It’s really true that something as simple as changing out the lighting over your kitchen island can have a big impact on the look of an entire space.
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*Lighting provided by Wayfair
- Yearwood 1-Light Single Globe Pendants
- Joss & Mainhas beautiful pendant lighting as well. Here is a similar and very reasonably priced option from Joss & Main
If you are looking for info about the following projects, simply click the links below to head to those posts now:
If you followed our kitchen remodel at all, then you know we had lived in our house for over 5 years before we did anything in the kitchen. Almost every other room in the house had seen some form of an update, either a major or minor one.
But sadly, the heart of our home, the room where we probably spend the most time, by far, had had little to no work done. Why? One reason. MONEY.
It’s not that there was anything wrong with the kitchen, necessarily. It was in perfect working order. It just wasn’t US. It’s like we were living in someone else’s home.
So one Sunday, as the kids and Dave were making pancakes, I snapped. I just couldn’t take it anymore.
I whipped out a paintbrush. No cleaning, no prepping, I didn’t do ANY of the correct things that I’d advise you to do if you were going to tackle the same project. But I just didn’t care. I painted the kitchen cabinets white.
Ya’ll, I painted OVER TOP of crap stuck to the cabinet doors. I just slapped paint on those suckers with complete and total abandon. It was kind of like that wild dancing seen in Footloose when Kevin Bacon snapped, too. He couldn’t hold in the dancing anymore despite all the rules. That was me with my paintbrush.
The painted cabinets helped A LOT. The picture above was the little command center area, after some paint and installation of new cabinet hardware.
We lived like that for a few more years. Just slapping some paint on helped me tolerate the kitchen for a few more years. I was hopeful that we’d soon have the money to tackle a massive renovation project. But alas…
- cars died
- braces were recommended
- college savings accounts beckoned
- we wanted to go on vacation (I know, the nerve, right?)
In short, life kept happening. And life is expensive. Expensive enough that we still didn’t have the 30-60k that a massive kitchen renovation might require.
And that’s when we decided to challenge ourselves. We completed a full kitchen renovation for $1000. You can read more about the project in the kitchen renovation reveal post. In brief, that took us from the pictures you saw above to this:
And we LOVE it. What did we do? Here’s a cliff notes version:
Quick overview of this budget-friendly kitchen makeover:
- removed a wall separating the kitchen and family room
- changed original recessed lights over island to pendant lights (click the link for that tutorial)
- relocated refrigerator and repurposed some upper cabinets for lower
- relocated original command center granite countertop to use in new location
- painted hardwood floors
- installed kids art wall
- spray painted kitchen island chandeliers, bar stools and some thrifted IKEA kitchen chairs to give them a new look
And as we’ve been able, over the past year that the remodel has been done, we’ve added little bits and pieces to the space that we wanted. This month, the Joss & Main Style Spotters, of which I am one, are showing off kitchen island lighting. Wayfair offered us the opportunity to change out our spray painted chandeliers for something new, and I jumped at the chance.
In my head, I had loved the idea of adding the pop of color to the lighting, in reality, I didn’t love the way it turned out. It was a little too circus-chic for me, I think 😂.
So we opted to go with something more traditional…
I selected these “Yearwood Globe Pendants” from Wayfair for a couple of reasons.
Because of the punchy yellow color, the original lighting was a distraction from the open floor plan we worked hard to achieve by opening up the wall between the kitchen and family room.
Instead of your eye moving seamlessly from the kitchen into the family room and beyond to the fireplace, your eye was abruptly halted by the yellow chandeliers.
Now, the rooms flow together really easily to the eye, which I love. But that said, these lights aren’t wallflowers, either.
Not at all! These pendant lights still have a lot of style, despite their simple design. The globe shape breaks up a lot of the square and rectangular shapes that abound in the rest of the space.
The Edison-style bulb is really attractive, and the glass shade allows the light to permeate the space.
A shade that was opaque or even translucent wouldn’t allow nearly as much light to flood the kitchen. And since these two fixtures are really the ONLY ceiling lights in the kitchen right now, we need them to provide a good amount of light.
Because, after all, life happens in the kitchen. It truly is the heart of our home, and I’d be surprised if your kitchen wasn’t the same in your own.
If you have your own kitchen dilemmas, I hope that our budget-friendly, incremental approach to kitchen renovating gives you some hope. And maybe some food for thought, as well.
So what if you don’t have 60k sitting around ready and waiting to dump into your own kitchen remodel. Maybe you, too, can take a different approach that will help you love your home more, for less of an investment.
Pin this post for later! And if you make one, leave a comment (or better yet, a photo) on the pin! That helps others know whether they want to try this project, too!
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