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Beauty On a Budget
You don't need loads of cash to refresh a room! DIY is a big
money-saver. Pair that good, old-fashioned elbow grease with smart
shopping for materials and the results can be inspirational. See how
these readers transformed a mudrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and baths
at bargain prices—without sacrificing on function or good looks.
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The $967 Mudroom Makeover
Allan Wiggins and his family of Suwanee, Georgia turned a spartan
laundry into a well-appointed mudroom for less than a grand. They loved
having their laundry room right off the kitchen, but it seemed like the
space wasn't being put to good use. Shown here, Son Tanner, 5, gears up
for soccer on the new built-in bench. New cabinets, labeled shelves, and coat hooks add function while beadboard paneling and curved corbels lend some charm.
Allan saved money by building the cabinet boxes, and finishing the installation himself. The new mudroom provides plenty of storage space for laundry detergent, pet food, bulk supplies, and the kids' school and sports gear. See more of this budget remodel in A Low-Cost Mudroom for Tidying Up Kids' Gear. |
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The $967 Mudroom Makeover
Allan Wiggins and his family of Suwanee, Georgia turned a spartan
laundry into a well-appointed mudroom for less than a grand. They loved
having their laundry room right off the kitchen, but it seemed like the
space wasn't being put to good use. Shown here, Son Tanner, 5, gears up
for soccer on the new built-in bench. New cabinets, labeled shelves, and coat hooks add function while beadboard paneling and curved corbels lend some charm.
Allan saved money by building the cabinet boxes, and finishing the installation himself. The new mudroom provides plenty of storage space for laundry detergent, pet food, bulk supplies, and the kids' school and sports gear. See more of this budget remodel in A Low-Cost Mudroom for Tidying Up Kids' Gear. |
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The $967 Mudroom Makeover
Allan Wiggins and his family of Suwanee, Georgia turned a spartan
laundry into a well-appointed mudroom for less than a grand. They loved
having their laundry room right off the kitchen, but it seemed like the
space wasn't being put to good use. Shown here, Son Tanner, 5, gears up
for soccer on the new built-in bench. New cabinets, labeled shelves, and coat hooks add function while beadboard paneling and curved corbels lend some charm.
Allan saved money by building the cabinet boxes, and finishing the installation himself. The new mudroom provides plenty of storage space for laundry detergent, pet food, bulk supplies, and the kids' school and sports gear. See more of this budget remodel in A Low-Cost Mudroom for Tidying Up Kids' Gear. |
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The $1,474 Dining Area Do-Over
For J.K. Pfannmuller and her husband, the dining room in their
1985 Colonial Revival was a high-traffic area that needed a lot of work.
With a kitchen short on eating space, they needed a dining spot for
regular meals as well as entertaining, so they wanted to give it a
"formal air but casual feel."
NextThe laminate floor and baseboards were in good shape, so the couple turned to the walls, rolling a gray-blue above the chair rail before adding crown molding. Wall frames made of panel molding glued in place created a low-cost wainscoting. All of the trim and the lower portion of the walls were coated with a white semigloss to complement newly installed shutters, and wood furniture warmed up the room's cool tones. A new chandelier and a pair of lamps, tied together by their natural-fabric shades, add a soft glow to complete the transformation. See more of this budget remodel in A Warm, Welcoming Dining Space For Less. |
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The $6,000 Vintage Bath
If the bath of your dreams seems out of reach, you've typically
got two choices: Cut corners or compromise. Or, you could follow Susan
and Mark Nitchman's lead and get creative—and a little dirty. For this
couple, affording a spa-like retreat for their 1876 Queen Anne in St.
Charles, Missouri, started with bidding their contractor farewell once
the drywall and subfloor were in.
Susan and Mark resolved to do the finish work themselves to stay under the $6,000 cap they'd set for completing their master bath addition filled with high-end fixtures and finishes, such as a claw-foot tub, marble tile floors, a generous glassed-in shower, and a furniture-style vanity. And because there were no existing materials to preserve, they also knew they'd have to be resourceful—shopping garage sales, building all the cabinetry, even making their own trim. See more of this remodel in Vintage Bath on a Budget. |
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The Affordable Home Office Addition
Unlike the rest of this 1916 home, this room's good bones were buried
under 1950s "updates": pale pine slab-front cabinets that were chipped,
and fir floors with a crazy tricolor painted border beneath ugly brown
carpeting. Kelly and Wayne Averbeck in Jerome, Idaho, gutted the room
and left the built-in intact. A contractor hung new Sheetrock on the
walls. White paint and dark pulls refreshed the built-in, while a
faux-grain floor and repro sconces added to the space's vintage charm.
See more of this budget remodel in An Office Update With Vintage Appeal. |
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The New $967 KitchenWith kitchens, simple does not necessarily equal streamlined. For homeowners Eduardo Perez and Moo Sirikittisup, the kitchen that came with their Atlanta condo fell short on both frills and function. They did the work themselves, adding a colorful glass-tile backsplash and a new sink. They removed and reinstalled the existing cabinets after a new paint job and bar pulls. They replaces the laminate counters with new ones featuring stainless-steel edge banding.See more of this budget remodel in The Complete Kitchen Redo |
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The $439 Luxury Bath
Even in long-haul remodels, some spaces cry out for prompt design
attention. For Roeshel Summerville of Butler, Pennsylvania, that space
was the first-floor bath. Located between a home office and the family
room, it's the most trafficked of the 1927 farmhouse's three baths and
two powder rooms. But when Roeshel, her husband, and their two daughters
moved in, it sported bare drywall and grungy carpeting.
Two years in, with a full redo out of the question, Roeshel decided to make the space "less embarrassing." Refinishing everything from the plywood subfloor to the original sink fixtures with paint, she updated the bath over four weekends with a gray-and-brown palette and low-cost touches, such as a sophisticated paint job and three-light vanity fixture. See more of this budget remodel in A Luxury Bath Remodel for Less. |
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The $645 Kitchen Redo
Nick Macke and Ted Moss in Milton, Massachusetts, gave their old
cabinets a stylish yet frugal makeover. "We wanted to keep some of the
original retro details such as the stainless-steel sink and metal
cabinets," says Nick. That's the initial reason why he and his partner
decided to go with mostly surface updates to their kitchen. Realizing
that doing so would save a huge chunk of cash as well as the kitchen's
vintage charm was a bonus.
See more of this budget remodel in The Low-Cost Kitchen Cabinet Redo. |
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The $2,238 Total Bath Redo
Sometimes it takes an addition to the family to kick a remodel
into high gear. Such was the case for Lisa and Jim Steele of Syracuse,
New York. The couple was "skeeved out" by the grim lone full bath left
behind by previous owners, and they dealt with the eyesore by taking
quick showers—never baths.
After gutting the place, Jim changed all the plumbing to Pex, installed the cast-iron tub Lisa wanted, and laid glazed porcelain tiles on the floor instead of pricey slate. To free themselves up to finish the kitchen and nursery first, they hired a contractor to tile the shower surround, put up the drywall, and paint the room. See more of this remodel in A Tranquil Bath On a Budget |
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Deal Hunters' Luxe-Look Kitchen for $6,000How do you afford stainless steel and stone on an almond-bisque-and-laminate budget? For Augie and Emmeline Harrigan of Milford, Connecticut, the answer was to preserve those elements of the existing kitchen that were still in good shape, cut out labor costs by doing the work themselves, and shop sales and Craigslist."To stay within the $6,000 we allotted for the project, gutting the whole kitchen was not an option," says Emmeline. By keeping the basic layout and painting the oak cabinets rather than replacing them, the couple saved big right off the bat. Augie took a carpentry course and spent many nights trying out his new skills. Emmeline trolled the Internet and roamed big-box stores in search of well-priced replacements for their tired appliances, disco-era vinyl flooring, and coordinating laminate countertops. Her first find was a one-year-old stainless-steel Bosch range on Craigslist for a third of its original price. The next biggie: granite countertops from Costco. |
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he Craigslist Kitchen
You spend weeks painstakingly picking cabinets and researching
countertops...or, sometimes, you just get lucky. During a remodel, a
couple from Massachusetts ran across an ad for a kitchen showroom that
was relocating and selling off a complete floor model. They were
doubtful, but checked it out anyway—and it worked! They got base and
upper cabinets, plus additional cabinetry, trim, side panels, and appliances, all for less than $7,000.
See more of this budget remodel in ''We Found Our Dream Kitchen on Craigslist!'' |
