A Budget Kitchen Makeover- Complete Transformation For Only $500

Embarking on the journey of renovating a kitchen can be both exciting and daunting, especially when facing the challenge of working within a budget. Kitchen Makeovers can be so expensive but they really don’t need to be. In this detailed article, I’m going to break down step-by-step how I transformed a dated kitchen at my in-law's home without breaking the bank.

The kitchen is often hailed as the heart of a home. It’s such an important room but one of the most expensive rooms to renovate. My in-laws were selling their home and the kitchen was in desperate need of a facelift as part of the preparations. The existing kitchen had lots of natural timber charm but had seen better days. They had indoor cats in this home, and the cats have just scratched all of these cabinets and drawers. Because I was going to need to repair all of these scratches, it was then going to be hard to keep as raw natural timber. Once I apply the wood filler, it does look really obvious where those repairs have been made.

Instead of opting for a costly replacement, the decision was made to breathe new life into this space within a $500 budget. The vision is a modern, fresh kitchen that would not only elevate the home's aesthetic appeal but also add value.

Below Is a list of products I used for this makeover:

• Dulux Renovation Range Primer $72.50 https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-1l-...

• Dulux Renovation Range Bench Top Paint $82.90 https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-1l-...

• Dulux Renovation Range Tile Paint $99 https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-1l-...

• Dulux Renovation Range Cabinet Paint $101.50 https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-2l-...

• Clear Polyurethane Varnish For Chipboard $13.63 https://www.bunnings.com.au/bondall-2...

• 4mm Nap Roller Heads  - 2 Pack $8.25 https://amzn.to/3Sj8y6p

• Mini Roller Arm

• Paint Tray $2.00 https://www.bunnings.com.au/uni-pro-1...

• Selleys Spakfiller $11.49 https://www.bunnings.com.au/selleys-1...

• Window Cleaner $2.49 https://amzn.to/3SictAC

• Paint brushes $7.40 https://www.bunnings.com.au/pro-renov...

• Handles Purchased $62

Tools Used: (I already owned these tools and you could do this all without them)

• Oribtial Sander: https://amzn.to/3O3ipLf (This could be done with just hand sandpaper)
• Battery For Sander https://amzn.to/41YbVTG
• Bosch Mini Battery Screwdriver - https://amzn.to/47wYNpK

So The Total Project Cost Was $463.16

Now Let's dive into the process…..

I knew that I was going to paint all of the cabinetry but I also knew that I wanted to change the mustard colour bench top and the tiles.  In order to stay within the $500 budget I was going to need to paint the bench top and tiles because it wouldn’t be within the budget to replace them.

Before we could get to any painting, I needed to do a comprehensive cleaning of the entire kitchen. The bench top, cabinets, and drawers were emptied out and it was already starting to look a little better.  I do a deep clean for two reasons, to clean the accumulated grime but also to prepare the surfaces for painting.

After I cleaned the kitchen we could get a bit of a deeper look at what condition the kitchen was in. This particular kitchen is very low quality to start off with, and it's going to make it a little bit harder to renovate. Hopefully, you have laminate cupboards on the inside, and you don't have this raw chipboard look. Because I’m dealing with raw chipboard, I'm going to have to paint all of the inside of the cabinetry as well to try and give it a little bit of a more updated feel. Ideally, you wouldn't have to do this, and you could just paint the surround of the kitchen. I cleaned using a degreaser so that I could get all of that deep grime off the kitchen. Kitchens are probably going to be one of the dirtiest parts of your home, and it is so important that you give it a really good thorough deep clean before you paint any of your cabinets.

The kitchen has now all been cleaned, and it's looking pretty good. I'm now going to move on to some repair work. Up the top of the overhead cabinets, there are really not very much repairs that need to be done. They are actually in pretty good condition. But down the bottom where the cat scratches are and also some other imperfections in the wood, I'm going to need to do a little bit of repairs there. I'm just going to get some space filler out and start repairing.

I'm going to start off by painting a clear polycrylic coat on the inside of the cabinets, which is going to seal in my chipboard. I wanted to leave that overnight and then come back tomorrow ready to get started with my primer. I'm then going to paint on my primer followed by my paint.

I'm just going to take the old hardware off and put on some new hardware to modernise and update the feel.  It's usually quite easy to remove the original hardware; however, I did have a few issues with a couple of the screws because quite a lot of them had rusted out.

After removing the hardware on the cabinetry the next thing I’m going to need to do is remove the doors. I'm going to be taking the doors offsite, and I'm going to be painting them inside my garage because it's going to be much easier for me to paint the doors there. I need to make sure that when I remove all of the cabinet doors, I number the doors because I need to remember which door goes where.

When you're numbering and labelling your doors put the number inside where the hinge goes, you're not going to be able to see that. Try not to paint over that; you could just leave a little section, and it's not going to be visible once you put the hinge back on.

After the initial clean I needed to do a scuff sand. This roughs up the surface so that it gives the paint the perfect surface to stick too. After I finished the scuff sand with the 120 grit sandpaper I did another deep clean to remove all the sanding dust.

I'm so excited because the prep work is now all finished, and I am ready to paint. The reason I'm excited is because the paint bit is the bit that I actually enjoy. Cleaning is not so much fun; it is definitely a little bit laborious for me, and I've taken many hours to clean this kitchen because it was so dirty. But now that I get to paint, it's a little bit more relaxing and enjoyable, and I love to see the end results start to come together.

I'm going to be priming everything, including the cabinetry, the bench top, and the tiles because we're going to be doing a few different colours throughout this transformation to make a nice stunning dynamic kitchen. The primer works for everything, and then I'm going to use three different paint types for the cabinetry, the bench, and the tiles to make sure I get a nice strong, durable finish. This primer comes in a two-part mix. I'm going to open the tin of primer, and then I am going to take this little tube, which is full of a hardener, and mix that into the paint. You need to make sure you mix it really thoroughly to mix those two components together. This is a really great solid primer, but you do need to have both components mixed together well so that the hardener is going to help the primer set and make sure that it is really durable.

On the next morning I sanded off all the excess filler on the doors and drawers, gave them all another clean to remove the sanding dust and the started to paint on the primer. I start off by painting one side, and when I paint that side, I also paint along the edges.

You just need to be careful that when you are painting on your white paint or whatever colour you've chosen, that when you're applying with your paintbrush and your roller, you check the back for runs. This is really only going to be relevant when you are painting those edges of the doors because as you paint the edges, often paint gets pushed onto the backside. If you don't lift it up and check it and use your paintbrush just to smooth out any runs, it will look quite ugly when you have your doors with those run lines.

I’ve finishing off painting my primer on my doors and my drawers this morning, and now I get to actually start painting some colours. I've been to the hardware store and I've selected my two colours that I'm going to use for the bench top and also the tile splash back. I'm going to be using a dark grey called” Hammer Grey” for the tile splash back and then a lighter grey called “Shale Grey” for these bench tops. I'm really excited to see how they all come together and start painting so that I can start to see what's actually going to look like in the end.

Now we're going to get started on painting the tiles. This tile paint is very similar to the primer. It’s a two-part mix with a hardener and the paint, and I need to stir that thoroughly all together before I can start applying the paint onto the tiles. Once again, if you're a beginner, you might find that it's easier to apply masking tape to all of the areas that you don't want to get your paint on. That includes your walls and your bench top, especially if you’re going to be painting the bench top a separate colour. You're going to need to go along with your paintbrush and paint all of your grout lines because using just your roller, it's going to struggle to get the paint into the grout lines.

You're then going to take your roller and go over the top and make sure that there are no gaps between the paint lines and the roller. You want to try and make sure you're doing this on a day that's not too hot because if the day is really hot, your paint lines where you've painted your grout lines are going to start drying before you can use your roller and blend it all together. Once the tiles were all painted it was time for the bench top.

I did the same process on the benchtop. Mixed up the two parts of paint and then started painting it. I used a paintbrush to paint the edges and then the roller to blend it all together. I then went back to the cabinets and painted on a third coat of white paint.

I let the first coat on the tiles and the bench top dry overnight and then came back the next day and painted a second coat on both the tiles and the bench top. I also painted a fourth coat of white on the cabinets and a third and fourth coat on the doors and drawers.

Once all of the painting was done it was time for the finishing touches. This was putting the kitchen all back together again. I applied the hinges back onto the doors and then the doors onto the cabinetry.

Once the kitchen was all back together again I needed to do some caulking to create a nice smooth transition between the bench top and the tiles and the cabinetry and the lino floor. To create a smooth finish, you might find it helpful to use a caulking tool, a paddle pop stick, or your finger to run along the applied silicone. To prevent the silicone from sticking to your finger, you can spray some window cleaner on it. This helps in creating a nice, smooth line.

I picked black hardware because I wanted it to be quite neutral, suitable for a wide range of potential buyers. They are easy to apply – just snap the screw to the right length and then drill them on.

Let's take another quick look at where we started. This is the kitchen before, and this is the kitchen now.

A pretty impressive transformation for less than $500, turning it from a boring, outdated, and damaged space into something fresh and modern. While we could have completely replaced the kitchen, this transformation shows what's possible on a $500 budget to get the house ready for sale.

 Watch the full journey here: