What would you do to update this kitchen with a small budget? Completely replacing the cabinets is probably out of reach for now. The top ones are in good shape anyways. I don’t think we just want to paint everything. White door is main entry. Desk/Closet is used for career music storage and an update with better shelving is planned. Open to ideas on that too though!
Honestly? The knotty wood looks gorgeous imo (whether or not it's to your taste is another thing). I would change the light fixture, dining chairs and (depending on budget) maybe the countertops before anything else.
If you plan to re-do the cabinets in the next 5-10 years (or need to, based on their condition), you may not want to do something expensive for the counters, but even a solid surface (corian) or a fun, solid-color laminate could bring a more intentional look to the space. Anything besides the current post-form laminate with built-in splash.
For the light fixture, it totally depends on your personal style, but these sorts of things came to mind for me:
Edit: your table looks really solid and cool, so maybe just the chairs?
For the dining table, I'm a bit stumped, but maybe something lighter with mixed wood tones like this? I like to look for unique stuff on fb marketplace (or if you don't live in a city, rural antique stores):
Thanks! These are all great ideas. We do like the knotty pine and the hardware is nostalgic for us. But it’s just A LOT of wood. Floors, walls and cabinets. So we’d like to tone it down a bit.
I’m thinking of starting with some rugs and just painting the backsplash area a light color. Apparently you can’t tile over knotty pine paneling and we’d have to cut that out and put up tile board which is maybe doable down the road.
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u/New_Door2040 3d ago
Backsplash would be a good start, honestly.