Can You Renovate Your Kitchen Without Demolishing Everything? Six Ideas to Try

Kitchens are located right in the middle of the home, so food and drinks are easily available when you need them. While this central accessibility makes them very handy, it also makes them hard to renovate, as you’ll often need to take out a wall (or two!) to make your changes.

Demolishing parts of your kitchen can be a messy and time-consuming endeavour, but luckily, there are ways to renovate your kitchen that don’t involve this process. Let’s explore some of them now.

6 Ways to Renovate Your Kitchen Without Demolition

We’ve gathered six of the best ways to renovate, or at least refresh, your kitchen without any extensive demolitions!

1. Paint Your Surfaces

One of the fastest and most effective ways to modernise and brighten any room, including the kitchen, is to paint it. Painting the walls and ceilings is a great place to start, as these take up a lot of surface area in your kitchen and can have a dramatic impact on how it looks if their colour is changed.

You can also paint your kitchen cabinets and the trims around your kitchen for a smaller, but still effective impact. No matter what colour you choose, make sure your paints are designed to handle humidity and the odd splash of food and drink. Avoid paints that will absorb liquids and go for water-resistant or full gloss paints that are easy to wipe down as needed.

For more information and inspiration on choosing colours for your kitchen, make sure to read our blog titled ‘How To Choose The Perfect Colour Scheme For Your Kitchen Renovation’.

2. Replace Your Cabinetry

Most kitchens tend to have a lot of cabinets and drawers, which we need to store all our cooking and eating appliances and utensils. Whether it’s through smoke stains, oil splashes or just a lot of use, these cabinets can start to look a little sad and dated after many years–but it doesn’t mean you need to rip them out completely to start over.

Replacing the doors and fittings of your cabinets is a great way to freshen them up without any demolition work. If you want to modernise your kitchen, look for smooth, durable materials that are easy to clean and are a neutral colour that can blend in well with the rest of your space. Or, go for a bolder hue to make your cabinets the highlight of the room! You can also look into upgrades like soft closing doors or tired shelving to make them that little bit easier to use.

3. Upgrade Your Benchtops

Your benchtops do more than just provide a place to chop, mix and mash–they’re also a standout area for a feature material you can show off. Benchtops may seem like they’d take some proper demolishing to replace, but as long as they have been screwed in place and not glued, they’re actually quite easy to lift off and replace!

If your benchtop is scratched, chipped, flaking or stained, then upgrading it is a fantastic way to really elevate your kitchen. When looking for a new benchtop, make sure to keep the following points in mind:

1. Choose a material that meets your needs. If you want a benchtop that is more for show, then marble and granite are great options. But if you want a benchtop that can stand up to some wear and tear, look for acrylic or granite.
2. Make sure your new benchtop is either the same thickness or slightly thinner than the old one. One that is too thick will require you to cut out space to make it fit, which is ranging too close to the ‘demolition’ side of things. A gap from a benchtop that is slightly smaller can easily be filled with silicone.
3. Will you need to alter existing plumbing or electrical wiring to install your new benchtop? If this is the case, make sure you hire a plumber or electrician to do the work for you, as attempting to DIY it can be unsafe.

Make sure to follow any instructions provided when installing your benchtop yourself. And of course, if you aren’t sure about this process, you may like to hire a professional to do the job for you.

4. Modernise Your Lighting

While you will need to engage an electrician to do anything more than screw in a new lightbulb, new lighting is one of the easiest and most effective ways to really freshen up any space, including the kitchen.

Does your kitchen have warm or cool lighting? Warm yellow lights make a space feel cosy and warm, while cool white lights make it feel bright and clean. Because of the way it mimics natural daylight, cool lighting is generally considered the best one for kitchens.

If you really want to get natural light into your kitchen and don’t have the appropriate windows, you can look into installing a skylight in your kitchen. This will require cutting a hole in your roof and installing a glass or plastic pane, but that’s about the extent of the work needed.

5. Try Open Shelving Instead of Cabinets

For an even faster renovation, consider taking the doors off of your kitchen shelf cabinets entirely! Open shelving can help make your kitchen look bigger while providing easy access to all your dishware and appliances, and it doesn’t require any major demolition work.

If you are taking the door off your cabinets, you may need to sand and paint the areas where they were attached to make the colour match the rest of the structure. Or, you could even make them stand out by using a different colour for the trim. But whichever option you choose, this is a great little DIY project, even for renovation beginners.

Open shelving is a handy way to maximise space and make your kitchen look bigger. For more tips like this, please read our blog on ‘How to Maximise Space in a Small Kitchen Renovation.’

6. Update Your Appliances

Your appliances can play a more important role in the look of your kitchen than you may think. Consider your dishwasher–a plain white dishwasher can become stained and may look dated, whereas a sleek, stainless-steel one can serve to make your kitchen much more modern and even timeless-looking.

Larger appliances, like your oven, washing machine and microwave, can be updated to elevate your kitchen’s design with the help of an electrician or plumber. When choosing a new one, make sure to measure it carefully so it fits in the alcove left by the old appliance.

Updating smaller appliances can also be a fun way to add some charm to your kitchen! Consider upgrading your toaster, kettle or coffee maker to add some visual interest to the space. These appliances often come in many different styles and colours, so it’s easy to find matching ones that will complement the type of aesthetic you are trying to achieve.

The Disadvantages of Demos

Demolishing parts, or even all of your kitchen, can be a real pain for several reasons.

• Extended timeframe: The process of knocking down walls or pulling apart structures will take time. The walls of your kitchen will need to be tested to see if it is safe for them to come down, and if they are, then they will need to be taken down, the rubble taken away and disposed of, and the new walls/structures built in place.

• Permanent changes: Once you have started demolishing parts of your kitchen, you can’t go back! You have a lot less flexibility when you are knocking down walls or removing benches, making demolishing a stressful event for many. Walls can be rebuilt if you really want them, but it’s better to not make the wrong choice in the first place.

• Cleanup required: As expected, demolishing parts of your kitchen is going to be a messy process. Plaster, paint, wood and dust will be plentiful, and cleaning this up can be quite difficult, given how many books and crannies there are in modern kitchens. Professional builders will do their best to clean up after themselves, but you will probably still be finding plaster dust in the corners of your shelves for the next few months.

• Can’t use kitchen: While your kitchen is being demolished and then renovated, you probably won’t be able to use it. When renovating rooms that homes have multiples of, like bedrooms and bathrooms, not being able to use them won’t be as big of an annoyance. But when you can’t cook fresh food or wash your dishes for a long period of time, you may find yourself wishing you had opted for a demo-free renovation pretty quickly!

When Will You Need to Do Some Demolishing?

We don’t want you to think that demolishing parts of your kitchen is never a good idea! When performed by a reliable specialist, demolitions can be a fantastic way to breathe new life into your home and make it a more enjoyable place to live in, as well as increase its resale value.

When we look at kitchens, demolitions can be handy for:

• Removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room to make a larger, more social space.

• Making your kitchen more workable by changing the locations of the benchtop, sink and stove (also known as the chef’s triangle). 

• Adding in new windows to help illuminate your kitchen and make it feel more airy and larger.

Make sure you get your kitchen demolitions right the first time by taking some tips from our blog on ‘10 Common Kitchen Renovation Mistakes To Avoid: Recommended By Interior Designers.’ 

If you need any type of demolitions and are looking into home renovations in Glen Iris, Malvern or Canterbury, make sure to go with a trusted business like DPV Construction.

Begin Kitchen Renovations in Melbourne with DPV Construction!

If you aren’t confident in renovating your kitchen on your own or have large-scale changes you want to be made by a professional, then DPV Construction is the team to call! As experts in kitchen renovations in Melbourne, our team has the knowledge and experience to make sure your kitchen will turn out the way you envisioned it.
Please contact our team if you need anything to do with home renovations in Melbourne. Email us at info@dpvconstruction.com.au or use our online contact form to leave us a message–either way, we’ll get back to you quickly to discuss your project and how we can help.