Would love suggestions for a back splash for this kitchen. The granite color is New Venetian Gold. Thanks in advance!

Amazing job on a budget. Looks like twice that much was spent! Congrats on a job well done :)

Wow, amazing kitchen! Love the pantry and new French door especially but everything is just beautiful!
How about a white subway tile? I have seen a display at lowes with plain white subway tile against a granite counter and thought it was lovely. It won't distract from your gorgeous counters.

Wow, nicely done! I am so impressed at the beautiful job you did.

Your new kitchen is just wonderful. Goes to show that if you want something bad enough, you do what it takes to make it happen. Now you have the skills to tackle other projects!
Congratulations on a job well done.
Diane

Very impressive! Congratulations!

What a wonderful kitchen you created!!! All the more special because you did it yourselves (and taught yourselves how so you could take on this project!).

Enjoy it!

Wow!!! What an impressive change! You did a lovely job and should be proud. Duo much more enjoyable than the previous design.

Well done! I love the color scheme, and it looks so open and inviting.

Wow, you really added a lot of value and style to your home, congrats! Love the colors and warm/cool balance. I wonder how a silver travertine would look with your counters?

WOW! What you did, on a limited budget, should be in one of the kitchen magazines as inspiration, showing you don't have to spend 50K to get a beautiful new kitchen. Great work!

I would use a tile in the same blue color family as your blue paint.

Congratulations and what a great job, and a tremendous effort put forth!

It is encouraging that such a beautiful outcome can result from that budget! It's warm and homey.

$10,000? How much did you actually contract out?

It is an absolutely amazing transformation.
Just beautiful.

Great transformation and great that you did all the work yourself.

WOW - what an awesome transformation. I'm speechless!!!

Wow, I am impressed. A beautiful & functional DIY at such an affordable cost. I think you should stick around here to advise & help others!

Thanks so much for the kind words from everyone! I have been a lurker on this board for awhile and thought it would be nice to share our makeover and answer questions for anyone else in the planning stages.

CEFreeman- We paid for 3 things... an electrician to run a new 220 line to our stove ($200 labor & $50 wire), a mason to rebrick a small area on the outside of the house after we installed a new window (smaller size to allow for the counter to run underneath) ($500), and the granite but I included their installation price in the price of the granite above.

We both took one week off work and then used every evening and weekend from demo until we had a usable kitchen which was about 4 weeks and another 4 weeks once we slowed down our pace and worked on finishing up things on the weekends.

Thanks for all of the tile suggestions as well! I am having a hard time visualizing everything so I might go to the Tile Shop this weekend and pick up one of each of the tiles you suggested- white subway, silver travertine, and light blue tile to test them out in the kitchen.

For tile, if you have a "Floor & Decor" nearby, I recommend going there.

I found the selection to be huge - much greater and prices less than half compared to the "Tile Shop." F&D is great about sample returns - within 30 days.

Service varies greatly. Sometimes you just need to keep asking different people until you find the right person. I found, in general, the older they are/look, the more knowledgable/helpful they are.

Very nice! Like the message center.

mdln- Thanks for the recommendation. I just searched and the closest store is about 2 hours away. Their prices do look great so if I can determine what I want, I may order online.

Not sure I would recommend ordering on-line, it is so hard to determine colors. However, I do think it is worth a 2-hour trip. Would bring samples (paint, cab door, etc.) and have measurements - so only need to make one trip. Maybe go early in AM, walk around, go have lunch, & return to make decision/purchase.

The tile I selected is $1.69 SF (vs $4.58 SF at tile store).

I went to The Tile Store, Century Tile, and 3 other local stores - none came close to the selection of Floor & Decor. My only criticism is sometimes the customer service is lacking. However, I just try to keep the prices in mind.

Lovely, lovely transformation. I love the budget!

Wow! Amazing. I would do a simple subway tile backsplash. But, I tend to be boring.

Love your tator bin on wheels. Where did you get it?

Very lovely!! Nice transformation.

wow - fantastic work at a rock-bottom budget. I'm impressed that you took on this project with little experience. DH and I are not that brave! Lovely

I love the new kitchen. It looks fabulous. Great choices and professional results. I am curious how you got the granite for such a great price? How many sq. ft do you have? I have to replace some granite on one section and the island in my kitchen. Today I got the quote for over 3K for 50 square feet includes install, cut outs, tax and tear out and haul away old, which was not that much. I'm dismayed by the price. It was 50 dollars sf, so not top of the line. If I did the whole kitchen it would add another 30 square ft. so I'm just sticking with the same kind. I have to change out the granite because of a mishap, long story⦠You and DH did a great job!! That was a good get on your granite!! Congrats you did really well, it's all just beautiful.

Wow, I'm in awe! Thank you so much for posting your costs. I am in the research stage now for our kitchen and seeing what you did gives me some hope i can do this on a budget. I'm going to check out where you got your cabinets. Were there any problems with getting the cabinets online? Are you happy with the quality (They look great).

I had to come back and look at this lovely make over. It's so dramatic!

Really impressive, too, how much you handled yourselves. You inspire me!

Lovely job.

Since your finishes are fairly neutral, I would also suggest checking if any of your local tile stores have a "back room" with overstocks and special order returns.

We did that on our last 2 kitchens and were able to find just what we wanted and it was a great price. It also seems to help focus on a smaller universe of possibilities, but since all are in budget, is very freeing at the same time.

Great job! I am very impressed with all of the work that you did.

For the backsplash, since you have a lot of variation in the countertop, I would do more of a solid color, subway tile maybe for the backsplash. I would pick one of the colors that is in the granite so that it complements your granite.

Wow, nice job and LOVE YOUR PANTRY! That was supposed to be my pantry!.

I rather like the wall color with your counter and cabs but tile would be nice, too. No help in what kind... could never hardly decide myself... way too much out there.

Your kitchen is very lovely.

red_lover- I saw a similar one on Pinterest so I bought the crate at Michael's, stained with with a Walnut stain, painted the letters, and then added caster wheels to the bottom.

gr8day- Our granite price was $37 per square foot installed and we had 65 square feet. It was cheaper than other places I looked at but we also went with a basic color so most of the other granites were more expensive. We live in Ohio so the price difference could be regionally based.

cani123- The cabinets were the most frustrating part of the process but then again, we needed to order 22 of them so we needed to find some that were in our budget. $4,000 was about 1/4 of the cost of what we were quoted at HD. In the midst of our major remodel, it was a poor choice to assemble the cabinets ourselves. Some of the cabinets came drilled wrong or with missing parts. The company was happy to replace them quickly but we should have paid the extra cost to have the company send them already assembled. After installed, we have been happy with them. We especially like the self closing drawers and doors. I would say they are similar to IKEA in quality but I did not like the modern look for IKEA which is why I went with these.