Easy and Inexpensive Ways to Update Your Kitchen in an Afternoon

When it comes to home improvements many of us have trouble finding both the time and the money. By using these simple steps you can easily update your kitchen in one afternoon. These are not only good suggestions for those on time constraints, but also for those of us who have a tight leash on our wallets.

Paint- Add a splash of new color to a main focal wall and you have an instant modern look. Home Depot and Lowe's are always offering discounts on paints. If you wanted to repaint the entire room you would be able to do so within budget. Depending on the type of cabinets you have, you could repaint those for a fresh look. At our home we just redid ours; we did the trim in one color and the main cabinet another. It gave our kitchen an instant update.

Lighting- Are your lighting fixtures outdated? Replacing it is a quick easy project and it can make a world of difference. We recently changed a fan that appears to have been in our house since the beginning of time. It was so outdated and by taking it down we changed the entire look of our kitchen. We purchased a new one for under $50 and it was well worth it.

Refrigerator- Is your refrigerator overcome with pictures, drawings, and coupons? Remove everything from the outside and give the fridge a good cleaning. Buy magnetic picture frames (they come in packs of two for $1.00 at Wal-Mart) and replace all photos in those. Use a magnetic white board and let your children draw their pictures on it. This way you can eliminate the clutter of a million little drawings. Let your children choose a few of their favorite magnets to keep on the white board for a personal touch. Take a small coupon box, mount magnets to the back of it with superglue, and place on the fridge. This way you have one simple and convenient place to keep all of your coupons within reach yet out of the way. By clearing away the clutter you give your kitchen an instant update.

Curtains- Many of us have kitchen windows. Changing the curtains can really change the feel of the room. Curtains can get costly so consider just using a valance or swapping curtains from another room in the house.

Slip Covers- Reupholstering your furniture is not only expensive but time consuming as well. Purchase new slip covers for your chairs or a table cloth for your kitchen table. You will immediately give the room an instant update at the fraction of the cost.

Flooring and Rugs- Add a new color to your kitchen by using throw rugs. Depending on the size of your kitchen you only need 2 to 3 rugs. Place one in front of the fridge and one in front of the sink and your done. If you do not want to use rugs you can buy inexpensive boxes of "tile" from any home improvement stores. We just purchased two boxes (each priced at $23.99) and completely redid our entire kitchen floor. The boxes are not actual real tiles, but more along the lines of a laminate floor cut into square tile pieces. The best thing is if they break you can pull one up and replace it (replacements are sold in singles at the store). These tiles go down in one day because all you do is peel the paper off the back and press firmly into place.

Sink and Cabinet Fixtures- You can add value to your kitchen by replacing all fixtures. You can get a whole new kitchen faucet setup for under $70. By changing the hardware on your cabinets you can bring the style back to your kitchen without having to replace the entire cabinet.

Counter Tops- A real easy and inexpensive solution to updating your kitchen is to redo your counter tops with contact paper. Contact paper can be purchased in roll for $5 each. The great thing about contact paper is it is easy, it looks like real granite counter tops, and it is water proof. If you do not want to use contact paper then shop for deals at your local home improvement store. Many stores will sell remnants, much like carpet remnants, for you to purchase at a discounted price. Either customers order the wrong product, order too much of it, or canceled their order so you get the benefits.