Home & Garden
3 Kitchen Upgrades You Can Make For Under $3,000
Good news: Even if you don't have a spare $20k lying around, you can still revamp your kitchen. [SPONSORED]
You’ve been clipping pics of dreamy kitchen remodels ever since you bought your home — but between your daughter’s overnight band trips and your son’s new passion for equestrian dressage, you’re never quite able to come up with the scratch.
Good news: Even if you don’t have a spare $20k lying around, you can still brighten up the most popular room in your house with a simple project that won’t break the bank.
It’s amazing how adding just one new element can completely breathe new life into a room. Your kitchen may be “just another room” right now, but with some simple work (and surprisingly little dough) you could feel like you’re walking into a photo from your favorite décor mag every time you walk in for a fresh cup of coffee.
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Below, you'll find three projects from the home improvement professionals at HomeAdvisor that can transform your kitchen from “eh” to “oh, wow!” — all for less than what it costs to take your daughter and her bassoon to Barcelona for the annual International Battle of the High School Marching Bands.
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Brand new cabinets can be the most costly element of a full kitchen remodel, generally running about 30 percent of the budget of a total overhaul. To purchase and install the kind of custom cabinets collecting drool on your Pinterest board can run you as much as a whopping $30,000, but you can get the look for a tenth of that by working with what you’ve already got.
When you refinish your kitchen cabinets, you leave them in the same spot and don’t change their materials. Instead, your cabinetry professional will remove old paint or stain, sand and repair them, and then refinish them with the new paint or stain of your choice. If your kitchen’s feng shui is already up to par and your cabinetry is outdated but has “good bones,” refinishing is a great way to give your kitchen a dramatic makeover for less. According to HomeAdvisor’s national data, the average cost to refinish cabinets is $2,500.
That number may go up if you spring for a high-end finish, your cabinets need major repairs, or your kitchen has more cabinets than average (hey, it’s no crime to buy pancake mix in bulk). For the final touch, don't forget to set aside a little budget for updated knobs and drawer pulls. It’s a small way to make a really big impression!
If your oven smells like tuna casserole from 2006 and your fridge hums a somber dirge all night long, it may be time to upgrade your appliances. Installing spanking-new appliances does more than just up your home’s resale value, it can also save you money in the long run if you’re planning to stick around — particularly if you choose Energy Star-rated gadgets that help you slash major dough from your gas and electricity bills each month.
When choosing new appliances, it makes sense to make a list of your dream features, whether you’re craving a mouse-quiet dishwasher or chef-quality six-burner stove. Then comes the fun part: shopping around for deals! Often, stores will have major appliance sales around national holidays such as Columbus Day or Veteran’s Day, but if you can’t manage to hit those then you can also look for bundle deals where you buy, say, a high-end oven and the store throws in a refrigerator and dishwasher for free.
When it comes to appliances, you don’t want to mess around with installation: You need a trained professional to make sure the gas and water lines are connected properly so your kitchen doesn’t end up looking like the set of "Mad Max" or "Waterworld." According to HomeAdvisor’s national data it costs an average of $200 to install a new appliance: multiply that by three (for oven, dishwasher, and fridge) and add on the cost of mid-range appliances purchased on sale, and you can still do the deed for less than the $3k you’ll likely spend on dog food and toilet paper this year.
Those petal-pink laminate countertops were so hip when your home was built…in 1984. Today you try to cover them up with as many fruit bowls, blenders, and missing homework assignments as possible, but sometimes that geriatric-nail-polish color still peeks through. Surely, there’s a better way.
As it turns out, you can skyrocket your kitchen into the 21st century with minimal dents to your pocketbook —as long as you’re smart about how you budget. According to HomeAdvisor’s national data, the average cost to install new countertops is $2,600, but that can vary widely depending on factors including whether your existing countertops need to be removed and hauled away and what type of material you’re hankering to use for your new look. Don’t forget that your countertop professional will also need to disconnect and reattach your sink, as well as scrape and apply new caulking to seal your new countertops in nice and tight.
Generally, materials are the greatest cost when it comes to new countertops. You can save yourself some scratch by choosing a lower-cost material such as butcher block, ceramic, laminate, or Corian—for an average-sized kitchen, these will generally run you between $2,000-$5,000. If you want to splurge you can go for soapstone, slate, concrete, or quartz, but expect to pay anywhere from $7,000-$14,000 for these super-luxe materials.
If you and your kitchen are ready for your mini-remodel, the info above should be more than enough to get you started. The next step? Find a professional to do it right. HomeAdvisor connects you to dozens of reviewed, vetted, and qualified professionals in your area. Just enter some simple information about your project to receive up to three quotes from available pros. Here’s to cooking up something good!
More Home & Garden:
- How Much Does It Really Cost to Have Your Home Professionally Cleaned?
- Remodeling Done Right: A Cost Guide For Every Room In The House
- The Ultimate Guide To Home Improvement: 57 Common Project Costs
Image credit: NeONBRAND via Unsplash
