1990s Kitchen that needs some love!!
Hello, I'm new here and my name is Mandee. I am moving into
a home of my friends that needs some updates but I don't have the money to hire
people. Plus, I love to DIY and my husband is very handy. We have a lot of
tools. We are technically renting and he's giving us a great deal on rent since
we will update it as much as we can. He pays for the materials, but I don't
want to go overboard on him. There are sooo many things that need to be done
though. He wants to sell the house in a few years and we MAY buy it, but we may
not. So we have to stick to things that buyers will like. So no crazy paint
colors. Neutrals. :/
It's 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths. It has a full finished (but
horrible) halfway underground/half not basement. There's only one bed and one
bath on each floor. About 3000 sq ft total on 5 acres of land. Some people have suggested that we go with a modern look. I think that is what we will do.
I need suggestions for lots of rooms in my new house so you will see my posts on other forums here. Most importantly, the kitchen. It's horrendous, I know. The house was built
in 1990 and has never been updated. I'm not so worried about the appliances
right now but they will be replaced with stainless steel. The cabinets
though... They are pretty ugly.
Pardon the mess, it's been vacant for a few years and he
hasn't cleaned it out for us to move yet. Not sure if you can tell, but the cabinets have rounded edges that are currently painted grey. If I painted them all one
color, would that look weird? What color should I paint them? Kind of have to
stick to "safe" colors so that the house will sell. Should I just try
to see if he will buy new faces for the cabinets? Hm. The countertops are horrible
but I'm not really worried about them right now.
I know that we definitely need to take out the fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen. And I'm wondering if we should take down the recessed light fixtures and spray paint them white since they are like an off white right now which seems to make them look dated.
The house is an open floor plan and the walls in the dining/living areas are a greenish color that is new, and in the daylight they look grey. I originally thought they were grey until closer inspection.
This is a view from the living room, the area with the white chairs is where we will put our dining room table. To the left of the dining room is the kitchen.
*Note that none of the furniture in the house currently is ours.
So the main things that I'm wondering is:
-if the cabinets can be painted as they are, or if we should try to get the owner to reface them. (the insides are in good condition and most of the bottom cabinets have pull out organizing baskets which is really nice)
-if we paint them, what color?
-what should we do for a backsplash that isn't too costly? paint a certain color, peel and stick tile maybe? or go with a cheap real tile that the owner will agree to buy? he wants the house to look nice, Im just not aware of his budget right now. He makes about $300k a year though and he has another house which is paid off. This house is almost paid off. we will want a backsplash that is durable. the cooktop is on the island so we wont have to worry about that messing up the backsplash.
-what can we do with the island cabinet where the bar is? just keep it white? or paint it another color?
-any other suggestions and inspiration! What style do you think we should go with?
Thanks :)
*I will post more pictures once we clean off the counter tops- probably this weekend.
Comments (18)
Mandee Trom
8 years ago
^the light is a normal white light, idk why it turned out like this when I took the pic!
CEFreeman_GW DC/MD Burbs 7b/8a
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Design advice on 1990's oak kitchen?
Comments (37)I'm going to start posting here soon - my journey of renovations here and there in my home; so this is my FIRST post! I've received tons of inspiration reading other people's posts, and stayed up waaaaay into the wee hours to do so some nights. I had to reply though, because no one else has suggested it. Here's a pic of my kitchen in progress (note the "bombed out" look of the walls). We got this super easy to install thinner granite from muranocollection.com The cheapest one is $10 s/f, the "Modena". I really wanted that, but it'd look better in a white/black kitchen so I went with the next step up which was $12 s/f "Milano". I have a HUGE kitchen, plus added an island, and spent about $1,600 total, including the slide-in sink. I'd really been eyeballing the formica fx180, but because of my island it would've been MORE than this cheaper granite! That being said, Lowes carries the Formica FX180 in a bigger variety of in-stock stuff, and it looks like you could do a straight run of that in-stock stuff for pretty cheap. Honestly that's what I'd do AND do an inexpensive glass tile backsplash. I just saw some at Home Depot that called out to me - that they'd look great with these cabinets. I really like the pics I've seen of the gel treatments to the cabinets; I think you could honestly do the gel treatments, buy some hardware off of ebay (I DID!), murano countertop and cheap glass backsplash for way under $1K. I included a link to them - not exactly what I saw today but at this price it'd make a beautiful and cheap upgrade! Here is a link that might be useful: Home Depot glass tile...See MoreWhat would you do with this kitchen? 1990s Golden Oak
Comments (45)I've been lurking these forums for some time. The kitchen by julieboulangerie is almost identical to my own. My layout is adequate for my smaller space and the cabinets function fine. I hate my countertop, sink and stove so plan on an upgrade there. I have a hard time ripping out perfectly good cabinets simply because I don't like the style, even though they are 15 years old. I had decided on granite (a black pearl) until I read these last few posts about laminate. Now I wonder if I should just settle for a nice laminate, new stainless sink (apron?) and range since the cabinets are dated?? Or should I choose granite now and paint the cabinets if we want a new look later? Can a wood/butcher block counter (would have to paint cabinets now) be re-used on new cabinets later? My quandary is about "settling", resale value (no immediate plans to sell), and knowing a total redo is long in coming, especially if we partially upgrade now. We have a lot of home improvement dreams so would like to stretch every dollar! I hope this is not simply repeating others' questions, but I guess I'm just looking for some clarity of thought from those with a lot of experience. I've never done this before and feel it's an enormous decision!...See MoreNEED ADVICE on updating 1990s wood trim, floors, doors, etc.
Comments (16)jessica,,doors are much easier to change than the floors, so get a darker tone like the walnut. on the doors that face the wood floor, maybe you could have the flooring guy strip the doors and apply the same stain/finish to them? you may be able to do it yourself. if you give the doors a light sanding, 120-150 grit, you may be able to go over them w/a gel stain in the special walnut. (try varathane or General Finishes, no Minwax!) they look like Doug Fir. it will take away the orange tone and add a bit more depth to them. maybe try it on a door you plan on painting? like the inside of a room or something? if you can, remove it from the hinges, lay it on a sawhorse, do the sanding to remove the top coat, wipe w/a mineral spirits to clean, let dry a bit, then wipe on the gel stain, working it in and wiping off the excess. dries in a few hours. you should see a change. you are removing the carpet on the stairs? do we know what's underneath them? are the treads oak? are you putting in a runner? what color are you doing the walls? if doing a light color, you could redo the handrail in the same tone as the floor or the treads/risers. All depends where you're going w/that....See MoreHelp me update my 1990's home
Comments (49)That's my..well, cal it "recipe" for kids Go to the paint store by yourself. Pick there two-three versions of darker warm blue(a teal?) and two-three versions of purple. But. Don't take bright, nice ones)) these look best on wood in high gloss, and tend to fall flat on walls and look like Barney etc. Pick bleaker, paler, grayer versions of those colors. The ones that look less cheerful.. more "meh" Believe me on the wall they'll be all right.. Of course you should like them yourself. your pre-approval should happen in that store..or maybe in some secret place where you can try samples on paper.. Then present the chips to the kids and ask them (especially important with your toddler)- "Which one you like more: THIS or THAT?" Here. You get the color you like, that will look sophisticated enough, and that your kids chose:) And I have a feeling these will go nicely with your trim too, given bedrooms have same trim. (don't ask painters-in case you don't pain yourself- how many colors a house should have..huge chance they'll say "people usually use two or three". I have 19 or 20, and my house is 1000 sq feet smaller than yours. True, many of them look pretty similar..lol Painters were very surprized,, Usually the bigger the room, the more open the plan-the easiest is to go with lighter paint. whatver it will be Just mind your colors being similar in terms of clean/muddy and warm//cool. Then it will flow)...See More
User
8 years agollucy
8 years agonosoccermom
8 years agoLooks like melamine fronts with wood edges that are painted.
If the boxes are in great shape and have pull-outs, then maybe new doors would work.
I remember someone on GW extended their uppers to the ceiling by putting larger doors in front of the old upper boxes. Somehow there must have been some smaller boxes on top of the old uppers?
How much space is on top of the upper cabinets?
making upper cabinets taller
Or glass?
llucy
8 years agoCEFreeman_GW DC/MD Burbs 7b/8a
8 years agoMandee Trom
8 years agoMandee Trom
8 years ago@CE thanks for ALL of the advice! The cabinet boxes are in good condition, but the owner may just say to replace them or leave them be for now. He wants to hear my ideas. & It wasn't set up for a multi person unit, so the only reason I can think of that they designed it that way is because the house is a square. There's not really room to have more than one bedroom on any level unless they made the upstairs a full level. The cathedral ceilings are only over the living and dining area and the bills apparently aren't too bad. Where I'm currently living, it has high ceilings- but it's not as big. My bills are pretty low. anyway, the original builders were just a mid-aged couple not planning to have a family. Their parents lived down the road so they probably didn't plan to have many guests. IDK! & the current owner bought it because all of his kids are in their 30s now.
and to your second comment- in a perfect world my husband said we would rip out the staircase and tuck a normal one against a wall somewhere. Then we would close the master and get rid of the empty ceiling space by adding two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. That's probably pretty costly though, and we might as well stick to not buying this house. But it's perfect for us now and we want to do some home projects.
@llucy- there is a door to outside from the basement so all of the furniture that goes down there won't be hard to get down there, since we can back up to the door. It will be hard to get things into the master- like our king size bed- but that's the extent of our big furniture. We don't have a big headboard or anything for our bed (yet). And no it's not in a resort area! It's just in mid-southern Kentucky. Out of city limits! There are two creeks in the backyard but not a resort area!
@nosoccermom I love those glass boxes on top!! I believe that same size would fit above our cabinets.llucy
8 years agoMandee Trom
8 years agoI love that look, but I'm not sure how it would work with the feel of the living room. That screams modern to me and the fireplace is a big feature in the house, and I feel like the fireplace is a different style- but idk what that style is.
Now that I'm looking at the picture I just posted, maybe it will look good. I'm not good st picturing things, I'm a visual person. I think we will paint the staircase a dark color, probably one about the same shade as the pot/pan holder above the island.
nosoccermom
8 years agoI think a contemporary Scandinavian vibe would be great here, i.e. white, clean lines, slab fronts, but texture with light wood and stone. And some black.
I really like errant's suggestions.
Another idea if budget is an issue. Get some open shelves.
So, maybe white glossy cabinets and rustic wood floating shelves; white tiles, and wood counter tops.
Or counters wrapped in galvanized metal
or cement counters
amykath
8 years agokiko_gw
8 years agoHow about something more like this home
http://brockdesigngroup.com/2011/12/13/home-tours-ski-lodge-big-sky/
Mandee Trom
8 years ago
Errant_gw