1980s Kitchen Makeover for less than $5000 with The Home Depot
This was a sponsored project with The Home Depot. Links below are affiliate links and I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you.
My mom’s kitchen had been the same since the 80s. Literally, the only update was occasionally repainting the cabinets white. But it had so much potential!
What wasn’t working: short upper cabinets weren’t taking advantage of her nine foot ceilings, allllll the drawers were barely operable, the countertop had considerable water damage, the divided sink didn’t let her use big buckets (my mom is a wedding floral designer), the upper were only 16” off the countertop (instead of the usual 18”), and the microwave was way too low.
What this kitchen had going for it: nine foot ceilings, tons of natural light, lots of space, gorgeous solid hardwood floors.
To stretch our budget as much as we could, we decided to leave all the white appliances since they worked fine and focus our attention on all new cabinets, new laminate countertops, tile backsplash, a custom hood vent made by yours truly, and a new single bowl sink.
Mom’s entire house is white (not joking) so we knew white cabinets would be going back in - but this time with lots of lovely soft close drawers and super tall uppers mounted high enough! I love laminate countertops because they are such a durable and affordable option but my trick to elevate them it to not add the laminate 4” or 6” backsplash. By adding a tile backsplash, I think it helps the laminate look more like a solid surface countertop!
This kitchen makeover took 7 complete days of work with all my extended family pitching in (we kept referring to this makeover as a “barn-raising” where the whole community comes and helps).
Day 1
The first day we gutted EVERYTHING. It’s amazing how fast a kitchen can empty with a few crowbars. We also assembled 10 cabinets from The Home Depot. We picked RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets and the instructions were so simple, even my 10-year-old could build one by himself. Each cabinet took between 20 and 60 minutes depending on its size/complication (drawers took more steps than doors for instance). And by the end of Day 1, we had a few cabinets roughly in place and even part of the laminate counter top laid where it would go. And then we rewarded ourself with a trip to the local “meat and three” diner (a Southern favorite!).
Day 2
We installed most of the lower cabinets making sure each one was level and plumb. Walls and floors are NEVER perfectly flat so spend some time with shims making sure every cabinet is flat. Start at the highest point in the room and bring all the cabinets up to that level. Your countertops will install much easier if you have perfectly level cabinets. We installed the sink wall countertops as well (they connect to each other with quick adjust tie bolts underneath and screw into the cabinets). We then marked the counters to cut out the sink hole for her new single bowl sink. We used a combo of a circular saw and a 4” hole saw for the rounded corners. Plumbing always takes me a few extra trips to The Home Depot but we got the new sink installed and working!
Day 3 & 4
Two wildly successful days because we got alllllll the cabinets installed (a laser level helps immensely) and the rest of the countertops and then I taught my brother and sister-in-law how to tile! I made all the tricky cuts on a wet saw but they became pros at the manual tile cutter and laying them! And then I laid out the visual of my hood vent idea. I’d never made anything like this before but how hard could it be, right? Oh, I forgot to mention that Mom got a new microwave for her walk-in pantry so that she could have lots of open space above her stove just like she’d always wanted!
Day 5
Today Mom painted allllllll the walls at her house while I was at my house building the crown molding boxes and the start of the hood vent. There wasn’t enough room to add crown molding directly to the cabinets, so I built the crown molding boxes almost like little hats to sit on the top. I built a base the size of the cabinet out of 2x3s and then attached the crown molding to the 2x3s. Worked great! (We secured them to studs on Day 7) I also built a rough shape for the hood vent out of 2x4s and made sure our recirculating hood vent fit in perfectly.
Day 6
Final stretch, baby! All hands on deck! My other brother and his wife, my sister, even my brother’s friend were all there to help today. No one had ever grouted before but everyone started literally grabbing handfuls of grout and pushing into grout lines. Perhaps not the most efficient way to grout but it worked great. Then I got to building out the hood vent. I mounted my frames of 2x4s to the studs in the walls and then laid thin plywood (.20” underlayment). I curved the boards, screwed them to the frames and then trimmed so the curves would meet. Across the seam, I used flexible corner molding (like you use for drywall arches!). Then everything got covered with a few coats of drywall joint compound. I didn’t sand anything smooth since I was going for a rough faux plaster look - just kept adding coats.
Day 7
Time for finishing touches!!! We added all the crown molding boxes on top of the cabinets (and secured to studs) and then added shelves beside the sink. We replaced her recessed light over the sink with a beautiful glass pendant and added alllllll our knobs and pulls (this was the scariest part because I was so worried about drilling in the wrong place). Measure 500 times, drill once. And then came the fun part: decorating! We pulled decor from other parts of my mom’s house and I had even brought a few decor pieces from my house for the staging. And of course she had a huge flower order to work on after we left so those were soaking in the sink!
I’m so so pleased with how this kitchen turned out. And my mom is absolutely in love with her new kitchen. Final cost was $4750! I’ll be covering FAQ in my next blog post!
