You may walk into your new kitchen on move-in day and think you absolutely hate everything in it, but take a deep breath and get realistic. Joanna told us to first consider that a bare, empty home leaves all the flaws exposed. "When you walk in and there's nothing in the kitchen, it's really easy to like say, 'Oh gosh, I hate the floors; I hate the countertops.'" But before you get out the sledgehammer, imagine what it will look like decorated and filled with your things.
Once you can visualize this, Joanna advises focusing on only the very worst elements and consider which of them you can afford to fix right now. "Find your top two or three things you just can't live with. Then on everything else, you layer and you almost cheat it a bit," Joanna shrewdly advised. By tackling the renovation in layers, a few projects at a time, it becomes more financially manageable.
