How To Renovate Your Kitchen In 10 Days!

I am going to walk you through the steps my husband and I took to renovate our kitchen in 10 days!

I do believe almost anyone can do this, even if you have no background in construction or renovations.

But you do need a few things in order to succeed in renovating your kitchen in such a short time. Here is a quick rundown of what you will need;

• A computer with internet (and basic computer skills)
• Tools to complete the job. Some tools may vary depending on your situation but in general you will need a miter saw, a jigsaw, adjustable wrench, drill, drill bits, hammer, measuring tape, and a level.
• A camera
• Problem solving ability. As in; if you don’t know how to use a drill or where to buy screws, you have enough common sense to google it or call someone that does know. (That sounded harsh, but it’s true!)

The key to renovating your kitchen in just ten days is,

preparing everything you possibly can before you tear out your existing kitchen. This is key for the success of the reno and most importantly YOUR SANITY. Have all the tools you need on site, make sure you have enough material, assemble all the cupboards and have the doors and drawers sorted and ready to be installed as soon as you can, plan your days out, etc.

Below are all of the recommended steps below

*Planning tip: Before I start listing everything to do I’m going to tell you what not to do.

Don’t move any major appliances from where they currently sitting unless you have to. It requires more knowledge because you most likely will have to reroute plumbing, move outlets, and possibly run new gas lines if you have gas appliances. Although we know how to do these things we didn’t want to invest the time and energy, plus our appliances are in good locations so moving them didn’t make sense.

Step One:

Order Your New Kitchen

The first thing you need to do is measure everything in your kitchen and write it down. Counter widths, window placement on walls, floor space, ceiling height, upper cabinet spaces etc. And write it all down. Measure twice. Measure three times. Take pictures on your phone.

Order your kitchen. I used Ikea kitchen cabinets so that is what I will be talking about in this post. You can order cabinets from anywhere you wish but Ikea is what I use because they make great quality kitchens, have amazing prices, and are easy to assemble.

Whichever company you choose, make sure you plan out every single detail and double check your inventory once you receive your kitchen. There’s nothing worse than diving into a renovation and realizing your missing crucial pieces. (Which is what happened to me. So I’m talking from experience!)

*Planning tip: I chose to learn how to use the Ikea kitchen planner and I did the entire thing from home. This worked best for me because that way I could go to my kitchen and triple check that I measured something right, and I could visualize the space so much better.

But I didn’t order it from home. After I finished designing it I went to Ikea and talked with the kitchen department. They brought up my kitchen plan on one of their computers and we double checked that everything was right and that it would work together. Then I placed the order and chose to pick it up at the store I was at.

Whichever option you choose, just make sure you measure correctly. My kitchen was super tight and I couldn’t afford to be off by even half an inch!

Step Two:

Prepare!

Prepare everything you can before you gut your existing kitchen. (I talked about this earlier.) This includes finding a buyer for your existing kitchen if you plan to sell it. I chose to sell our old kitchen on a local buy and sell site. It was in amazing condition so it made sense to get some money back for it.

Make sure you specify the date they can come pick it up. Leave enough time for you to get your new kitchen assembled and ready to install before you sell your existing kitchen or you will end up without a kitchen all together. AND THAT IS A NIGHTMARE.

Take pictures even if you don’t plan on selling your old kitchen. They make great reference photos just incase, as well as great before and after photos! Here are some of my before pictures below:

Assemble all of your new cabinets before you start demolishing your old kitchen. This is another key component in getting this renovation completed in 10 days and keeping your existing kitchen fully functioning. You can assemble Ikea kitchen cabinets very easily. Just make sure to leave the doors and drawers off until the cabinet is installed. This saves a lot of headache and keeps the doors from possibly getting damaged.

Make sure you have all of your tools and materials ready. Every trip back to town costs time and money.

I will say though that I didn’t know what I was going to do for a backsplash until we were 90% done the renovation. I just couldn’t decide! Shiplap is finally what I decided to go with for a number of reasons (fast install is a huge reason). The closest store that carried it was an hour away though, so we lost time we could’ve used for working directly on the kitchen.

Just think of those things when your planning trips and pickups for your materials.

Step Three:

DEMO DAY AND INSTALL DAY!

Remove your old kitchen. Taking out your existing kitchen should be pretty painless. If it’s old or was installed incorrectly than it might be a different story. Either way your goal should be to have a completely gutted and ready for new cabinets in one day.

*Planning tip: It’s in this phase that we moved lighting around in our kitchen and installed pot lights. It’s very messy cutting drywall so now would be the perfect time to do it if you are planning to.

Install your new kitchen. We worked from one side of the room to the other and started with the lower cabinets first. Once the lowers were screwed into place we installed the countertop and used the jig saw to cut the hole for the sink. I will say this again: MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE! You will never regret measuring more than need be. But you will regret a ruined countertop because you were two inches off what you thought. Install the uppers.

Install your backsplash and one of the walls in our kitchen. It is super easy to install and looks amazing if your going for that look! I painted everything white to keep the space looking crisp and open. If you want a fast beautiful finish I would highly recommend using this product.

Finish up the little things. Dap and paint little spots you missed, put outlet covers on, install the toe kicks, caulk the countertop seams, etc. Anything that you’re putting off or avoiding- get it done. For me, if I don’t finish the little things during the initial process than it probably won’t get done at all.

Your Finished!

You did it. And hopefully you did it in 10 days! Take your after pictures and begin bragging to your friends that you renovated your kitchen in 10 days. you deserve it.

Check out some more pictures of our new kitchen below.

How to renovate your kitchen in 10 days! – A Lovely Place Called Home