When my wife and I bought our house, the kitchen was bland. The walls, cabinets, appliances and floor were different shades of the same color, blah. We didn't have a big budget for a renovation, so we we starting looking for deals. We found a number of affordable solutions that I have outlined below.

Before:

We used the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation kit ($75 and a long weekend) to do the cabinets and we couldn't be happier. The finish seems durable and we love the texture added by the optional glaze. We found granite for $35/sqft ($1400 total) installed at a local business running a deal. The rectangular offset porcelain tile floor was about $1/sqft ($150 total) at a local surplus store. The white subway tile backsplash is from Home Depot for $2.50/sqft ($100 total). The new cabinet and drawer pulls were sold in packs of 10 at Home Depot (about $30 total).

The total transformation came in under $2000 excluding appliances. Here's the (almost) finished product. What do you think?

After: