by Alison Fernandes

Created on: August 20, 2009   Last Updated: August 22, 2009

Has your kitchen started to look just a little bit worn around the edges? Does it no longer inspire you to create instead of just cook? Do you want to re-model your kitchen for under $500? With a little careful planning and willingness to put in some time doing it, you can successfully renovate your kitchen to your own satisfaction and the admiration of your friends and family.

The primary areas to take into consideration when making any changes are the floor, walls and ceiling, the kitchen cabinets, work surfaces, doors and windows.

It is obvious that a makeover for less than $500 dollars is not going to include renewing the entire kitchen. However, it is possible to completely change the look of the kitchen with little outlay and slightly more effort.

Starting with the floor, you may have a tiled floor, laminate or possibly carpet. If you have carpet, this can be renewed reasonably inexpensively using a roll end or remnant, which most carpet stores sell at a discount in order to clear them out of stock. Tiled and laminate floors that are looking a little worse for wear can be polished or varnished to make them look less tired. A runner along the length of the kitchen, colour co-ordinated with the walls or the units, can add a note of interest as well as help to hide any areas of wear.

Give the walls and ceiling a coat of paint to freshen them up. You will need to use sugar soap to clean the surfaces before painting to avoid any marks coming through the new paintwork and to ensure a good adherence of the paint to the existing surface. Choose a colour that will blend well with the floor covering to give a streamlined effect to the shell of the kitchen. There are a variety of different paints on the market for use in kitchen and bathroom and it is advisable to use one of these as they are hard wearing, resistant to staining and should cover the area to be painted in one coat.

Turning your attention to the kitchen cabinets, if these are still in good condition, you may like to consider changing the door furniture for some more up to date handles or knobs to give the effect of being new but otherwise leave the cabinets as original. Alternatively, you may wish to paint the door fronts in a colour to contrast with the floor and walls, especially if they are muted in colour; brightly coloured cabinets will provide contrast and warmth to the kitchen and will show less marks than a plainer colour. If you don't feel to paint the cabinet doors,

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