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If you often find yourself wishing to renovate your kitchen but don’t have the time or money to do so, consider small renovations that make a big impact rather than a full renovation. We have compiled five of the most useful renovations you can make in your kitchen without gutting it.



1. Repaint
   The color of your kitchen can truly change the tone of the room. It’s hard to feel like you’re in a modern kitchen when the walls are chipped, stained, or covered in less-than-modern wallpaper. Repainting is one of the easiest ways to “renovate” without breaking the bank. You don’t even need to repaint the entire kitchen. A growing trend at the moment is colored cabinetry. Find a pop of color you think will bring life back to your kitchen and transform the cabinets you already have! You can also paint or wallpaper the inside of the cabinets so that they look as nice when they are opened as they do when they are closed. If you have cabinetry or even just a wooden base on your island you can also paint that to make the room more cohesive. Just be cautious when choosing a color. Avoid using stark white if your once-white-walls are now more beige. Nothing will bring out faded or dirty walls more than freshly-painted white cabinets. 
   
   
2. Upgrade Your Cabinets
   While painting certainly is an upgrade, cabinets can also be completely swapped out. When you get new cabinetry, try to make sure it fits the style of the kitchen so it doesn’t look out of place in your home. Upgrading also includes adding additional shelving, a rotating corner cabinet, fancy new handles, and swapping closed cabinets for glass/wire front cabinets or open shelving. All of these changes can make a huge impact on the look of your space even if these are the only changes you make.
   
   
3. Find Ways to Incorporate Extra Storage
   If your kitchen looks messy and cluttered it’s time to “renovate.” Tiny homes aren’t the only homes that can benefit from more innovative furniture! Many companies now offer cabinets with pull out shelving to make reaching the items in the back hassle free. There are also options to have narrow but deep slide outs for utensils, spices, pots and pans, or to use as a pantry. Other space-saving pieces include appliance storage garages like these, as well as drawer organizers and vertical shelving to keep the little things tidy. 
   
   
4. Update your lighting fixtures
   Lighting in older houses is very obviously, well, old. While some of the fixtures in these homes are beautiful and can be left alone, it is important to, at the very least, change to LED or Daylight light bulbs. Yellow-tinted bulbs are a thing of the past and will age your kitchen significantly. When coupled with an older fixture, your space will scream “worn out.” If you’re looking to upgrade your lighting situation, consider all of the options. If you have low ceilings, recessed lights are a great option as they take up no additional ceiling space. If you have an island, try adding some pendant lights to bring a decorative flair to the kitchen. If you have a narrow space or want a more modern/industrial feel, track lighting may be the way to go. No matter what you choose, make sure it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb against the rest of the kitchen. 
   
   
5. Say “Goodbye” to all things Linoleum and Laminate
   It’s time to face the fact; linoleum and laminate are things of the past. There is no need to have linoleum anywhere in your kitchen. Opt for stone or ceramic floor tiles or install some hardwood. If you have an older house, odds are there’s a gorgeous hardwood floor under all that linoleum anyway! As for countertops, laminate is not the way to go. While it has a reputation for being cheap and easy to clean, it almost always looks tacky and can really take away from an otherwise nice kitchen. Looking for a replacement? Consider switching to stone! Ventura Stone offers prefab and custom granite, marble, quartz, and more to make sure you get the kitchen of your dreams. Give us a call at (805) 654-1834 for a free estimate! 

We hope you have found these tips useful. You don’t need to completely remodel your kitchen to change how it feels. Make one or two smaller renovations and see how big of a difference it makes. Have you found creative ways to upgrade your kitchen? Let us know in the comments or on any of our social media pages!