At Home: Fit kitchen decor into your budget

The kitchen is perhaps the most used space in the home. If yours has started to look worn or dated, there are many ways to upgrade the style without spending a lot of money. (However, it may take a little elbow grease on your part.)

Cabinets

Painting or refinishing the cabinets is a good place to start a kitchen upgrade. The internet and home improvement centers can provide instructions on how to do this. Designer Brandi Bryan from Carpet One Floor & Home said, This is a timely project that puts your kitchen out of commission for a while, but it has a huge impact on the look of the kitchen. It can also be done by an experienced DIYer.

Neutral colors work best since too much color can make the kitchen look smaller. Plus, neutral cabinets will allow for colorful accents in the backsplash, window treatments and other accessories.

Designer Crista Burk of Burklyn Designs noted you dont have to paint all of the cabinets, especially if the ones you have are already a nice, neutral color. She likes to paint just the lower cabinets. She said, Lower cabinets get scuffed and damaged faster than upper cabinets. Her favorite is to paint the lower cabinets a dark chocolate color, or a deep green. But Im also going with blues and teals, especially with island cabinets.

Easier than painting the cabinets is changing out the existing hardware with ones that are more modern. Bryan suggested replacing dated brass and gold hardware with brushed nickel or oiled bronze selections.

If the existing cabinets dont offer enough storage space, open shelves can provide storage without the closed-in feel that could come from adding more cabinets. (Plus, you dont have to worry about matching the existing cabinets with new one.) Another idea is to install a pot rack. It not only adds style to the room, but it gives easy access to the pots and opens up cabinet space for other items.

Countertops

Replacing or re-doing the countertops can also dramatically change the rooms look. Burk said, New countertops can make it look like a whole new kitchen.

Both Burk and Bryan suggested the new, budget friendly laminate countertops. These are not the same ones popular in your grandmothers kitchen or often used as cheap options in rental apartments. Modern laminate can look like granite or marble, but at a more budget-friendly price.

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At Home: Fit kitchen decor into your budget