Save vs Splurge Kitchen Ideas (Modern Farmhouse Kitchen)

Planning a kitchen renovation on a budget? Don’t miss these save vs splurge kitchen ideas including sources I used to save money on my backsplash, hardware and kitchen lighting while creating a luxury-feel gray and white modern farmhouse kitchen.

kitchen farmhouse sink with marble counters and honed marble backsplash | Maison de Pax

When we purchased our current 1990s home (you can see the transformation here), I wasn’t in love with the kitchen. In fact, the dated oak cabinets and brown tile needed a total overhaul.

Thankfully, we had a decent amount of space to make the kitchen functional for our large family and room to design a gray and white kitchen that was more “us.” We chose some traditional elements: white kitchen cabinets, marble countertops, and wood floors. As well as some more modern accents: swing arm sconce, mixed metals, lower gray cabinets, and brass hardware.

As with all renovations, remodeling costs were limited, so we had to be intentional about our choices and investments… And I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.

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Where to Save And Splurge on Kitchen Renovations

If you are planning a new kitchen makeover, there are so many financial and design decisions to consider. Everyone asks where to save money on kitchen remodels… And from lighting to hardware, many of these purchases can be done with a budget in mind.

I’ve shared before where to start when designing a kitchen… But in this post, I want to share a couple of general ideas for balancing budget as well as specific save vs. splurge sources and items you can consider to achieve a gorgeous kitchen on any renovation budget!

Investing in Cabinets and Countertops

While there are endless things to spend money on, cabinets and countertops are kind of the building blocks of a kitchen design.

Quality wood cabinets and natural stone countertops add value to your home. So whatever your budget might look like, I suggest investing more in these two items than in more accessory-type decisions like lighting and tile.

Ways to save money on cabinets

But budget is a real thing! So how do you save money on a kitchen remodel?

A great way to save money when updating kitchen cabinets (since from-scratch custom cabinets are so expensive!) is to reface your existing cabinets, rather than replacing them. In essence, that involves simply repainting the cabinet frames and replacing the cabinet doors. See more on that process here.

Save vs splurge kitchen ideas

For this kitchen, we opted for high quality cabinets from KraftMaid and real Carrara marble kitchen countertops, but I wanted to incorporate some more fun design elements to bring this gray and white kitchen to life.

Gold Swing Arm Kitchen Scones

Lighting is one of my favorite ways to set the style for a space. Lighting styles and prices can escalate from budget to high-end quickly, but are easy to change and swap out as styles change.

I opted for these cute brass swing arm kitchen sconces to place over my farmhouse kitchen sink. There are a wide range of choices with swing arm lamps to choose from: chrome, gold, and even black finishes (which I think would be so stylish for a more modern kitchen!).

Here are two gold swing arm lamps that can work on any budget!

Swing arm lamp lighting ideas above a kitchen sink- Maison de Pax

Amazon | Wayfair

I just love how much interest these swing arm sconces bring to the space (and who doesn’t love a little gold? 😉 ).

farmhouse sink with marble backsplash | Maison de Pax

Marble Backsplash Ideas for the Kitchen

There are so many backsplash tile options for your kitchen. Tile can be as simple as a ceramic subway tile (which is beautifully simple) to high end custom glazed tile with patterns. I do love marble tile because I believe it is both timeless and classic.

I opted for marble subway tile to compliment my honed Carrara marble kitchen countertops. You can source marble tile from many home improvement stores and tile shops (you can even find it on Amazon!).

Tip: natural stone tile can vary greatly from piece to piece, so I recommend choosing your tile in person if you can. If you order online, you may want to order extra in case you get a batch that has color variations you don’t love.

save vs splurge: modern farmhouse marble tile backsplash | Maison de Pax

Floor & Decor | Amazon

Worried about marble backsplash or countertop care with spills, splatters and stains? I have a whole post about caring for your marble to make it last for years to come!

Modern White Farmhouse Kitchen SinkS

Modern Farmhouse apron sinks have been a trend for a while now, but because of their classic design, they’ve always been a good fit for a traditional kitchen. You can find farmhouse sinks in traditional white ceramic or even metallic finishes like hammered copper.

My sink was affordably sourced from Wayfair, but the sky is the limit on how much you want to spend on your sink! Sometimes the sink is more expensive due to size or style options. Using a simple white farmhouse sink also allows you to choose a fun kitchen sink faucets. We have a satin nickel kitchen faucet with sprayer, but I think a gold kitchen faucet would be beautiful, too.

Here are two apron front sink options with different price points.

Modern farmhouse apron sink ideas- Maison de Pax

Wayfair | Build.com

Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Pot Filler

While a pot filler kitchen faucet isn’t a necessity in a modern kitchen, it is definitely a favorite in our home! We have a large family with four kids, so I am cooking a lot in our modern kitchen.

Our Moen pot filler faucet was a bit of a splurge in price, but there are many affordable options for your home, too. These two kitchen faucet styles are very similar in style, giving you the option to achieve the look for much less!

Pot filler styles and options above a stove- Maison de Pax

Amazon | Amazon

I love how stylish and functional our pot filler looks over our cooktop.

brushed nickel pot filler with marble subway tile backsplash | Maison de Pax

Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Islands

While a large kitchen island is ideal, not every home has space for it in their kitchen. My husband found me our wood and marble top kitchen island from a store in Austin, Texas. I love how versatile it is for entertaining, food prep, and the frequent lunch and snack buffet that happens here on a daily basis.

While custom built-in islands are nice, they can be costly. I found some beautiful rustic wood islands that come with wood or stone tops. Both of these options would be great for a space without a built-in island for more storage or countertop space. Without our island, we would have an awkward open space in our kitchen. I truly use it for everything!

save vs splurge: modern farmhouse kitchen islands | Maison de Pax

Wayfair | HOUZZ

MODERN FARMHOUSE CABINET HARDWARE

White kitchen hardware options are endless! You can mix metals (and I share all about that here) like gold and chrome, or stick to all one kind of metallic finish for your knobs and pulls. In our home, we used gold kitchen cabinet hardware for a more modern look.

Kitchen cabinet hardware doesn’t have be expensive to be functional and stylish. I love this gold bar style pull, but you might prefer knobs or cup pulls (here are a few more kitchen cabinet hardware ideas). Play around with styles and prices!

save vs splurge: modern farmhouse cabinet hardware | Maison de Pax

Amazon | Amazon

I love how the long beautiful brass hardware drawer pulls pop against the gray and white cabinets and marble subway tile.

marble subway tile backsplash, white cabinets, gray lower cabinets #kitchendesign

Did you find these save vs splurge kitchen ideas helpful? Having a beautiful kitchen doesn’t require you to break the bank! There are so many areas where you can save and splurge (for something you really love) to get the complete look.

Don’t forget to pin it!

save vs splurge: modern farmhouse kitchen sources | Maison de Pax

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18 Comments

  1. Love your kitchen. Can you tell me where you got your kitchen faucet from, please? We’re looking for one for our new kitchen and really like the style of yours!

  2. I love posts like save/splurge. It goes to show you don’t have to spend a ton of money to achieve certain high end looks. Great job!

  3. It looks wonderful. Do you remember the named or style of the red rug in the kitchen? I have gray cabinets and really need some color contrast…i think this rug would be perfect.

  4. We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and I just love two tone cabinets! What is the brand/color of the gray bottom cabinets?

  5. Beautiful, colors, hardware, lighting, everything! I love how you mastered mixing the metals. Now I wish you could do mine 😉

  6. Hi, what a beautiful kitchen! I tried the link for your glass pendant lights, but the Amazon link does not have any information. Thanks 🙂

  7. Hi, Rachel! I love your style and have been looking at similar backsplashes in particular. We definitely have a budget to stick to so the Floor and Decor option seems great, but I was wondering if you could share the exact brand, etc. of yours. Thanks so much in advance!

    1. Happy to do so! We used these tiles from F&D. As always with natural stone, I recommend choosing in person if you can. There is much potential variation (again, normal with natural stone), so that allows you to choose the boxes with more gray tones or more cream tones, as you prefer. I hope this helps!

  8. Hi! The link to the backsplash tile on F&D looks a bit different on the website than in your photos (yours looks like it has more grey). Is that the right one? I know stone varies etc., just double checking. Thanks!

    1. Hi Zach, I purchased the backsplash at my local F&D several years ago. The sku is the same, but it does have LOTS of variation since it’s natural stone, as you said. 🙂 I definitely recommend looking in store if you can; I sorted through lots of boxes of more white/cream tiles before I found all the gray ones I wanted. I hope this helps!

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