any pictures??

Pictures would be good. I'm guessing though that you can please your husband and yourself by picking up a light beige or cream from the granite for your walls, then adding punches of your favorite color(s) in accessories. A cream/beige/white background would be excellent for almost any color of any brightness you wanted to add, and you could have the fun of changing out colors with moods, seasons, and holidays.

Hi mikeandbarb,

I'm also doing a low-budget makeover (well, technically it's below "low"..."almost no" budget ). Feel free to PM me for moral support!

yea, my low-budget makeover is so low...the word "granite" has never even come to mind, lol.

I'm embareassed to post pictures LOL. My kitchen is awful right now. UGLY wallpaper. Well, we're not spending 10's of thousands of dollars on it. I hope the mat will be between 10 to 15 thousand. I can't do the work myself so we have to hire the work to be done.

I got new curtains that have cream, blue and yellow in it and I am not sure how it will tie in with the rest once it's done. I know I jumped the gun getting the curtains.

OOPs meant embarrassing LOL.

I am trying to talk DH into a counter-dept fridge, he doesn't like the idea that it's smaller than what we have but it's just the two of us and we don't entertain much, besides we have another fridge in the garage.

With the granite top I'm wanting to expand it maybe 8 inches on one side for a bar, this will allow for more seating. Do you think it would look ok? BTW the counter guy will be here in the morning around 11 am.

I'm not looking forward to having no counter top for a few days.

While the cabinets are good there is the problem with us using a water pot. This has caused discoloration to the stain making a milky white. This is another reason I'm thinking of painting the cabinets.

I'd like to use something that would allow the grain of the wood to show. What can I use for this?

TIA, Barb

I'd paint the cabinets to go with the floor and add some interesting hardware, the floor and appliances are nice and neutral, remove the paper, paint the walls a warm color (yellow to go with the curtains?) , add some trim to the window and maybe a tile backsplash with a few insets of the granite from the counter (clip the corners of some of the tile or create a "rug" behind the stove.

Have you considered modifying your layout at all? Having your kitchen in a L-shape with the dishwasher to the left of the sink with perhaps a floating island would seem a better use of space. Corners can waste a lot of space. I would also close up the pass-thru and add some open shelving in that area if you cannot add new cabinets.

What really strikes me is your floating upper cabinets. That cabinet configuration screams 80's. Have you ever thought of pulling them down? It looks like your eating area is on one side of the kitchen, what is on the other?

Your typo put a smile on my face this morning.

Valinsv, you hit the nail on the head this is what I'd love to do BUT. I am sticking to a low budget for these reasons. Where I live I could not recoup what we put into the home, the master bath and the pool area needs to be redone also.
There are some 2 to 3 thousand new homes being built just in our small town but there are 100's of thousands new homes being built in areas close by. I live in Texas where there is plenty of land and they have started using it for new homes. The new homes go for anywhere from the 100 thousand to 500 to a million in my area.
Our home cost 128 thousand it was a steal cause it was an estate sale where the bank was selling it and all they wanted was their money back.

The most I want is for it to look better than it does now. BTW, DH is not handy for handyman work around the house, he does not have the skills. I can't do the work due to back problems, I try to do as much as I can but it takes me forever to get them done. Now my son has the skills but no time for mom's wish list LOL.
He's busy with his own life and rightly so, he does help out when he can and he's a dear for the thing's he does for me.

There is a breakfast nook on the other side, it is small but useable.

Wish HGTV could come to my house LOL.

And so it starts. Hold onto your wallet, Barb, or better yet have Mike guard it. FWIW, finding a curtain fabric you really like sounds like a good first step--an organizing principle to help you pull your kitchen together from the many choices available even to a couple on a tight budget.

I SO feel your pain. We have one of those huge developments coming up where we once had beautiful acreage behind us, and the million dollar homes part of it will be right in our backyard! So, I totally understand your desire for a fresh look without all the spending.

Like momto4boys said, granite is not even in my vocabulary at this point. I agree with what mom1993 said as for suggestions. That sounds low budget and would give you a different look.