...Not Your Pocketbook!
Think it has to cost a million bucks to renovate your kitchen? Find out how this homeowner got a whole new look for les than $3000!
By Dorothy Brigstock Schoenfeld

When Lona Bozzay found a house (in Weston, Missouri) that, in most respects, pleased her, she didn’t let the fact that the kitchen was far too dark for her taste deter her from buying. Instead, she proceeded to lighten up that 26' x 12' space, and she kept to a tight budget, too! One of Lona’s first changes was to open up a window that had been closed over with drywall by previous owners. Thanks to Lona and her power tools, that area is now a pass-through into the family room, ushering in light from that room’s windows.
“So often what we pay for when it comes to carpentry, of course, are time and labor,” she says. “If you’re willing to give it a try… doing it yourself can be worth it.” Architectural porch posts are legs for the retiled countertop (pictured above). The crown molding came from a home center; says Lona, “All I had to do was stain it, cut it and put it up.”
This homeowner-with-a-mission was willing to “give a try” to several things to combat the darkness. “Really, a lot had to do with wallpaper, just taking it down and replacing it with paint,” she says. “I’m a huge proponent of paint. I think it makes an amazing difference immediately.”

Lona’s first project as homeowner was to open up the window above the countertop. Dry-walled by a previous owner, it’s now a pass-through to the family room.

After she peeled off the kelly green wallpaper below the chair rail in the dining area, and the pink-and-black floral wallpaper above the rail, Lona rolled on instant light in the form of yellow paint. She also applied white paint to the interior of the built-in corner china cabinet, which had been painted a bright green.
White paint also came to the rescue of the kitchen cabinets which, in the unfinished state Lona first encountered them, had loomed over the kitchen, casting figurative, if not literal, dark shadows. “They made it appear even more narrow than it actually is,” Lona says. When she took off the cabinet doors to paint them, she realized that she liked the look of open shelves, so she left some of the doors off—the better to display the china and glassware she collects.
Even the most dedicated do-it-yourselfers often leave some things to professionals, which is what Lona did when it came to flooring. Although it entailed pulling up the old and putting down the new, off-white, tile-patterned linoleum, the job took only a day. She also had a professional install a ceiling light near the kitchen sink. And, after a general rewiring was done, a friend installed her new fan/light chandelier above the dining table.
But Lona, a graphic designer whose style sensibility starts at home, didn’t stop at that to make hers the attractive kitchen it is today. Her finishing touches included replacing the Formica countertops with slate tiles, which she installed herself; stenciling the, to her, boring, magnolia-colored tile beside and behind the stove with a leaf pattern, and applying the narrow tile backsplash above the two parallel counters.
Lona calls this end, used as a dining room, the kitchenette; a change of paint color delineates it from the working end.

Uniquely Lona-style was the addition of two legs—actually, porch posts—at the end of each counter. “Because I knew I wasn’t going to the expense of replacing my cabinets, I wanted to add some sort of a detail that would make them different from other cabinets,” this creative homeowner says. “So I attached end pieces to extend each counter by a foot and attached these legs.” Another finishing touch, to counter-balance the wood of the legs, was the crowning of the cabinets with dentil molding. Lona stained it and put her power tools to use to cut and attach it.
Paradoxically, perhaps, for a person with a goal of eliminating dark elements, is Lona’s choice of black appliances. Favoring eclectic decorating, she wanted them to add a modern touch to her kitchen, and was able to find both a black refrigerator and black stove (each dented) at budget prices. The dishwasher has a front reversible panel, so she simply flipped the panel to the black side.
Lona’s willingness to do much of the work herself and to buy some items second-hand kept this kitchen renovation inexpensive and relatively simple. Her advice to others who want to change the look of a kitchen (or any room): “Go with your gut feeling. I had a lot of friends who didn’t think I should do the crown molding the way I did [not going all the way around the room]. I didn’t want to spend the money to do the entire room, but I knew I could still make an impact on the overall look. In my mind, I saw it the way it is, and that’s the look I wanted.” •
Photos: Bill Mathews; stylist: Gloria Gale