A Modern Kitchen Update Reveal – The Final Week Of The One Room Challenge

I am so excited to share my One Room Challenge kitchen reveal! It’s been such a fun process and I’m thrilled that I reached my goal of updating our kitchen. In this post, A Modern Kitchen Update Reveal, I share with you how I set goals (and a budget) and updated our kitchen in 8 weeks, dedicating about 10 hours per week. I’m a busy mom like many of you, with a job that occupies much of my time, so I needed a manageable project. Let’s recap this kitchen update journey.

*This post contains affiliate links and products I was compensated to share. As always, I only share products I love and believe in 100%.

In case you missed my first seven posts of the One Room Challenge (ORC), you can find them here:

A Modern Kitchen Update – Week 1 of the One Room Challenge

My New Favourite White Paint – Week 2 of the One Room Challenge

Step-By-Step Lined Roman Shades – Week 3 of the One Room Challenge

Modernizing Our Farmhouse Kitchen – Week 4 of the One Room Challenge

Bar Stool Slipcover Tutorial – Week 5 of the One Room Challenge

Adding Artwork To The Kitchen – Week 6 of the One Room Challenge

A New Hood Fan And DIY Custom Cover – Week 7 of the One Room Challenge

The Design Board

If you’ve been on this journey with me since the beginning of the eight weeks, you’ve likely already seen my design board. My plan was to modernize and brighten up our kitchen which had blue-grey walls, lacklustre lighting, a terrible hood fan, and dated window treatments. It really was a nice kitchen before, but I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish to make our kitchen more functional and more modern looking. Oh, I also had a maximum budget of $1000. The one kitchen update I’d love to do later on is to replace our laminate counters with quartz counters. Everything I accomplished with the current refresh will work with the countertop change that I hope we’ll be able to do in a couple of years.

I did make a few small tweaks to the plan along the way. I decided not to make a plant stand as my Monstera plant quite literally grew into a monster-sized plant this spring and didn’t need any uplifting. And, instead of painting the legs of our bar stools black, I opted for a fresh white colour. Everything else turned out as I envisioned with a lot of planning and hard work. I believe I spent at least half my time just planning things out and the rest painting, sewing, or sawing.

Before and After Images For A Modern Kitchen Update Reveal

BEFORE

AFTER

Main Updates

So, let’s go over the main updates that I completed for the One Room Challenge. In week one, I devised and presented my plan. I also ordered most of the supplies I needed and tried to plan out my time for the next seven weeks. In week two, I painted all our walls in Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee at 75% strength. For week three, I got sewing and made the black and white patterned Roman blinds. That week was one of the most difficult as I kind of left it to the last minute and it ended up taking a little longer than I had initially planned for. In week four, I installed the beautiful light fixture over the sink and painted the walls of our adjoining family room with the same paint as the kitchen.

For week five, I updated our kitchen stools with new slipcovers and a coat of white paint. This was another week where I got a bit behind and had a late night of sewing.

For week six, I had fun placing and styling our new artwork. I also painted our fireplace in the adjoining family room a bold grey colour, installed the hood fan insert, and finally sourced the custom hood fan cover materials.

For week seven, I got down to business with the hood fan cover and my final design. It was full steam ahead until I realized that my custom paint match wasn’t a good match. I ended up adjusting the paint myself through trial and error. This week, the final week, I finished painting/staining and installing the hood fan cover and adding all the finishing details to our kitchen. It was really rewarding to see the hood fan cover come together as envisioned and to finally decorate the space. I’m spending a lot of time in here now!

Accessories

Since I wanted to modernize our kitchen, I kept the countertop accessories to a minimum. On our island, I displayed a couple of plants and some simple white dishes. I kept our Rae Dunn canisters because they are minimal in design and they are a useful storage solution.

On the fridge side of the island, there is a beautiful new rug that I received as part of a partnership with Ruggable.com. It’s the Herdanza black and white runner in the 2.5′ by 7′ size. I love how it ties in perfectly with the Roman blinds.

The counter between the sink and oven has just a few decorative accessories. First, the beautiful printed canvas from Minted.com that I received as part of a collaboration. I also have a pretty urn with wooden spoons and kitchen tools, and a small vase with a fern leaf from the garden. I didn’t spend any money on accessories, instead, I reused items I already had.

Breakfast Area

The breakfast area is part of our kitchen, so I tried to make a seamless transition between the two spaces, and into the adjoining family room. The look is light and bright with a few high contrast accents like the dark tabletop and aged bronze curtain rods.

Budget

I was able to complete our kitchen update keeping within the $1000 budget. I’m sharing my price breakdown in case you’re curious how much each element cost. The light fixture was by far the most expensive item and over half my entire budget. It would have been possible to refresh the kitchen for under $400 had I not opted for this light fixture. However, it’s really a great focal point of the space and I think it was worth the splurge. Prices are in Canadian dollars.

Wall paint and roller- $80

Fabric and materials for the two Roman blinds- $150

Light fixture over the sink- $475

Bar stool fabric and paint- $80

Wood pieces and paint for hood fan cover- $80

TOTAL COST- $865 CAD or $700 USD

My biggest surprise was how inexpensive the hood fan cover turned out to be! It’s several hundred to thousands of dollars to have a custom hood fan cover built. Note- I didn’t include the price of the hood fan insert as we had purchased it long ago. If your hood fan is working well, you could simply build a custom cover on top of it.

What I Learned Participating In The One Room Challenge

I learned that the One Room Challenge is a lot of fun and a lot of work. It was absolutely worth it to me because it challenged me to complete the kitchen projects I had envisioned for so long. Choosing the appropriate time (spring or fall) to complete the challenge is key. This time of year is busy for us, but it didn’t interfere with summer vacation or the fall busy season for my Etsy shop.

I think I could write an entire post on what I learned from participating in the One Room Challenge, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I want to share my experience to encourage other bloggers to try their hand at the One Room Challenge. Would I do the challenge again? Check back next week for the answer.

Summary

Thank you for joining me on this journey and for reading my post, A Modern Kitchen Update Reveal. The last eight weeks have really been a blast and I have some fun memories of being up on a ladder and calling the boys to bring me a tool or my glasses or asking them to hold something up so I could take a picture and see how it really looked. My boys are really proud of me and my 9-year old gave me multiple high fives which really is the best feeling.

I really want you to treat yourself and check out all the amazing final reveals today over on the One Room Challenge page. There are so many beautiful and inspiring transformations I don’t want you to miss out on.