Kitchen of the Week: A Designer's Budget Wood-and-White Makeover
Low-cost materials used in a design-minded way turn a depressing space into a light-filled showstopper
Designer Sidra Gross sensitively rehabs rental properties with high-end, customized attention in mind. She recently transformed a 100-year-old kitchen in one of her rental units on an $8,000 budget, creating an upscale look using lots of her own labor, existing plumbing and many low-cost materials.
AFTER: Given the budget and the desire to have an expensive-looking kitchen, Gross got creative with affordable materials that included plywood, paint and repurposed scraps from other areas of the overall project.
She kicked off the project by installing four new windows to flood the dark space with light.
The new windows and the existing plumbing and gas hookups dictated the layout of the appliances and cabinetry. Gross tapped budget-friendly Ikea for the cabinets, adding her own twist with hardware she purchased online. “Good ol’ Ikea Veddinge cabinet fronts are the cheapest you can buy,” she says. “But update those with some pretty hardware, and ooh la la!”
Maple butcher block countertops from Ikea add warmth and style. Gross had the four floating shelves and the island base custom-fabricated.
She kicked off the project by installing four new windows to flood the dark space with light.
The new windows and the existing plumbing and gas hookups dictated the layout of the appliances and cabinetry. Gross tapped budget-friendly Ikea for the cabinets, adding her own twist with hardware she purchased online. “Good ol’ Ikea Veddinge cabinet fronts are the cheapest you can buy,” she says. “But update those with some pretty hardware, and ooh la la!”
Maple butcher block countertops from Ikea add warmth and style. Gross had the four floating shelves and the island base custom-fabricated.
Gross demolished a small wall to the right of the refrigerator (and to the left of the brick fireplace back) to expand the space. The opening also balances the entrance on the other side of the fireplace.
She splurged on the pair of beguiling mirrors (even at 40 percent off) and the brass faucet. She saved about 60 percent off retail by going with appliances from a scratch-and-dent sale. She also got a big designer discount on the lighting.
Gross’ budget didn’t accommodate a tile backsplash, so she got creative with a $55 wall stencil and some gray paint to apply detailing above the sink and the stove. “As a designer, I have always embraced ornament and embellishment, even though I was trained as a minimalist,” she says.
Mirrors: Anthropologie; Shibori Japanese wall stencil: Royal Design Studio Stencils; Trinsic pull-down faucet in Champagne Bronze: Delta via FaucetDirect.com; Domsjö sink: Ikea; Leighton chandeliers: Candelabra
She splurged on the pair of beguiling mirrors (even at 40 percent off) and the brass faucet. She saved about 60 percent off retail by going with appliances from a scratch-and-dent sale. She also got a big designer discount on the lighting.
Gross’ budget didn’t accommodate a tile backsplash, so she got creative with a $55 wall stencil and some gray paint to apply detailing above the sink and the stove. “As a designer, I have always embraced ornament and embellishment, even though I was trained as a minimalist,” she says.
Mirrors: Anthropologie; Shibori Japanese wall stencil: Royal Design Studio Stencils; Trinsic pull-down faucet in Champagne Bronze: Delta via FaucetDirect.com; Domsjö sink: Ikea; Leighton chandeliers: Candelabra
Gross painted the exterior of the stainless steel vent hood gold to complement brass finishes elsewhere in the kitchen. Adhering to stainless steel appliances can be trying, she says, because they don’t carry over to some of the larger elements in the room. “Rust-Oleum gold is my happy place,” she says.
Stove, vent hood and dishwasher: KitchenAid
Stove, vent hood and dishwasher: KitchenAid
The new floor combines hundreds of pieces of cut plywood in a geometric pattern. Gross says she spent only about $1 per square foot for the material. Her inspiration was a post by Mandi Gubler on her DIY blog, Vintage Revivals. Siren Spaces carpenter Carmen Draper had to buy a special saw to make all the required oddball 60-degree cuts. Draper punched up the pattern even more by adding contrast to adjacent segments. Some are left natural, while others are tinted with white paint, and the darker triangles had a strategic run-in with a blow torch. “When you take a blow torch to wood and lightly run it over the surface, the grain of the wood pops out like tiger stripes,” Gross says.
Each piece is face-nailed with small brass nails to the new three-quarters-inch subfloor. Each dotted nailhead delightfully enhances the floor pattern. Five layers of polyurethane provide a defensive top finish.
Carpentry: Carmen Draper and Mike Lawrence of Siren Spaces
Each piece is face-nailed with small brass nails to the new three-quarters-inch subfloor. Each dotted nailhead delightfully enhances the floor pattern. Five layers of polyurethane provide a defensive top finish.
Carpentry: Carmen Draper and Mike Lawrence of Siren Spaces
Here’s a view of the kitchen from the living room. The opening on the right used to be a wall, which, as mentioned earlier, was demolished to create symmetry and an open flow.
Floor plan from Siren Spaces
This floor plan illustrates the kitchen layout. The living room and fireplace are toward the left.
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This floor plan illustrates the kitchen layout. The living room and fireplace are toward the left.
More
Homeowner’s Workbook: How to Remodel Your Kitchen
Browse more Kitchens of the Week
New This Week: 4 Dreamy White-and-Wood Kitchens to Learn From
More Houzz Resources
Find a kitchen designer
Shop kitchen products
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Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: This is a rental property owned by interior designer Sidra Gross and her husband, Benjamin.
Location: Midtown area of Atlanta
Size: 144 square feet (13.4 square meters); 12 by 12 feet
Designers: Sidra Gross and the team at Siren Spaces
BEFORE: Gross and her husband bought this 1918 Atlanta triplex in pre-foreclosure and are revamping it for new tenants. With its sagging floor and ceiling, the golden age of the kitchen had certainly passed.
“The kitchen was hands down the worst space on the entire property,” Gross says. Old vinyl flooring had been ripped up, leaving the wood subfloor exposed. Water infiltration had rotted through in areas. The cabinets had been removed, and the kitchen was relegated to a catchall storage area.
“I knew right away that this kitchen was going to be the lion’s share of my design efforts in this apartment,” she says. “The kicker, though, was that we had barely any money to do it, as our resources were being stretched thin across the entirety of the project.” She and her husband had set aside $8,000 to make over the space.