Room Service
A handy bachelor transforms his kitchen and outfits a dining room for under $5,000
When Mike Hogan bought his mid-1950s Cape-style house in Columbus, Ohio, he knew he could exploit its potential to make the place his own. It had three bedrooms and a kitchen whose cabinets and appliances were recent enough to be serviceable. But the kitchen cabinets looked dated and lacked what he refers to as the warm, “bella Italia” look he wanted. Furthermore, the house lacked a dining room, which he wanted for entertaining.
So, with a limited budget, plenty of planning and lots of hands-on effort, Mike upgraded and transformed the kitchen in keeping with his vision, and then turned one of the spare bedrooms into a dining room. His first move was to preserve the existing kitchen cabinets. “I just painted them white,” he says. “Then, for a more contemporary look, I added new nickel hardware to the doors and applied nickel-colored paint to the hinges.” A previous owner had cut a door to the backyard into one wall, making it impossible for Mike to use the space for a table and chairs for dining. He compensated by building a peninsula bar extending off one side of the countertop. He was fortunate to find that the same counter laminate was still available, so he bought a slab, had it cut to size, built legs to support it and added stools to seat two on each side. He also saved a bundle by doing a lot of the surface work himself: painting the walls “heartthrob red,” replacing the floor with press-and-stick marble-look tiles and adding a French door to the opening leading to the basement for a more finished look.
TIME LINEShopping and purchasing products and materials........................3 days
Painting ceiling, walls, doors and trim.........................................4 days
Painting cabinets, three coats inside and out...............................5 days
Installing French door................................................................4 days
Installing faucet..........................................................................2 days
Tile-by-tile flooring installation....................................................3 days
Lighting installation.....................................................................4 days
Installing window blinds..............................................................2 days
Selecting and purchasing furniture...............................................2 days
Shopping and purchasing decorative accent pieces..................... 3 days
Planning locations, installing decorative accents...........................3 days
THE TAB
Paint, rollers, brushes, drop cloths, thinner...............................$375
Laminate bar countertop...........................................................325
Track lighting and puck lights.....................................................215
Accent pieces and wall decor....................................................200
Faucet......................................................................................180
Flooring....................................................................................140
Blinds for two windows.............................................................125
Dinnerware, cooking utensils......................................................120
French door for basement entrance............................................115
Cabinet hardware......................................................................110
Freestanding cabinet beside refrigerator......................................55
TOTAL $1,960
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