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mazsoladc

Looking for advice on a mini makeover for my kitchen

last month

Hi! I would like to update my kitchen without changing the bones. I like my appliances and colors, but things need a little refresh. On my to do list:


-refinishing my granite from high gloss to matte honed

-removing the short granite backsplash and installing tile on the full expanse

-changing out my sink and faucet -- this will involve cutting the granite; I desperately want a larger sink

-repainting my cabinets in the same color

-tightening up or replacing some of my cabinet hinges; all the other hardware is great


Whom do I hire? Do I need a granite contractor + a handyman? Any advice? Any idea what my budget should be? I’m in Maryland/suburban DC.

Comments (9)

  • PRO
    last month
    last modified: last month

    That' isn't mini.Your list is much too long and invasive to be considered "mini" anything. It also wastes money on impractical or undoable things that cost more than does full replacement. IT's 30-40K of work. You are going to need to fully replace your counters, and just leave off the new backsplash. New sink, faucet, and tile backsplash for new counters. Painting the cabinets in an actual durable cabinet finish is 12-15K. If the boxes aren't in good shape, which is suggested by saying the hinges are bad, then there is no point in doing any of this. You could do all new cabinets and counters for what you will pay to try to "save" what you have. Do everything. Gut and start over.


    What you need is a KD who is actually experienced with cost vs tradeoff. It's obvious that you have zero experience remodeling, or the costs associated with it. The labor is the most expensive portion. You proposing highly labor intensive projects is keeping the cost as high as less labor intensive, but bigger changes. That's not how you do any of this. First, you establish a budget, and your DIY contribution levels. If you cannot DIY anything, your budget just increased sharply, or your scope just decreased sharply.


    Avoid any fake "pro" cabinet finisher who would use any DIY level trim paints for cabinets. They don't know what they are doing, and are 20 years+ out of date.

  • last month

    you hope to hone the granite in place?

    cutting a larger sink is doable, but is the cabinet below large enough to handle a larger sink?

    repainting cabinets can be expensive. You need more than a handyman although as your local home improvement store for their granite countertop guy to address the new sink hole.

    painting cabinets in the metro area is more than my rural shore area, ask a painting contractor for an estimate.

  • last month

    The items you are talking about are no small task and no small expense. Nothing mini-about it.


    Cabinets should be painted by a company that just paints cabinets with durable finishes made for cabinets. Whatever a handyman uses to paint cabinets will look nice until you start to use them and wear and tear will chip and ding in no time. When I priced out a durable paint job for my cabinets, it was so expensive we decided to get new cabinets instead.


    Others here can speak better two what is involved in removing a countertop to have the backsplash sawed off and sink whole enlarged. What size is your base sink cabinet and what size sink do you want to put in there?



  • last month

    Please post some photos of your current kitchen. It's difficult to determine budget and what the best process will be without seeing the layout and size.


    @Joseph Corlett, LLC - how much should a homeowner expect to spend on having a new sink installed (which includes enlarging the opening in the granite)?


    I also found a post regarding honing installed polished black granite countertops - and Joseph Corlett commented:


    My fear would be you've got dyed granite. There are tests, but once you commit to a hone, you're getting a hone no matter how inconsistent the stone may reveal itself.

    I wouldn't hire anybody that charged less than a thousand dollars.


    Other people commented about the amount of dust that would be created if the countertops were hones in place. Joseph's response was:



    The level of dust depends on the quality and design of the equipment used and the skill of the operator. I would never guarantee a top being removed from breakage which will cost extra to repair, especially if I hadn't installed it. Add another thousand to pull it and reinstall.


    Based upon Joseph's comments, the cost would be a minimum of $2,000 - and that was eleven years ago . . .


    Depending upon the layout of your kitchen, you might be able to replace your current granite with pre-fab granite countertops (for perimeter cabinets). If you have an island, you could install a wood countertop in order to save some money (except if you want a beautiful walnut countertop on your island - those can be fairly expensive - John Boos is where I would purchase one for my island).


    Countertop fabricators have stone grave yards for all the leftover pieces of stone after a full slab has had pieces cut. I've seen some pretty large leftover pieces of slabs at my fabricator that are listed for a really good price.


    Question - are you going to hire a professional cabinet refinisher to redo your cabinets? That type of professional will provide you with the best looking + wearing finish for your cabinets. If I didn't want to pay the $$ to hire a pro cabinet refinisher - and planned on hiring a regular house painter (or handyman) to repaint my cabinets, personally, I'd prefer to do them myself (if I had the time).


    I would purchase the best cabinet finish possible (go on FaceBook - there are groups devoted to refinishing cabinets that will provide you with expert advice). I would purchase a decent sprayer off Amazon - if you look at the review photos, you will see how nice of a finish the particular sprayer will be able to provide. There are some not very expensive sprayers that have MANY reviews with photos of finished cabinet doors that look really good (the photos have been taken at angles in order to show how smooth/nice the actual finished doors look).


    However, painting cabinets yourself isn't a fast/easy DIY project. I haven't refinished any cabinets, but I have used our sprayer (my SO purchased it to stain our new cedar fence after the wood "cured" for awhile after being installed - I believe it's a Graco one that's a fairly nice one for DIYers - but wouldn't be used by real pros) to repaint a couple nightstands for my sister (the nightstands looked really nice afterwards). Our sprayer was about $400 = more than many of the sprayers on Amazon - but very inexpensive compared to the cost of the sprayers used by real professional cabinet refinishers.


    The other items on your list aren't a huge deal to address - and won't cost a lot.


    However, if you decide that you are going to (i) replace your granite countertops, and (ii) engage a professional cabinet refinisher to repaint your cabinets, I would want to address any functional issues before spending that amount of $$. If you post the photos + a scaled drawing of your kitchen that includes the dimensions of all walls/windows/doorways/doors/etc., you will be able to receive feedback on whether your kitchen functions well - or it it has issues that need to be addressed.


    If it has issues, you may want to just put the $$ you were going to spend on this update towards doing a full gut of the kitchen in a few years.

  • PRO
    last month

    "@Joseph Corlett, LLC - how much should a homeowner expect to spend on having a new sink installed (which includes enlarging the opening in the granite)?"


    Removing a sink and installing a top mount sink without polishing the cutout would be in the $1,200.00 -$2,900.00 range as would changing an undermount sink without changing the cutout. Sink and plumbing included.


    Removing an old sink, cutting, profiling, and polishing a new cutout and undermounting a new sink is in the $2,900.00-$5,500.00 range, sink and plumbing included. If you go with a custom made sink, which is often dictated by circumstance, add another couple thousand.


    If you hire the right professional, this job will be done in a day with virtually no mess. I've done it thousands of times.

  • last month

    You might want to consider a different cabinet coating. Dan is recommending a good, traditional waterborne alkyd coating. Urethane (or a urethane-modified alkyd resin hybrid) is far superior in durability and is always preferred over alkyd coatings for cabinets, doors and trims. If you can’t afford a urethane, choose an alkyd, and again, BM makes a good one, but Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel is the better coating for cabinets.

    It’s not enough to hire a pro, you need to know what coating he’s going to use. It really does matter.

  • last month
    last modified: last month

    A pro using primer followed by 2 coats of Emerald. This shows all the work. He's diy oriented and gives the pricing at 600 to 800 with 100 hours diy and 6k to 7k+ to have a pro do the job.


    And same guy using Advance.

    It's crucial to use the paint the painter you can get has experience with and prefers. The skill gets developed with experience. Go to a SW store for recommendations is you prefer Emerald.

  • PRO
    last month

    dani writes a book but the truth is what you plan is not a good way to get a refresh of a kitchn Honed granite why??? It will now show every little oil spot for no improvement in function We need pics of your kitchen as irt is. Post those her ein comments .

  • PRO
    last month
    last modified: last month

    Wrong scope of work for something you think is a "mini" makeover. It's much more of a "maxi" makeover in scope and cost, but without any of the full benefits of actually starting over. A mini makeover is keeping the cabinets or counters, doing a splash, and lighting. Some wall paint. Or, pick replacing the counters, or painting the cabinets as a next step upgrade. Only 1 of those. Because by the time you spend the money to do all of that, you could have had a V8.