Hi, my honeys! Welcome to Week 5 of the One Room Challenge! We are past the half-way point, but we have a little work to do to get to the home stretch! While I wait for a few supplies to come in to finish up our kitchen, I thought I'd chat with y'all a bit about where we splurged in our kitchen makeover and where we saved! I. figured this could be helpful for you should you decide to remodel your own kitchen! I think the way to create beautiful spaces in your home is by knowing what to splurge on and what to save on! Hopefully, this blog post will give you a bit of insight!
Splurge
The first thing we splurged on in our space was our brand new quartz countertops! We could have epoxied our old countertops, went with butcher block, or even a formica top, but we really wanted quartz for its antimicrobial properties, easy maintenance, and overall look. We have quite a lot of counter space, so we needed two full slabs of quartz, which came in at over $5000. We also spent around $750 on the waterfall edge alone, which I didn't mind doing because I knew it would add so much to the space. I think investing in real stone countertops at some point during owning your home is the right move. You will definitely see a return on your investment should you decide to sell someday, and they hold up much better than some other surfaces.
Another splurge in the space is our kitchen counterstools that I showed off on my Instagram this week! I was lucky enough to have them gifted by Parker Gwen , but we were planning on getting them regardless! They're not cheap at just over $700 a pop, but I am honestly so impressed with the quality of these stools. The seat cushion is super thick and comfy, the cane webbing is well constructed within the frame of the stool, and the brass kick plate is a nice glam touch! These arrived so quickly from Parker Gwen, and we loved that they came pre-assembled!
Lighting is also a great place to splurge on in a home. You really can make such a bold statement with good lighting. My advice is if you fall in love with a pricier light, spend the extra money to get it! I think lighting truly can make or break a space, and the right light for a room really sets the tone. We love our Crystorama Fulton pendant lights, which are roughly $650 each. They're so well constructed and make such an impact over our peninsula.
We got some artwork from Minted that was a total splurge, but they were kind enough to sponsor me for this project! Minted truly does have the best selection of art, and everything is so high-end looking! We chose two different prints from Minted: Riley and Awaking. We had one float mounted in a black metal frame for a unique and polished look, and another in their gorgeous brass frame. Our art arrived well packaged and super easy to hang with their provided instructions!
Lastly, I splurged a bit on our cabinet hardware. My girl Wendy from @thekwendyhome shared some gorgeous knobs on her page, and I had to bug her for them! This shop called Yester Home in the UK makes the most gorgeous hardware for your cabinets! I chose a mix of their mushroom knobs, latches, pulls, and cup pulls in their Polished Bronze finish for my kitchen. The polished bronze tone is a slightly less yellow brass tone with just a hint of rosy tones. I'd say it's a happy middle ground between brass and copper! I spent roughly $300 on all the new cabinet hardware, but when I saw how gorgeous they are in person, I knew I made the right choice to spend a little!
Save
My best find for the whole kitchen has to be our tile! Our Montauk Gin 4x4 tiles from Tile Bar are such a steal at only $6.95 a square foot. You get the handmade look of Zellige tiles without the hefty price tag. I've seen some real Zellige tiles go for almost $18 a square foot! The Montauk Gin tiles look just handmade enough to give you that cottage feel, but they also bring a touch of glam to our kitchen with a gorgeous pearlescent sheen to them! I can't say enough good things about this tile!
We also saved on a pot filler for the space. I always wanted to be able to pour water directly into a pot over our stove, and when our plumber said we could get this installed on the cheap, I set out to find a reasonably priced pot filler. I've seen a ton from name brands go for over $500, but I was able to snag a plumber-approved one off Amazon for less than $200.
Another way we cut down cost in our kitchen remodel was keeping our original cabinets. Fortunately, our home came with these modern white shaker style cabinets, so we knew we wanted to keep them. I just patched and painted over the old hardware holes, so it was super easy! Refacing is a great way to repurpose your cabinets if you can't afford all new ones. That's where they just replaced the doors on each cabinet base with new, modern ones!
When styling the kitchen, a great way to save is to thrift a lot of your decor pieces! When we went on our family vacation at the end of August we went thrifting and antiquing, and I found lots of cute items to style my kitchen with! You can repurpose old vases and bowls with a fresh coat of paint, and old wooden spoons and pottery make great additions to your kitchen!
Lastly, we really wanted to replace our window above the sink and patio slider, but we couldn't afford to do so at this time. I opted to make them over with faux window panes from New Panes. They're super affordable and easy to install. I think I spent a little over $100 for the panes for the window and both patio doors. Basically, they send you connectors and plastic tubes you can cut to size with scissors and make a grid to put on your windows. I opted to put them on with 3M tape, but they have other, more renter friendly options too!
I hope y'all found this to be helpful! We are getting to the home stretch now of finishing up our kitchen. It's a lot of tedious work left, but I know it will all be worth it in the end! Stay tuned for next week where I trim out our kitchen peninsula!
My ORC Sponsors:
Calico | Crystorama | Kelly Moore Paint | Loloi | Minted | Parker Gwen | MR Direct | Tile Bar |