Steps for Updating a Kitchen on a Budget:
- The simplest way to refresh a kitchen is by replacing the faucet. Most new faucets come with cover plates to hide holes from old hot and cold lines.
- If there are holes in the sink from an old spray nozzle, they sell soap dispensers and water filters that can fit in those holes as a replacement.
When upgrading from an older three-hole faucet to a modern single-hole pull-down model, the new faucet will only use the center hole. The cover plate included with most single-hole faucets hides the two remaining holes where the old hot and cold handles were. But if you have a fourth hole—from a separate spray hose—you’ll need to decide what to do with it: fit it with a matching stainless-steel cover, a soap dispenser, or a filtered water dispenser.
Pro Tip: Richard Trethewey, This Old House plumbing and heating expert, advises that while you have the old faucet out, it’s worth inspecting and replacing the shutoff valves under the sink. As he explains, worn washers and broken screws inside old shutoffs are common: “By the time I drilled and tapped that out, put a new screw in, new washer—it’s cheaper, smarter, better for me to just replace the shutoff valves.” - Another way to update a kitchen is by changing out the sink. The most common types of sinks include self-rimming (or surface-mounted) sinks and under-mounted sinks. Because of the way the holes are cut in countertops, it’s hard to switch between the two types of sinks without also replacing the countertop. For laminate countertops, stick with a surface-mounted sink.
- Replacing the countertops is a slightly more expensive way to update the look of a kitchen. Stone countertops come in a variety of styles and colors that range in price based on how readily available they are for quarrying. Stick with more common stones to save thousands on replacing the countertops.
Pro Tip: Beyond natural stone, engineered quartz countertops have surged in popularity as a budget-friendly alternative. As explored on a This Old House visit to a quartz manufacturing facility in Minnesota, quartz countertops are made from crushed natural quartz mineral mixed with a binder. The result is an extremely hard, non-porous surface that basically won’t scratch and won’t stain—so it’s easy to clean and you don’t have to seal it like granite, which saves on long-term maintenance costs.
