I still have a few things to do like install the light fixture, add a little bit of molding trim to the island, hang a wood shelf on the wall between the island and the cupboards (left side) hang the mirror that is propped up on the island.

We painted the lower cabinets with 'oops' paint that was supposed to be RL Galvinised. The upper cabinets cream colour was also 'oops' paint (didn't have a name). Wall colour is ICI Morning Haze...a beautiful silvery green colour (This is the only thing I paid full price for!). Trim has been painted white.

I love open shelving so we took the doors off one wall of cabinets. It makes the kitchen so much brighter and inviting. I was a little concerned about dust and assorted kitchen grime but it hasn't been an issue at all.

The lower door handles are brushed chrome? and the upper ones are Oil rubbed bronze. These came from the Re Store and as I couldn't get all matching ones so I went with every single one a different style. The Re Store is great, I bought the paint at $7 a gallon, chair rail molding (12 feet) for $5. cabinet door handles for $1 each.

The counters are laminate from local building store @ 4.99 a sheet (needed 4).

The floor is a mottled brown stone look heavy duty vinyl tile @ 108.00 ( on sale at Home Depot).

I built the little wine etc shelf above the cabinets with off cuts and molding. I really wanted to stagger my upper cabinets but that was a no-go. My local building supply store sold me a bunch of off cuts of molding ( they were going to throw them out) for 5 cents a foot and off cuts of plywood and mdf at $2 for a sheet 2 feet by 4 feet. I made the brackets myself using MDF and my scroll saw.

The backsplash is painted beadboard (approx $20 for the beadboard). The mosaics (there is also a very small one behind the stove) I made from a box of broken tiles from the building supply store (free) and grout left over from a previous project in my old condo. the frame is an off-cut of plywood and molding.

The island was built from a cabinet I found at a thrift store ( $24.99) and 2 small bookshelves (we had these already). The top is Ikea butcher block ( $57) oiled with raw linseed oil (DH insists on *raw* oils). The microwave came off the counter and moved into the island. Also, there was a sliding shelf on the cabinet, that I turned into a spice drawer (with $0.69 spice jars to fill it).

Undercabinet lighting from our local building supply store (on clearance @ $10 each )

The upper cabinets got trim added to the bottom and the fronts of the shelves to give them a nicer finished look. The lower cabinets received "feet" to make them appear more like furniture (made from the stiles salvaged from the upper cabinets when we made them open shelves).

The stools are from the thrift store 7.99 each and are painted the same as the lower cabinets. Baskets on island shelves are also from the thrift store.

I purchased some pull out wire baskets from Kijiji (like Craigslist) for $10 for 3 and also 6 solid walnut shelves for $20. We have sanded down one of the shelves and it will hang on the wall between the island and cabinets. The light fixture was also purchased for Kijiji...I got a track light for the hall and one for the kitchen for $30 for the 2.

The rest of the money went to stuff like primer, glue, contact cement, nails, caulking, hand saw, mitre box, laminate blade, screws and band aids!

I forgot to mention that I'm from Canada so some of the pricing may seem a little high to most of you ( you can get much better deals in the US than we can here).

i think your updates are fabulous and you must know how to shop to find such great deals! very inspirational for those of us on a more limited budget.

Pommygirl, You done good. Sooooo gooood. You just proved that with a lot of hard work, a lot of brains, tons of creative thoughts, lots of hard shopping and carrying and dragging, and more, you pulled off a lovely kitchen on a shoestring. You saw the possibilites where others might have seen negatives. Congrats!

A fabulous lesson in what can be done with good eye, lots of imagination about how things you ran into serendipitously can be used, and apparently good manual dexterity. The transformation is astounding and accomplishing it on so lean a budget is an inspiration. Bravissima!

Fabulous! You should definitely have your own show on HGTV!

YOU are a TKO DIY rockstar!

I missed the other posts...post a link to more pics? I'd love to see more views and detail on the brackets.

What is that red and orange stuff in the glass canisters on the bottom shelf to the left of the sink?

Brilliant.

Wow that is really amazing! Congratulations! You are clever.

Incredible! You are a true inspiration....I'm trying to do a very low budget reno and yours is AMAZING and makes me feel empowered to do alot with a little :-).

Thanks guys.

Rada: the orange 'stuff' are lentils and the red 'stuff' are left over cinnamon hearts from Valentine's day!

Here are the other photos

Cabinet feet

Wow, thanks for updating! I'll be on the lookout for bright red hearts and colorful lentils.

Love it, love it, love it! Especially the two mosaics and the wine rack cutouts. Paint color is perfect.

My flabber is still gasted! This is such a neat kitchen!

Adding that bit above the sink with the darker walls behind it makes the room look much taller.

And the open shelves add to the apparent depth - instead of a blank wall, we have lentils and things.

thanks for adding more pictures...looks great!

Fantastic job!

A complete transformation for $500!

Clever, stylish, shows your individuality. Looks like you had fun too. And I love the jars.

I think a lot of people should pay attention to what you did. Whether they're looking to update a tired kitchen, or take the ugly out of a kitchen for a few years until they can renovate.

You could have easily titled your post "My $5,000 / $10,000 (whatever) reno" and told us about how you replaced a bunch of little stuff, all individually great deals but not necessarily all adding up to a homogeneous whole that was not necessarily better, more functional than what's already there. And spent a relatively large chunk of money.

Replacing old, well made things with cheap new things for style reasons is actually a bad idea. And people do it all the time. So sometimes painting or removing doors, or getting something fixed is the solution.

The way I look at it, you got the same results as someone spending thousands more, just by thinking and being creative.

Paint. It's your friend!

Love it. Great kitchen. The wine rack was so creative. Where did you get the 'spider web' cutouts on the side of it?

Thank you again for all your enthusiasm.

dilly dally: I cut the spider web brackets out of a scrap of mdf using my old scroll saw. I needed to tie the little wine shelf and the upper cabinets together somehow and this is what I came up with.

WOW You did a fantastic job. Loved reading how you did each step.Thanks for that and the pictures. Looks wonderful.

Chris

pommy girl, would you mind if I stole your idea of putting the wine cubbie with the brackets about the cupboards? I have an 80's kitchen with a drop ceiling that my hubby plans on removing next summer. I keep picturing what it will look like, a little odd since the cupboards won't be staggered and a solution like you used would really help break it up. I think what you did was wonderful and imaginative.

Pommy girl, you did a fantastic job! Very creative. You are quite humble, but it is obvious that you are very talented. Imagination AND skills! Now if we could just import you to come help us, LOL!

Thanks for posting the additional pix.

Phenomenal job - you rock! Please put this in the Finished Kitchen Blog (FKB - do a search and there's a posting here with a link to the website). I think you could really inspire a whole lot of people with your creative and inspiring redesign!