Starting a kitchen renovation can be one of the best things you ever do for your property value, even if you get it done on a budget! A modern, updated kitchen can be a great gathering place, provide entertainment to your guests, or just provide plenty of beloved family memories you’ll look fondly back on for years to come. We’ve compiled a few tips for you to help save money during a kitchen renovation and keep you under budget.
- Before you start your kitchen renovation, make a detailed plan that includes a budget, a timeline, and a list of materials you’ll need. Stick to this plan as closely as possible to avoid overspending. The more changes you make during construction, the more expensive the overall cost will be.
- When you write out your budget, remember not to forget labour costs. Whether you hire someone or you do things yourself, there is a cost involved. Yes, even if you do things yourself, you’re incurring costs–the latter is what we like to call “opportunity costs” because you could be doing something else, and something potentially more valuable, with your time. Let’s say you’re a lawyer and you can bill $500 an hour on clients. Should you really be spending a whole week refinishing old cabinets to save on $4000 worth of new cabinets and labour, when you could have made more money in that time period? What if you install kitchen cabinets yourself, but you lack the experience and get hurt–costing you even more money because of the time you spent recuperating? You also don’t necessarily want to pick the cheapest labour available, either–you might end up losing money on broken and damaged kitchen cabinets, never mind the potential for structural damage on your property.
- Shop around for material more than you shop around for labour. We’ve seen too many people scrimp on labour, but end up overpaying on materials when you could buy them direct from the manufacturer–they just don’t have the fancy showroom the other guy did. We love checking out the fancy showrooms, taking note of the brands we love, and then calling around to see if other places can beat the price. Shop at sales and clearance centers–sometimes stores will drop the prices of last year’s model because they’re just trying to make way for new stock. But do remember that cheap materials are not always cheap if they break in a matter of years.
- Check out Facebook marketplace and other places to buy used kitchen cabinets. But do consider the costs you will incur in transportation and, as in point no. 2, labour, to figure out the final costs. If the kitchen cabinets require too much labour to make them equal to new kitchen cabinets, they might not be worth the cost savings.
- Consider open shelving. These are an affordable and trendy option if you have matching dinnerware. Herbal gardens on open shelving can spruce up a kitchen.
- Consider peel and stick backsplash. Tiling a kitchen countertop is labour-intensive and thus, expensive to install.
- Update your hardware. Replacing your cabinet knobs and drawer pulls can give your kitchen a fresh new look without breaking the bank. Whether you opt for steel hardware, brass, or painted black, you can buy these almost anywhere nowadays–IKEA, Home Depot, even Amazon.
- Choose affordable countertops. Granite and marble countertops are expensive, but you can mimic the look with a more affordable laminate or quartz. You can also consider butcher block, which requires some maintenance but is absolutely stunning in the right conditions. There are also less trendy options that could look great in the right conditions, such as tile and concrete.
- Keep the existing layout. Reconfiguring the layout can be extremely costly, especially if you have to run new plumbing lines and electrical.
- Add lighting and paint the walls to give your kitchen a fresh new look without breaking the bank.