I have always known that my dream kitchen would be white! Ideally, I would have loved to have the glass cabinet fronts where, in my dreams, I would display my fine bone china collection. This fine bone china collection is in fact, nonexistent =P hey..this is my dream!
When I told Derek that I wanted gold hardware he didn't agree at all but said "we'll cross that bridge when we get there". Keep in mind that this discussion took place in the spring of 2013 when this "ALL GOLD EVERYTHING" fad had not yet taken over the world. Do you know how hard it is to try to find tasteful gold hardware when the last time it was popular was in the 80's?!? Very hard!
In fact, when I tagged along with my dad to Home Depot around this same time, I had asked a sales associate if they have any gold kitchen cabinet hardware? This seemingly sweet old gentleman stepped back and took a look at me and then laughed, "No! We don't have gold knobs! Those are so out of style!" ....... thank you.
On top of it all, my dad decided to band wagon onto this man's point and add, "Yeah, Jermaine. Gold knobs are so out!" ....... thank you- dad!
My response: "Gold is going to make a come back! Mark my words!" Yes, I actually said "Mark my words!"
I finally found my gold hardware in the heavy duty hardware section. It's 2 rows down from the regular kitchen hardware in Home Depot. Although, with the new All Gold Everything trend they may be easier to find now.
In order to save some money, we spent a lot of time bargain hunting. We put together many collages that we re-worked many times over. If certain pieces we would choose for the kitchen would cause us to go over our budget, we would have to find an alternative. If the alternative caused the rest of the elements we had chosen not to match, it was back to the drawing board.
Here is a list of the materials we chose and why we chose to them:
1) The only thing we really kept with this kitchen was it's cabinets. They are solid wood and the price to get custom cabinets made was just ridiculous! So we decided to paint them ourselves.
I had gotten a quote from Home Depot for refinishing our cabinets white. Guess how much? $3000! For paint! How?!?! Why?!?!
I'll tell you how! I'll tell you why! Because painting your cabinets is a b*tch and half! That's how! That's why! I'm not even exaggerating when I say this! After sanding each and every single one of them down and the third coat of paint, we looked at one another and thought... "$3000? That's all?! Peanuts!!" However, after the fifth and final coat of paint, and eight months to forget the pain of it all, I can say it was worth it! We did splurge on expensive kitchen cabinet paint but the total only came to $100!
2) We chose laminate counter tops. Although we initially wanted to go solid surface on all our counter tops and our island, I knew that $7000-$10000 for counter tops was above and beyond what I was willing to pay. We paid a little bit more for a higher quality laminate that had enough texture and shine to resemble the real marble counter top we chose for our island.
Including our initial consult, installation, and materials, the total cost for the laminate counter tops was $800! Not only was it affordable, Mega Countertops (Home Depots supplier and installer) was efficient, accurate, and their quality of work and material was superb!
After the consultation, it took them 2 business days to tell me how much it would cost. The cost was exactly as they said it would be; no surprises! It took them 2 hours to install and best of all...when people come over, we actually have to point out that our counter tops are in fact, not marble, but laminate! That is seriously how good they are! I'm telling you people, laminate counter tops have really come a long way!
This picture is of the Greek Marble (top) and the Faux Marble Laminate (bottom)
3) We chose marble as our solid surface material for our island. This was just based on personal preference. I did a lot of browsing to find exactly what I had in mind. I realized that I NEEDED Italian calcutta gold marble! That did not happen...
We went with our manufacturer to 2 different suppliers and found that the Italian calcutta gold marble would cost us about $6000 for an island top that was 6 ft by 4 ft. And this price was on sale!!!
We were just about to pull the trigger; thinking, "OMG! Italian calcutta gold marble for 50% off!!! When my husband stumbled upon a lone slab of Greek marble.
It was not as pretty. And it had little veins of red running through it. I was about to turn my nose up at this "low quality, unItalian marble" when we found out that the price of this piece of marble for our island, fully installed would be only $2800! SOLD!
In a future post, I will address why we chose to go with the Greek marble instead of springing for the Italian marble. There are so many ways to cut cost when it comes to a kitchen reno that I really should do this in 10 parts! Stay tuned for the Greek VS Italian marble showdown post!
This picture is of the Italian calcutta gold marble
4) We went with Sears Appliances for all our fridge, range/stove, over the range microwave, and dishwasher. Getting all your appliances in one place will get you a better deal as many appliance sales associates work on commission. My husband does not like shopping for appliances precisely because he knows the sales associates work on commission...however, I know this is good because this means you can bargain with them! ;) Also, purchasing all your appliances from one store will cut the cost of delivery as you will only have to pay it once, or in our case, bargain it off the bill! :)
Do your research and do not be afraid to ask if stores will price beat! We went to the Brick, the Bay, Home Depot, and Sears. In the end, Sears could offer us the best prices so we went with them. Our wine fridge, we found on sale at Walmart ;) That one- Sears could not price beat- only $150!
The total price for our fridge, stove, over the range microwave, dishwasher, and wine fridge was $2200!
5) As gross as the tile floor was, I actually contemplated leaving it as is to avoid having to spend more money. One day, during a routine trip to Home Depot we decided to ask a sales associate how much (just roughly) some new, fancy, slate floors would cost. They gave us an approximation, including materials and labour. It was not bad! Only around $3000. So we decided to get a real quote! At this point, we had already told our contractor to rip out the old nasty tile since it was only going to cost us $3000....talk about jumping the gun! The tile installation company, who shall remain nameless, came back with a quote of a whopping $8000! We tried to bring the cost down by looking at cheaper tiles but it was really the sub-floor and labour that was so pricey!
So with a kitchen with no sub floor, we had to make a call... We decided to go with laminate! They say not to do laminate in a kitchen because if there is a spill or flood from an appliance...well, there goes your floors. However, at this point, it was cheaper to replace laminate floors in the event that there was a disaster!
Another reason we were hesitant with the laminate flooring is that the rest of our house had laminate floors that were installed 4 years ago and were now discontinued. How were we going to transition from one kind of laminate into another?!? Our creative solution- a transitional stripe of tile! Sounds crazy I know, but in the end it really turned out well! The best part is- including materials and labour, the total cost came to $1000! We even have a few boxes of left over laminate justttt in case we have a spill.
6) Oh our beadboard back splash! This project, I will most definitely take all the credit for!
1) Because convincing Derek that this was a good idea was like pulling teeth.
2) Because I blended those seams like a pro! A pro beadboard back splash seam blender!
We initially wanted a tiled back splash and were given a quote of only $500. However, after the installer came to take a proper look, that price went up to almost $900! And since this was one of the last things we needed to check off, I was very reluctant to fork over that much money for a back splash.
Sooo getting creative again, I asked Derek how he would feel about a beadboard back splash? At first he did not see my vision at all! After many days of whining and explaining that even if we purchased the bead board and hated it, it would still be cheap enough to just throw away and get the tiled back splash. So we took another trip to Home Depot and purchased 2 sheets of beadboard that came to only $70!
As you can see, there were a lot of compromises that we had to make to stay within budget. However, at the end of the day, I don't think anyone would ever look at our kitchen and think..."Wow they should have sprung for ----"
Looking back on all of it now, our word of advice to anyone doing a kitchen reno is to look at the big picture!
Yes, laminate floors may have to be replaced if there is a spill, however, how much would it cost to replace them with new laminate floors? Is this still cheaper than installing tile?
Yes, it is not often that you see beadboard as a back splash but for only $70 why not take a chance! If it doesn't turn out, then you really only spent $70 for a fun crafty activity! And how many times will your guests say "WOW! Your TILE backsplash is to die for?!" and will your backsplash even get noticed amongst everything else in your kitchen? Is that worth spending the extra $830 in the long run?
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