurethaned! So much cleaner looking & easier to clean! DIY Tutorial for floors can be found here.