The “before” kitchen photo.

We at Fairfax Design Solutions realize that not everyone has an enormous budget for their remodeling projects. As a matter of fact, it’s very rare that we come across a client who isn’t at least a little concerned about the cost.

Last spring Fairfax Design Solutions met with a client in Alexandria, VA who wanted a new look for her kitchen. She didn’t want to spend a lot of money because she plans to move from the area in about five years. Having already invested about $8,000 for new granite countertops a few years back, our client wanted a more up-to-date look while preserving the existing granite. We couldn’t blame her for wanting to save the granite because it is a beautiful neutral color and it is in fantastic shape. She also wanted to remove a desk in the kitchen that was serving no purpose other than to be a collection area for her junk mail.

The first task at hand was to find a contractor who would be willing and able to preserve the granite. A couple of our preferred contractors didn’t feel comfortable taking on the task of removing and replacing existing granite for fear of damaging it. Fairfax Design Solutions knew that purchasing a new countertop and cabinets would be out of the question for our budget conscious client. We explored many options before deciding that cabinet refacing was the best answer in this situation.

The “before” kitchen desk photo.

A local cabinet refacing company was contacted to provide us with an estimate. The cost for the refacing was very close to the price of new cabinetry, but the cost of installing the new cabinetry plus countertops would have more than doubled the price. An added bonus was that the refacing company was able to install new cabinetry where our client wanted to add it. In this case she wanted to remove the desk and add two deep drawers. We also installed some nice features to assist our client in organizing her kitchen such as pull-out trash/recycling bins and a pull-out spice rack.

The kitchen desk has been converted to two deep drawers.

In addition to the cabinetry, lighting was also a big concern for our client. Her kitchen was very dimly lit by a bulky fluorescent light. Fairfax Design Solutions designed her kitchen with two pendant lights over the counter and several recessed lights to replace the outdated light. We also enhanced her newly refaced cabinetry with some LED strip lights along the bottom.

Fairfax Design Solutions is happy to report that our client is thrilled with her new kitchen and pleased to have kept the cost down to a more affordable level.