I’ve turned a boring builder grade kitchen into a modern farmhouse style kitchen with this modern farmhouse kitchen update.
Is there an area in your home that you HATE? An area that you’re really not fond of spending too much time in because it’s just flat out ugly? For me this was my kitchen. I needed to update at least a few of the surfaces to break up the brown, but I had a $3500 budget. This barely covered the cost of granite. What was I going to do? I was going to research the most BUDGET FRIENDLY MODERN FARMHOUSE KITCHEN UPDATE ideas and decide which ones we could use.

My kitchen was a sea of brown; brown countertops, brown tile, brown cabinets, you get the point. With 85 square feet of counter top (FYI this is a lot), I didn’t know if we could even afford to make any changes. Here are a few before pics so you can get a visual;


After calling a few contractors to get quotes, I thought if we purchased the cheapest granite, we might have a chance at an affordable KITCHEN REMODEL.
Table of Contents
Key points for Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Update
- white backsplash; could be tile, shiplap, or any type of wood
- solid surface countertop; I really wanted marble, but I knew it wasn’t in the budget
- change the color of the cabinets
- update the fixtures, plumbing and hardware
- remove the “step up bar” and make one solid surface bar area
Could I do all this for under five thousand dollars? YES! I did it for under four thousand actually.
I was thrilled when I found a contractor that would install the lowest grade of granite for $3200. He also added the removal of the step up bar in the cost!
This modern farmhouse kitchen is a possibility!
Replacing the laminate counters with granite
Because I painted the whole house in a light grayish blue or grey tone, I knew I needed to choose a granite to “tie” the kitchen in with the rest of the colors.
I chose a color called SANTA CECILIA LIGHT. This was the lowest grade granite (the only one that fit the budget), but quite frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference between the different grades.
Here is what the bar looked like after they removed the counter tops and cut the bar top down:


Next comes the granite…

I was thrilled with the NEW GRANITE, but I had a freak out moment because the rest of my kitchen was still ugly, boring, and BROWN. I HAD to find a way to get rid of the brown WITHOUT spending a lot.
I really wanted a brick backsplash, but after pricing it, I was discouraged…still too expensive. Then I had an AHA moment.
Adding a bead board backsplash
Pinterest is crawling with inspiration where BEAD BOARD was used as a BACKSPLASH.
After looking into it, I could cover ALL the panels you see in the picture above with bead board AND use it as a backsplash too for about $100! YAYYYY it’s a winner.
Side note; I hired this job out. We thought about doing it ourselves but it didn’t cost too much in labor. See all the cost details below.
Here’s a sneak peak of how it looks.

Last thing I did was paint the kitchen Island white and the rest of the cabinets gray.
Side note: I used two different methods to paint the gray and the white, and I’ve given my two cents on each method in my post ‘a year in review of how I painted my laminate kitchen cabinets.’
Cost breakdown of this budget modern farmhouse kitchen update:
- $3200 granite install and removal of old countertop with bar cut down- this included new sink and new faucet
- $100 bead board
- $350 Install of bead board
- $50 new hardware
- $100 paint
$3800 TOTAL! I know my budget was $3500, but the BEAD BOARD install was a little more than expected. Either way, I’m thrilled to have a “new kitchen.”
Final reveal of my affordable modern farmhouse kitchen update









You can see more of the DIY Industrial Pendant Light makeover above the sink.
You might be interested in the DIY Board and Batten off the hallway next to the kitchen.
I was pleased to create an almost new kitchen for under four thousand dollars. Sometimes it takes a little research and creativity, but you really can update something old and outdated on a budget.
Thanks for stopping by. Let me know what you think of our new kitchen.
Lindsey**
p.s. The new appliances were purchased courtesy of our insurance after our house was hit by a big bolt of lightening. Sometimes good things do come out of bad circumstances!
p.p.s I get asked this a lot; the wall color in the kitchen (and all three of my bathrooms) is called Silver Mink by Benjamin Moore.