It took almost 6 months.

6 long months of living in a broken down kitchen, 6 months of eating out way too much, and 6 months of living with a mess – but we are so excited to share with you the final reveal of our Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel! We were able to create a new kitchen, including appliances, for just over $5000. As a result, we raised our home’s value by TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars!

If you haven’t followed along on the progress, you can go back and check out each stage. In Part One, we showed the demoing process and our plan to brighten our dull, dark kitchen. Part Two talked about how we opened up a load bearing wall to bring in more light from our gorgeous bay window in the Dining Room. Lastly, Part Three was all about our Coffee Bar that we created using left over flooring for the countertop.

But I know you’re ready to see how it all came together as well as the bottom line for costs for our Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel.

First, The Demo Process

UGH!

Looking at this makes my OCD go crazy. The reality of it all is that our kitchen looked like this for a LONG time.

(Too long, like 6 months too long – wait, have I said that?)

The biggest part of the money saving process is doing the work yourself, just as we did with our Hardwood Floors. But by doing it yourself, it takes much longer than you would hope. It takes patience to see you through to the final vision as well as keeping you motivated, but it’s so worth it!

Just Look!

Yay!

Here is a side by side Before and After.

With opening this wall with a Pass Through, look how that light now spills in!

No more darkness!

By raising the cabinets, the kitchen seems larger allowing the light from the window over the sink to come in.

The former desk niche was tiny, dark, and next to the refrigerator, so we opted to create a look that made the niche look more like a stand alone hutch than a built in cabinet.

By the addition of a shelf under the drawer, we added more storage to place another coffee maker.

Click here for more details of my cute, little coffee bar!

The Painting Process

So I went with oil paint.

Now before you balk at oil, let me explain. The previous owners painted all the trim in peach oil. The whole house!

Since there would have been so much prep to paint over the old oil with latex , the rep at Sherwin Williams strongly suggested repainting with oil. That was great advice AND I got a killer deal to boot!

DIY Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel for just over $5000: These bloggers are sharing their secrets on how they saved money on their kitchen remodel!

Painting with oil can be a bear if you’re not used to it.

The cons: It drags differently with the brush than latex and is extremely messy. Be sure to have LOW ODOR Mineral Spirits on hand for easy clean up.

The pros: It flattens out nicely and is VERY durable. A must in my house full of boys!

ignore the dirty dishes in the sink, please!

As I showed in Part One, we primed the cabinets since they were in a high traffic area coupled with lots of cooking residue and smells. The insides of the cabinets were painted the same color as the wall color.

The cabinet doors were sanded before priming, but that’s it. Tons of tutorials show how to get a smooth, factory finish to your cabinets by sanding in between coats. We tried that with one door, but, honestly, it didn’t make much difference.

And, I actually preferred the paint lines.
*gasp*

I know! That is so opposite my OCD tendencies, but this house isn’t a factory finish house.

When we had our brand spanking new house in Vegas, everything was pristine and perfect, but also boring. I LOVE vintage, chippy, rusty and old and didn’t think a smooth cabinet finish would match that worn, weathered feel I was trying to achieve. I wanted it look as if it had been painted and repainted again and again as if it had been there for years.

The painting process was EXTREMELY slow. One hard lesson we learned is when you are painting with oil in the damp, cold winter –it isn’t a fast process. We planned to knock out the painting in a week, but it took the doors days, if not weeks, to fully cure and dry and be rehung.

In keeping with our budget, we spray painted the existing hinges with Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze, as well as the door and window hardware instead of replacing them. Another way to save costs on hardware, I used knobs I had on hand for a few years from a sidewalk sale at Lowe’s. They were 38 cents each, so I snatched them up and have been hanging on to them for just this type of project!

First, in Part One, we talked about raising the cabinets and adding corbels underneath. The corbels help tie this Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel all together as well as break up the space from raising the cabinets.

DIY Ballard’s Topiaries

One of my favorite additions, besides the coffee bar, is the little shelf over the kitchen window. Now, I can use that space to change out my decor or add pops of color without changing the entire room or repainting.

We also replaced the old florescent lights and added the schoolhouse light directly over the sink as well as this vintage enamel light over the Pallet Kitchen Island.

Here is the tutorial on how we switched out the old florescent light with this beautiful enamel light.

Finally, the Floors

The picture above is what we lived with for almost 18 months. Initially, we made a slight change to our Pallet Kitchen Island. Originally, it had a front made of pallet wood to hide the unsightly, extra storage we needed while we were living in our rental where we built it. Since light was the issue in this house, and not storage, we took off the front panels and allow the light to pass through.

Then, I reached my breaking point over the floors. Our first budget didn’t fit replacing the flooring, so we had to save. For 18 long months I lived with this floor. It was dated, stained, impossible to clean or refresh, and textured so I couldn’t even paint it without it looking like a cover up job. Finally a few months ago, we were able to install Luxury Vinyl Tile on top of this floor and we are over-the-moon pleased with our results!

While I loved my enamel light, it wasn’t working, especially at night. Unfortunately, the light cast too many shadows. We also updated our kitchen island, so we used the leftover pallet wood from to a DIY Pallet Light Box for our Kitchen Island and we love it!

By reusing and upcycling old pieces, it can be an awesome way to save money!

Here’s what it looks like now!

Now, finally, the numbers!

Cost Breakdown for our
Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel

(Trent should do a drumroll here.)

$5840 – including new appliances!

Appliances – $2915
Countertops, sink and faucet – $1950
Lights, Paint and supplies – $330
Pass Thru – $150
Flooring – $380
Updating the Pallet Kitchen Island – $115

The cost would have been $975 if you take out the appliances and countertops – that’s less than $1000!

By subcontracted this type of renovation out, it could have cost us twice as much, if not more. Sticking with a budget and tackling this ourselves, not only saved us a bundle, but we also added value to our home! In fact, we recently refinanced our home and the appraiser increased our home by $30000 for the kitchen alone!

If you plan, and have patience, then this is a very doable task that anyone can accomplish.

If you have any questions for me, comment below and I’ll be sure to give any details I missed as soon as I can. I would truly love you hear what you think!