Cottage Kitchen Makeover: How to Transform a Kitchen on a Budget

If you are looking for cottage kitchen ideas, wait until you see my new kitchen. My husband and I transformed our very neglected 1957 kitchen into the European cottage-style kitchen of my dreams.

This was an extreme DIY project. This cottage chic transformation was extremely budget-friendly and easy to achieve with the choices we've made. Let me show you what we did and read on for the reveal at the end where all the details come together.

Before

1 Cabinets

The kitchen looks rich and expensive. Although it wasn’t cheap, it was not expensive. A modest kitchen renovation in any size home can run from $20,000 to $50,000 and up. We used Home Depot’s stock cabinets. Some have veneer sides but the face and the doors are all genuine wood.

2 Stone

One way we made the cabinets look extra special was by buying a beautiful piece of marble with minimal veining. I fell in love with the pattern of this marble. The tones are light grays and beiges.

3 The island

I almost opted out of having an island in the kitchen. I thought the space was too small. But we came across this very narrow, little desk that we thrifted for $25. But it’s now my island. My husband added wood trim, stained it, added hardware, and cut a marble top for it.

4 Shelving

We chose to install upper open shelving instead of cabinets so it would look like a little old French bakery. The shelves were stained to look distressed and old. We put the shelves on steel anchor brackets that hold 100 pounds each. Each board has about three or four anchors holding it up so we don’t have to worry about how heavy our dishes are.

5 Glass bookcase

I didn’t want to run shelving on the other side of the wall so I chose glass sliding door bookcases from Wayfair. They were the perfect size and gave the kitchen an old-world look. I added brass hardware from Signature Hardware.

6 Stone walls

This stone wall was the most exhausting part of this project. These stones took us an additional month to install. Why? Because I had to have a specific pattern on the wall, that’s why! I didn’t like the pattern of the stones on the mesh.

7 Details

All the details give this kitchen its appeal. Once we were done with the wall of stones, I took my accent pieces and put them all together with lights and curtains.