How to Save On A Kitchen Remodel

Everyone seems to have the bare-bones basics of how you can cut the most costs on a kitchen remodel, but what if you really need to do actual hard work, like replacing cabinets or upgrading appliances? Today, I wanted to share my tips on how to save on a kitchen remodel based off things that worked for our renovation!

Compare Ikea, Lowe's, Home Depot and Salvaged Cabinets

Consider comparing Ikea, Home Depot and Lowes for cabinetry, but also consider looking at locations that carry salvaged cabinets. Many times, cabinets still in great condition will be donated to places like Habitat for Humanity or sold on Facebook Marketplace. The other benefit to using big box store cabinetry is that you can adjust shelving easily and replace parts more readily than you could if you had someone custom fit cabinets for you. You also save thousands of dollars. Walk into the showrooms and compare the quality up-close before making your decision.

Consider Paint, Fake Tile & New Hardware

It's been recommended like a broken record, but a fresh coat of ain't truly helps revive the most outdated spaces. When we bought our house, the cabinets were brown and the walls were a sickly yellowed beige. Painting our cabinets white on top and light gray on bottom made a WORLD of difference. Painting and upgrading hardware is a great way to buy yourself time if you have to wait away for the actual reno process. Depending on the size of your kitchen and your on-hand supplies, you could be looking at $50 to $250. Even stick-on tile can make a world of wonder. For $10-$50 a pack, you can upgrade your tile backsplash with stick-on tile to hold you over until it can actually be replaced. You can also replace doors. Lots of big box hardware stores sell common sized doors that you can buy to reface your cabinets if the bones are good but the style of the fronts aren't your vibe.

Consider Open Shelving Instead of Cabinets

Does part of your dream reno project involve replacing your dishes? Cut costs on cabinets and work that money towards your plates, bowls and glasses. Create beautifully curated shelving and save hundreds of dollars at the same time. You can buy budget friendly dining sets at places like IKEA, Target and Walmart, along with gorgeous glass and wood food storage. Save even more money (and the environment) by shopping for those items secondhand to create unique, one-of-kind looks. If you have storage space, store unused dishes for when guests come over and only keep out what you need for everyday use.

Wait for Major Holidays to Buy Appliances

Grab things at discounted rates during major sale holidays, like Father's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Black Friday and Labor Day. Places like Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe's save their major appliance sales for those weekends. We got our dishwasher for almost half the price during a July 4th weekend sale. Home Depot and Lowes also have yearly warehouse clear out sales, where they get rid of all the stuff that didn't sell to make room for new products. Our last LG oven (RIP) was only $100 and was amazing!

Buy Over Time Instead of All At Once

Not ready to make the leap but still want to get started? Buy over time instead! IKEA offers a 365-day return policy for those that sign up for the IKEA Family membership (free). This saved me multiple times for things that work incorrectly purchased or for returns I didn't have the receipt for. You have 365 days from purchase to return the item, even if it's already been built together.

Bonus points: you can sometimes find pre-built cabinets in the clearance room from people like me who bought, assembled, and then realized they bought the wrong size. You can save quite a bit of money this way, but there's no guarantee of finding anything or finding things undamaged.

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Go For Height with Cabinetry

You actually don't need to have a gap between your cabinets and the ceiling, so consider spending a little more for taller ones that could mean eliminating cabinets in other spaces without losing storage. Most 40" cabinets aren't much more than 30" ones, and upgrading 4 to taller heights is less than 1 whole cabinet. Playing with your options really helps in the long run. If your cabinet of choice has adjustable shelving, this helps a ton with making sure your stuff fits. This is how we made up for lost space since we were losing a pantry and a 36" cabinet where the dishwasher and garbage can now sit. By utilizing our vertical space, we managed to reclaim what was lost!

Purge Items Out of Your Kitchen

Look, let's be real here: you're never gonna use half of those bizarre ingredients, canned foods, and over-specialized kitchen gadgets & tools. Also, just get rid of those lids and containers that don't match. Better yet, just pass off the ones you have left to someone who could use a new starter set and buy yourself a new set of food containers that will stack nicely with each other. Condensing down and purging things you don't need will give you the best idea of how much storage you actually need in your kitchen.

Not willing to part with some stuff? Grab 1 or 2 storage tubs and stick things you don't use often in a garage, storage unit or closet. Save on space by moving food products into food storage containers like baskets and dispensers. You'd be amazed by how much space you can save this way!

Tackle Demo Yourself

Demo alone can tack on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Additionally, things you want to keep can end up chucked or damaged. If you can, tackle the demolition of your kitchen yourself. Cabinets can be repurposed for garage storage, or you can donate them to places like Habitat for Humanity so the pieces can be reused by others. Also, no one will be as careful with your home as YOU will. When we looked at using paid help, demo and building of our cabinets alone would have cost an additional $1500-2000. Just make sure you remove all your major appliances first so you don't end up using the money you save to replace things you break!

I really hope these tips help you when planning and budgeting your kitchen renovation (or even just a temporary makeover). Things don't have to be high-ticketed to function well and be beautiful, and things don't have to be bought all at once. We started our purchasing in July 2020 and didn't finish until March 2021, and we don't regret making that decision at all because it made buying so much less stressful and made recovering funds so much smoother.

Check out the full series here:

We Remodeled Our Kitchen!
Important Tips for Remodeling an IKEA Kitchen
The Cost of Our IKEA Kitchen
New Kitchen Haul