Neglected Kitchen

Expectant parents Cindy and Chris Guyer are ready for a change in their mismatched kitchen and dining area and need it finished before they become a family of three.

After, kitchen

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The kitchen design is given some direction with color and new furniture on a $1,000 budget.

Before, kitchen

The Dilemma
Host Kristan Cunningham meets with the couple to determine what needs to be done. The kitchen and dining area is a large room with minimal lighting and poorly-placed furniture. The existing yellow and rust-colored countertop tile requires a cohesive color scheme to give the room a more definitive look. The couple would like to swap out the white interior window shutters with something more colorful and sleek.

Before, dining area

The dining table and chair set is an outdated clunky hand-me-down that doesn't lend form or function to the kitchen. The stove's hood is a dated gold color that does not fit in the room and the old cabinets definitely need a facelift.

The Solution

The white walls are painted a pale green color. This color, along with deep red curtains, will help give the room a more cohesive color palette to coordinate with the yellow and brick-red countertop tile.

After, dining area

Design coordinator Dave Sheinkopf refurbishes a salvage-store dining table to make it look like new. He strips off the existing finish with sandpaper then wipes on a Danish oil finish. He seals it with a furniture wax to give it a beautiful luster. He touches up small dings and scratches with a paintbrush dipped in stain.

Additional lighting and storage is realized with a new pot rack.

Instead of chairs, design coordinator Spencer Anderson brings in an antique bench for more seating at the kitchen table. Since the bench sits over a vent, Anderson adds a wood apron under the seat with vents on the front to allow the air to pass through. He ages the brand-new vents with a two-part paint process to help them blend in with the wood tones.

The Guyers enjoy leaving each other written messages, so Anderson builds a stylish framed magnet board that is hung on the wall near the fridge. He glues a thin sheet of steel onto a perforated board and frames it out with mitered wood pieces. He adds a small shelf on the bottom for pencils and pens.

Cunningham adds color to the wood floor with two custom linoleum "rugs." Scrap linoleum is used as the base for the finished pieces. Cunningham tapes off a 3/4-inch edge on the back of the linoleum, then trowels on tile adhesive to adhere the precut 12" x 12" green and yellow linoleum tiles in a striped pattern. She then removes the tape and adheres reducers around the 1/8-inch tiles, which creates a smooth edge onto the floor.

New cabinet handles help to update the kitchen cabinets.

The gold stove hood is updated with silver paint for a more contemporary look.