I spent $50,000 remodeling my kitchen. Here are the 5 smartest decisions I made — and one thing I wish I'd avoided.

Early on, one decorator who bid on my project projected removing several walls and the soffit ceiling and adding an isle to assistance me attain my retention and scheme goals.

The idea echoed awesome in theory, but it would've put me concerning $20,000 complete budget, between the construction, ductwork, and the need for taller cabinets to inhabit the higher ceiling space.

The decorator I ended up hiring urged me to keep my current layout and showed me how we could do so during adding the functionality I wanted.

For years, I'd dreamt of an all-white kitchen since I loved its classic, spotless look. However, as my decorator and I began talking and looking at my Pinterest boards, she noticed I additionally loved dreary accents.

She took the black-and-white theme and ran alongside it, outfitting fractional my galley alongside pale cabinets and charcoal countertops and the another fractional alongside dreary cabinets and a pale countertop.

She additionally chose coordinating tile squares: shades of pale about the galley and a bold explanatory tile in the dining area area.

This palette feels really timeless — and I am assured I'll affection this scheme for decades to come.

It can be uncomplicated to concentration all your notice on the bigger-ticket items during remodeling, but the particulars really matter.

For instance, I visited Kohler, Wisconsin — residence of the Kohler Company that's finest known for its plumbing products — years ago and became obsessed alongside its sleek sinks and faucets. So, naturally, that's what I chose for my new kitchen.

Similarly, my mundane dishes no longer matched my new aesthetic, so I gave them distant in my local "Buy Nothing" group and upgraded to the cutest stoneware set from Stone Lain.

The dishes were beautiful affordable and have totally elevated my tablescape.

The array and chairs on the dining flank of the galley were motionless in outstanding shape, and the ideal size, but the drab gray cloth on the chairs was a genuine eyesore.

Instead of replacing the complete set, I spent $500 to have them reupholstered alongside a striking cloth my decorator chose. They appearance brand new again and have specified a playful vibe.

Aside from labor, I knew that my cabinets and countertops would be my biggest row items — but they were additionally the largest pieces in the room, so that was OK alongside me.

My decorator steered me toward a local business that offered a awesome mid-tier choice on factory cabinets (read: not high-end and not custom), and they motionless disbursal $15,000. To be fair, though, adding cabinets to the complete partition of the dining area played a important function in that cost tag.

I additionally paid a small complete $11,000 for quartz countertops since we needed three slabs for this design.

However, these things are the basis of the kitchen, and I don't think I could've skimped on either one and motionless achieved my desired outcome.

It didn't obtain me lengthy to acknowledge that summer in Phoenix was the incorrect period for this project. It started in June and went into September during a record-breaking warmth wave (70 days alongside highs at or complete 110 degrees Fahrenheit).

Workers were in and out of the home all day, causing my mediocre AC component to activity overtime. If I always do another remodel, it'll be during a additional temperate period of year.

This narrative was initially published on November 17, 2024, and most lately updated on October 22, 2026.