I would look into getting new doors for the cabinets and paint the frames to match. What style do you have in the rest of the house?

Look into laminate countertops with a Karran [karran.com] acrylic undermount sink, a new faucet and backsplash. It will radically transform the kitchen. When we redid our kitchen last winter, we went with a faux wood grain laminate by Wilsonart for $21 sq ft through Home Depot. Faux granites were selling for $30 sq ft. There was a $500 installation fee, $140 haul away fee for the old countertop and sink, and $140 plumbing fee that was waived as my husband unhooked everything before the installer got here, and then installed the new faucet. The sink was $300 plus $140 fee to attach it to the countertop. We had close to 50 sq ft of counter space, and all total it was right around $2,100. We did our own backsplash, and that was around $450 to $500 for materials and supplies not counting the tile saw we already owned.

What are your plans for the floor? I would look into wood look laminate. My in-laws put it in a few years back, and it's gorgeous. Keep your eyes open for sales, especially with the holidays coming up.

I would paint the cabinets a cream or even medium gray as bright white seems so harsh to me. Check Amazon.com for reasonably priced hardware. I've replaced all the hardware on my kitchen and bathroom cabinets for just over $100 for some very nice oil rubbed bronze handles and drawer pulls.

We gutted our kitchen completely for only $12k since we did the of the work ourselves. We were aiming for a modern look and decided on a color palette of light wood/yellow, gray/stainless, and white. We ended up with blond wood Ikea cabinets, LG & kenmore stainless appliances from Sears, huge stainless steel farmhouse sink (sourced that online), slate gray tile floor from Lowe's (tile is actually ceramic though it looks pretty close to slate), yellow onyx backsplash from Home Depot, silver fox color paint (lovely Benjamin Moore medium tone gray), and modern / straight edge white Corian countertops. As you can see from the pic we also added a lovely gray green granite piece on the island to mix it up a bit.

So, it can be done! A few questions to start things off: what colors are you envisioning? How much work can you do yourselves? How much light does the room get? Is there an Ikea near you?

It's a really poor layout. Buy some paint and apply it and save the $9970 until you have enough to do do an Ikea tranformation. If you're handy, maybe another 5K will do it. It will need electrical and plumbing addressed and that will up the costs if you can't DIY them.

I just did my kitchen (cabinets, counters, furniture, decor, curtains, island, added cabinets, hardware, new door, backsplash, new open shelving, switchplates) for about $750.00. Yes, seven HUNDRED and fifty, not seven THOUSAND. I would suggest spending some time on the internet researching how to paint or distress cabinets. My island is made from a $20 bedroom dresser that I added a new top to and painted. It looks great and is full of storage. No need to spend a lot to get a great kitchen. Personally, I am glad I never had to subject my kitchen to teams of contractors that never seem to show up or finish on time. I am also enjoying spending the thousands of dollars I have saved on more important things! Good luck! I would attach a pic of my kitchen but I don't know how to download them from my phone! lol)

I think you can get a lot more than you think for the money you have depending on how handy you are and or willing to learn. New cabinets from Lowes, you install them. All new appliances. Center island can be a 1 piece from Lowes, Porcelain tile, take a class and you'll have it down in no time. Granite counter tops, buy the stone in prefab slabs and have it installed by professionals. Also, splitting up the work instead of a general contractor for the entire Jon can help you budget.

We'd suggest laminate countertops from a budget standpoint. You can get the look of real stone at a fraction of the price! There are so much color options and edge finishes available too. We'd suggest looking at our Dimensions product: www.vtdimensions.com Let us know if we can help answer any questions or provide specific suggestions!