Decorating your kitchen can be one of the most expensive projects you’ll ever undertake as a home decorator. On a tight budget? Here are easy and creative ways you can update your kitchen, and create a cozy, inviting space for your family.

Customize Those Cabinets


Unless you have expensive solid-wood cabinets, you shouldn’t be afraid to use paint to create a custom look in your kitchen. There is so much more to the painted cabinet than white! Do a little Internet research to find easy, step-by-step techniques for antique washes, glazes and crackle finishes — just like cabinet styles you see in the designer showrooms.

If your cabinets are too damaged even for paint, remove the doors and paint the cabinet base. Tear pretty tissue paper into pieces, glue pieces of it to the cabinet doors in an eye-pleasing pattern, let dry, and then seal your design with decoupage medium. Replace the doors when they are completely dry. This handmade paper look is very elegant, yet covers scratches, dents and flaws. And the cost is minimal!

Stone Counters for a Fraction of the Cost


Beautiful and durable, stone counters are all the rage in designer showrooms but may be out of your budget-decorating price range. No worries. You can recreate the look by painting a faux-stone design on your countertops — search online for instructions or take a free class at your home-improvement store. To ensure a near-flawless finish, first prep your counters. This means a thorough cleaning, sanding and priming with a specialty primer. I recommend Kilz Original. Then paint on your faux-stone design. Practice first! Finally, seal well with a water-based polyurethane such as Minwax Polycrylic. Apply four to six coats, and allow your work to cure several days before using the counters. Voilà!

Fake a Fancy Floor


I always wanted a slate kitchen floor, but the price tag was well out of my reach. Stained concrete — more affordable and just as beautiful — was not an option because I have a wood subfloor, rather than the necessary concrete slab floor, under my vinyl flooring. So I used torn brown paper bags and polyurethane to create a one-of-a-kind, faux-stained concrete floor for a fraction of the price! Simply tear brown paper into sections, brush pieces onto the floor with the polyurethane and then seal the floor with four to six coats of the same polyurethane. Add a new coat or two once a year as the floor wears. This floor is also easily repaired; if an area is damaged, just paste another piece of torn brown paper over it and seal.

Accessorize With What You Own


Adding charm and warmth to your kitchen is easy, and requires nothing more than looking through the items you already own and love.

  • Pretty dessert plates hung along the wall make a perfect art display.
  • That cracked and chipped pottery set your sister gave you? Break the plates in a pillowcase, then glue pieces of them to the backsplash and grout your design.
  • Relocate picture frames from the family room and prop them on the counter. Or remove the glass for safety, mount frames onto each cabinet door with Velcro, and add pretty fabric or children’s art to the frames to personalize your space.
  • Create one-of-a-kind cabinet pulls with a drill and your old flatware, or create a window valance with all your pretty teacups hung in a row.

Little Touches, Big Reward


Remember, there are many small things you can do in your kitchen to make a big difference in design.

  • Fresh flowers from your local grocery store are inexpensive and can be arranged in unusual ways.
  • Display those pretty perfume bottles you just can’t throw away, or bring out your Grandma’s antique pitcher and fill it with roadside daisies.
  • Add molding to the cabinets, or pick up small carved-wood embellishments available at your home improvement center and glue one to the center of each cabinet door.
  • Pick a stencil to match your kitchen’s theme, and use it to stencil a design at focal points in the room.
  • Add a touch of elegance with small doses of black: Trace the interior of your kitchen cabinet doors with black paint pen, stock up on black-and-white gingham tea towels or add a throw rug with a black background.
  • And, finally, forget the rules you’ve read in those decorating books! Take a drawing or two created by the children in your life and put them smack-dab in the middle of your refrigerator. After all, who are we decorating for?


        About Our Expert
Kathy Wilson is a home and garden writer, author and consultant. Visit her sites, The Budget Decorator and The Garden Glove, for more home and garden ideas.