$100 Kitchen Update in 1 Day

 

Thank you to Elkay for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.

During these last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of reflection on previous projects that have brought me joy as we find ourselves in this crazy time. One in particular that I think about is the home updates I made back at my home in Utah (such great memories to think of), and how I can use those updates as inspiration for our new home in Florida!

When I moved into my Utah house, there were lots of home updates I desperately wanted and needed to make. Pretty early in the process, I switched out my beat-up stainless steel sink for a gorgeous Quartz Classic sink from Elkay without majorly renovating my kitchen! 

Now, with my Florida kitchen remodel, I’m planning a gut job, so you better believe that I’ll be using an Elkay sink again!

I love the trend of farmhouse sinks! In fact, I used a Fireclay Single Bowl Farmhouse (again from Elkay) in my sister’s kitchen when I helped her redo that space a few months ago. It looked gorgeous and the quality is superb. Although I loved that sink, I’m ready for something fresh and fun in this space! 

One of the number one things I love about Elkay is that they are really innovative. They have an interchangeable apron sink where you can switch out the front without tools! They even sell water bottle filling stations with purified water that you can install in your wall called the ezH2O Liv (I want one so bad!).

They even have a line of Quartz Luxe sinks  that feature something I love- color! Because who says sinks have to be boring?! Their new color expansion comes right as Elkay is celebrating their 100 year anniversary. They were founded in 1920 and have been family-owned since!

introducing the new sink… drumroll please

 

Last July, I was lucky enough to have dinner with the Elkay team while I was in Atlanta. They told me about a new sink in a fun color and thought I’d like to hear about it. This was wayyyy before I knew I’d be moving, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it! They swore me to secrecy and told me the color- Mint Crème!

The new sink is now almost ready to sell (it launches in June!) and I’ll be one of the first people to try it out! Until then, they sent me a sink drain so I can color coordinate the rest of the space as needed. Plus, you get a sneak peek of the color that way!

My whole kitchen design will be based off the mint sink color and design. I love color (especially this perfect pastel creamy green) so this is really fun for me! Mint is a very on-trend color and is so great to live with since it’s a serene color.

all about the Quartz Luxe sink in Mint Crème 

I’m excited about the Quartz Luxe sink in Mint Crème because the color will be gorgeous, and it’s also an amazing sink! There are lots of benefits since it’s made of natural quartz. It’s heat resistant (up to 535°F) as well as stain and smudge resistant. No scratches in this sink, please!

Quartz is also nonporous, so it repels food and dirt and there’s less scrubbing needed to keep it clean. Because who wants to spend extra time wiping out their sink?! Not me. A friend once explained why she likes high-end surfaces in her kitchen and it’s because they’re easier to clean and they stay looking beautiful longer. This sink will check those boxes. Three cheers to that! 

Mint Crème will be available in a bunch of different sizes – 8 in total, ranging from bar/prep to kitchen sinks – so there’ll be lots of great spots (like your laundry room) to install one of these if you love the color too! There will also be a single bowl (my favorite) or double bowls available as well.

If you’re wondering how the sink will look with the new fridge and stove, it matches beautifully. It’s a little lighter in color (which should look beautiful once in place). I picked out the fridge color to coordinate and I think it looks great!

$100 Kitchen Update in 1 Day

Now that you know all about the new sink, I’m excited to share the latest project I’m conquering during self-quarantine! I’ll be beginning the full renovation of my kitchen in the coming weeks. Until then, I wanted to do a few easy upgrades to the kitchen to test out some of the things I may want to do. And, I also want to make the kitchen better match my aesthetic for the next few months.

I like to do these “band-aid” projects because they give people who rent or can’t do a full renovation ideas for how to spruce up their space. Plus, I really want to design the kitchen beautifully and trying out a few things so I can see them in person will be the best way to do that.

BEFORE

I have a tiny kitchen- this wall of cabinets is it. The other side of the room in my dining table. Because of the size, I thought, let’s just see how much I can get done in one day!

The biggest thing I hate is the backsplash. The brown granite is just not my look. But I really don’t want to damage it so that when I do my full renovation, that I can sell or donate this piece. 

I also wanted to paint the lower cabinets pink to test out how the colors looks with the turquoise appliances. Would it be too much? You can also kind of see the wall to the right of the fridge needed to be painted white too.

Side note, I already had the retro stove that I just hadn’t moved into place. So the changing of the oven will look dramatic, though it only involved pushing it across the room ;).

painting the cabinets

For the first project of the day, I removed the doors off the cabinets and cleaned the frame and cabinet fronts. Note, if you want a super detailed blog post about painting cabinets with chalk paint, click here. Or if you’d rather use latex paint, click here.

My cabinets are laminated- which means the surface is super smooth. AKA paint won’t stick well on it! So I primed with two coats in hopes that the paint will stay on.

For the paint, I started with soft pink chalk paint. I did a thin coat and spritzed the paint with a mister so that the paint brush strokes would be as smooth as possible. I ended up thinking that pink was two dark after one coat so my second coat was in the latex paint- Cupcake pink. It matches my door, so it seemed right.

paint the wall

While waiting for the coats of paint to dry on my cabinets, I gave the wall a coat of paint. It ended up needing two coats, but it was so nice to not have the beige paint in here anymore! I’ve slowly painted this room as I’ve done projects and it feels nice to have this space complete. 

contact paper backsplash

In the past I’ve done a peel and stick backsplash when I wanted a new look in my kitchen, but didn’t want to do a full makeover. This time,. I decided to try for an even more budget friendly look by using contact paper. I grabbed this mermaid patterned contact paper because I thought the colors would be perfect.

Note, this is a band-aid project. It’ll look cute for awhile, but will scratch over time. It’s not supposed to last forever. It’s supposed to look cute while you save up for something else. Or this project is perfect for renters!

To begin this project, I measured the backsplash and then cut a piece of contract paper to completely cover it.

To start the paper, peel back a bit of the backing and place the paper onto the backsplash. Note, getting the contact paper lined up will be the slowest, most important part of this project. I found the contact paper super sticky and hard to maneuver. To combat that, I spritzed the granite with Windex, positioned the paper, then pushed it down with a squeegee once in place.

Once the paper was started, I just pulled about 6″ of the backing off and then squeegeed it into place. I’ve worked with wallpaper A LOT and found this harder to use. It was very prone to wrinkles and bubbles. Going slow helped so I could fix the issues as I went.

To go over then outlet, I simply covered the outlet and then used an exact-o knife to cut the paper around the outlet. At the end, I just trimmed the excess with the exact-o knife.

If you’re looking for some cute contact paper that could work for a faux backsplash, here’s some ideas!

 

1 julien / 2 gold chevron / 3 mint stars / 4 hexagon / 5 black blossom / 6 subway tile / 7 blue arrowhead / 8 triangles / 9 mermaid mint / 10 chevron / 11 blue patchwork / 12 gold geometric

after $100 kitchen update in 1 day

OMG I could cry- how cute is this kitchen?! I took the pictures at the end of the day so the pink cabinets read a little light. T

his makeover took me about 8 hours to do. It was a lot of work, but it feels so much more like my space now. Want to see some before and afters?!

Isn’t that great for one day?! For this makeover, I spent $15 for the backsplash, $12 on the bowls on the shelf and everything else I had on hand. I know not everyone would have paint on hand, but the total would be less than $100 even if I needed to buy painting supplies. 
Pretty much, you don’t need to be stuck with a kitchen you don’t love! The main ingredients for this makeover were paint and contact paper. Yes, switching out the stove was a major upgrade. But you can always add car vinyl to change the color of your stove or paint your fridge if you want an appliance look upgrade on a budget. 

I’m obsessed with how this room came together! It’s feel lighter and happier. What do you think of the pink cabinets? Too much with the blue? I don’t think so, but I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.I’m still not in love with the counter top color. It’s so nice to clean, so I’m hesitant to do anything about it. Though I might try out a contact paper counter top because it’d look so much better! And it’d be a new project to experiment with. Should I test it out?

Side note, I have a few ideas on how to upgrade your counter tops without doing major construction. You can cover them in concrete or paint your counter tops to look like marble.

Ok, the countdown is now on! There will be about three months until the Mint Crème Quartz Luxe sink from Elkay is available! I’ll also be revealing my full kitchen renovation then and can’t wait to share how it looks. Make sure to keep following along – there’ll be lots of progress posts from now until then!

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