When my husband and I started talking to friends and family about our plans to renovate our kitchen, what we mostly heard were warnings: “It will take months longer than you think it will,” “It will cost thousands more than you think it will,” “There’s no such thing as a contractor who comes in at the price of the estimate,” and so on.
You’ve probably heard the same admonitions – renovation horror stories are so plentiful, it’s a wonder anyone even embarks on home improvement plans unless they’ve got unlimited time and money to burn.
Regardless, after 10 years of putting it off, I was determined to create a modernized, beautiful kitchen. (The existing kitchen was a 70s-era, musty, pressed wood monstrosity I’d painted royal blue in a bid to camouflage it.) My husband was extremely anxious about the cost, and feared it would get out of hand once the reno was in motion.
But I gave my husband an assurance: I could renovate our kitchen for $25,000. Not the $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000 our friends had spent on comparable jobs – $25,000, all told.
In case you’re starting to think this is going to turn into a “design disaster” story, guess again. I did it. I managed to create a gorgeous 10 x 15 kitchen for $25,290 that is practical and livable, and garners plenty of oohs and aahs from visitors. And it only took eight weeks from start to finish.
For those of you who are interested in the numbers, my cabinets cost about $6,000, my quartz countertop was $3,500, hardwood flooring was $1,100, labour was $9,800 and everything else (like backsplash tile, mouldings, a new dishwasher, paint, a range hood, breakfast bar stools, etc.) was about $2,690. I also included the $2,200 we spent on six weeks in a rented condo during the renovation (we did an extra couple weeks with family members).
We didn’t purchase a new fridge and stove, as ours were in perfect working condition, but we also repainted the living room and ripped out a crummy second kitchen from the basement to create a new playroom down there, an added bonus I included in the total cost.
Now, enough with the back-patting. Here are my do’s and don’ts for getting the kitchen you want without spending a fortune:
Do your research
It might seem like a waste of time to spend a morning touring a bunch of flooring stores to suss out the price of hardwood, but it will save you time and money. Shop around, take notes and don’t let a designer, contractor or friend tell you what you have to spend on your backsplash. And yes, it pays to buy a whack of kitchen design mags. Most of the designs will be unattainable and ridiculously overdesigned (in my humble opinion) but you will find ideas for colour combinations, configurations and see what’s new with kitchen faucets these days.
Do DIY it
You may not have the time or inclination to do it yourself, but the fact is that it pays to project manage your own reno. I was the chief designer on my project and also purchased the majority of the materials myself (excluding raw materials like drywall). It sometimes sucked to head to Home Depot at 8 PM to get some mouldings cut, but hiring a “full-service” contractor or an interior designer to do the work can cost you tens of thousands more. If you have no aptitude in the area, enlist someone to help, but make it a family member or friend. It’s unlikely your costs will veer wildly off course when you’re the one making all the purchases.
