Even though I tend to be fairly conservative with the use of color in my house, I definitely have an appreciation for those that are more daring. Jon used one of my favorite colors, apple green, combined with stainless steel to make a bold and beautiful kitchen, all for under $4,500.

We installed all new Ikea cabinets, new stainless microwave and stove, new Ikea butcherblock counters and stainless steel double sink. We also bought stainless back splashes from Online Metals and installed those ourselves... finished things off with a bright(!) apple green coat of paint.

Approx cost; $4,500

With one week to go we are getting some great entries, like this one from Texas. Larry was able to pull off a very nice look for under $8k including appliances. I especially like the double sided upper cabs.

I bought a circa 1955 Mid Century Modern house in 2006, and the kitchen needed replacement. I used my carpenter to demolish the old kitchen, and got the kitchen cabinets from Ikea. Appliances are from Sears. The double-sided upper cabinets are a custom installation of standard Ikea cabinetry.

Approx price $8,000

Sometimes the hardest part about doing a big remodel is being able to visualize what it is actually going to look like when it's done. Luckily for Ryan, he happens to be a pro at photoshop, so he was able to whip up a digital version of his kitchen before the hammers ever started swinging.

Our blog is full of pretty extensive info. We had no idea what we're doing. I'm an artist, love modern design and know Photoshop...and that's how we pretty much figured it out. We really shopped around for deals on cabinets, faucets, drawer pulls, tile and flooring. Even if a reader of your blog didn't want to do EVERYthing we did, I think they could find bits and pieces of what we did quite helpful.

Our project extended a bit outside of the kitchen (entry door, stairs, etc) which added to the cost. But we completely gutted it and did every piece brand new.

I've been lazy about posting good finished pics of the kitchen. If you guys dig it, let me know and I'll make sure to get them up. You can see everything on our site though in much more detail.

Approx price: $26,000

For more info make sure you check out underdover.blogspot.com. Before photoshop design

During After

The next entry in our Affordable Modern Kitchen Contest comes from San Francisco, were with a little elbow grease and some skill Sam was able to update his kitchen to a clean new look for under 10K.

We bought an old (1913) house in San Francisco last year. It was in terrible shape, so I basically had to gut the kitchen and start from scratch. I used pros for cabinets, plumbing, electrical and floors, but did most of the remaining work myself. I kept costs down by ordering supplies myself. Also, we found a great handyman and I was able to work with him on several projects (built in bench, custom table). I did all of the finishing wok myself (paint, trim install, plaster, doors). We're still working on the house, but I think the kitchen has come together very nicely! You can see before and after pics on flickr. The pics are pretty recent-ish, but since I took them we've made a few more improvements...I wonder if we'll EVER be done with this house!

Approx cost: Under 10K

I have a thing for funky clocks and watches, especially analogue ones. It's something about putting a twist on an age old way of telling time that makes it interesting to me. When it comes to telling time with at twist, the Decode Clock by Arthur Yung and Clement Cheung just happens to fit the bill perfect. Based on a traditional wall clock the hours are only readable when the hour hand passes over the coded word. Combined with a clean white design and a fairly reasonable $50 price tag, the Decode Clock is a winner. Available from Generate for $49.

It's been a while since I have looked at Amenity's collection, mostly because we are pretty pleased with our budget Ikea duvet. This week however I was browsing the Amenity line over at Design Public, and I was surprised to see that Amenity is a lot more than bedding these days. Sure they still have their gorgeous (and somewhat expensive) duvets and sheets, but they also have a whole slew of other cloth goodies. The line includes everything from bedding, to wall hangings and prints to table runners, place mats, and even modern Christmas decorations. Pricing ranges from $9 for modern ornaments to $400 for a duvet. Available from Design Public.

For our kitchen we are doing a zero radius undermount sink like the one in the picture. We are looking for a white countertop material, but are having troubles finding one that can be square cut like the picture above. We had planned on doing a Silestone in zeus white, but were told by our installer that the smallest inside corner radius they can do is 1/2 inch or else it will crack. According to them the same goes for any stone and even Corian. We are finding the same problem with our flush mount induction cooktop. So the question....

Does anyone know a good white countertop that can be zero radius like the picture above?

Those of you that have been following me on Twitter know that last Friday I started on my own kitchen project. We got the entire old kitchen demoed out, as well as the room underneath it (scope creep). We put down new subfloor to get rid of all the squeaks, and got a good start on the plumbing. Today we are ordering our flooring, white rubber tiles, and looking at countertops. I hope to finish up the plumbing and start on the electrical. Check out my tweets to see how I'm doing!

This entry hits close to home, about a mile away at most. Tristen and his family have been going through a very similar remodel as ours, only their house is cooler, he's got mad design skills, and their done. Yes I'm a little jealous. They did a great job on the kitchen and the whole house. Check out their blog for more info.

Our kitchen remodel was just a portion of an entire house renovation. The existing kitchen felt tiny and cramped. It was also completely dated. We had the whole house dry-walled, and I put down new Brazilian Koa flooring throughout, so those costs are not included in the approximate cost. I reframed an existing wall so that there is a long pass-thru into the living room. The cabinets, counter top, sink and faucet, and stove backsplash are all Ikea. To gain more space in the kitchen I moved the bar cabinets where the sink is out 6-8" which makes a significant difference. We kept the stove and sink in the same locations to save the money re-plumbing and re-wiring would have cost us. We originally wanted to do a tile backsplash, but couldn't find a tile we liked at an affordable price.We ended up using stainless end panels from a different style of Ikea cabinets. Instead of using corner cabinets in the kitchen, we turned the "corner" cabinets so that they face into the dining room and living room and provide storage for those rooms. We used energy star appliances and low-VOC paint to finish out the space.

Approx price $5,000 + appliances

Keep reading for more great pics.

In the spirit of affordable modern kitchen remodels, demo on our kitchen starts today. I think we finally settled on a layout, and appliances, and we are just working out the flooring details right now. Since I am doing all the work, it will probably be a while until we have a fully functional kitchen again. To try and make it a little easier, we set up a little kitchen in our laundry room. We are using this little Avanti Induction hotplate to do all our cooking. I am totally obsessed with the whole induction cooktop idea, and if all goes well we will be doing an induction cooktop in our main kitchen also.

Avanti induction hotplate + skillet available from Compact appliance for $107. More about induction cooking here.

This may be the smallest entry so far, but it packs plenty of punch. Ayan has made good use of the small floorplan in his Brooklyn Co-op.

My wife and I bought a co-op in Brooklyn earlier this year. The kitchen looked like it was all original from the late 50's, and in pretty rough shape. We gutted everything, including knocking down 2 partition walls, doing a pass through into the living room, and stripping lots of wallpaper. The cabinets are Ikea, counter tops are granite from a local shop, back splash is glass tile, and floor is cork, which we laid right over the existing linoleum. The appliances are all new GE.

Approx price, $6,000 for materials, $5,000 for appliances.

Keep reading for more pictures including a before shot that puts it all in perspective.

With all this talk about kitchens going on here at Grassrootsmodern, we have started looking around for appliances for our new kitchen remodel. I was looking for refrigerators when I came across these great colored compact refrigerators made by Haier. Obviously at 1.7 cubic feet for refrigerator and freezer these little guys won't fit a whole lot, but if you ever needed just a little bit more cold space, they might fit the bill. The price isn't too bad either. One refrigerator will run you just over $100 at Compact appliance. At that price you could have a 34 cubic fridge wall for less than most 19 cubic foot cabinet depth fridges. If only you could remember which one of twenty had the leftovers...

Available from Compact Appliance for $107.

Check out more compact refrigerators here.

OK, I'm not going to even try and claim that this is affordable, but it is beautiful. I'm not quite sure what my obsession is with simple looking radios, I don't even listen to the radio. Nevertheless the Magno Wooden Radio by Singgih Kartono is one of the best looking ones I have seen in a while. Heavy on the looks, and low on the technology, this little guy only does AM/FM and two shortwave channels, but it does have a audio in for your mp3 player. Available from A + R for $210.

I have to admit that in the past I have been less than optimistic about modern prefab houses. Very few of them end up being priced at less than $200 a square foot. To me $100 a square foot is the magic number to try and hit before you can really claim it's "affordable". The 100k house is proving that it can be done with fairly typical building practices and a little creativity. So where does that leave prefab? Well not everyone has given up on it like I have, and the NY Times had an interesting article about a prefab modern home built in the Los Angeles area for $125 a square foot. The home shows some obvious influence from the Eames Case Study home and shows that using prefab techniques to achieve an affordable modern home might still be a possibility. NY Times Article "Prefab, High-Concept and Green" Via TreeHugger

This second entry is very inspiring. Summer did an amazing job at opening up the space, and making it feel much larger. Here is how she describes her new kitchen;

Three simple words to describe my kitchen would be simple, modern, and functional. For the small space, I used white cabinets to make the space feel bright and open. Instead of using lower cabinets, I left the space open to also act as a dining table. An appliance garage allows me to hide my small kitchen appliances, yet they are still easily assessable. To make my kitchen affordable, I bought my cabinets from Ikea and priced shopped ebay and local stores for the appliances. I chose white appliances to blend in with the white high gloss cabinets. I lost a lot of storage without the upper and lower cabinets, so I added floating steel shelves to hold my dishes. It also allows me to give the kitchen a splash of color. My biggest expense was the laminate countertops. They would have been much cheaper if I chose not to add the apple plywood exposed edge, but I couldn’t resist! I have attached some before and after pictures.

Aprox cost $10,000

More pictures, plus some amazing before and after shots after the jump.

Before

After

Before

After

One of my favorite things are using everyday products in an unusual way. RePlayGround makes it easy for you to do just that. Instead of throwing away your wine corks, why not make them into something more functional. The ReMake its wine trivet kit does exactly that. Not only will you be reusing something that would have just gone into the trash, but you also end up with a pretty good looking trivet for $12. Not too shabby. Available from Karma Kiss for $12. Via Core 77.

The deadline for our Affordable Modern Kitchen contest is just three weeks away! So far we only have three entries, but we'd love to see some more! So don't be shy, head over to our contest page and submit your affordable modern kitchen. It only takes a couple of minutes, and it could earn you $100. Plus I'm looking for some good inspiration for our house ;)

Wallpaper has been trying to claw it's way into modern interiors for a while now. I have had to strip too much wallpaper off of old walls to be a fan of the stuff, but I have to admit that lately it's starting to look a little sweeter. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to go hog wild and start wallpapering all my walls, but I do think that there are some good ones out there that could be appropriate in certain situations. For example the Graham and Brown wallpaper shown here is a vinyl that can be used over old paneling, cinderblocks, cracked walls, and it's completely paintable. Best of all it comes in around $1.80 a square foot. Maybe I've had it wrong all along. Maybe instead of stripping all that wallpaper off I should have just been covering it with more.... If you can't beat them join them right?

Available from Design Public for $30 a roll.

Modern Materials Design, who I just mentioned in my last post, is teaming up with another local design store and having a huge warehouse sale. There will be all sorts of goodies, and rumor is there is a leather sofa for $295 and a sectional for $275. Modern Materials Design had a lot of EQ3 furniture, so expect to see some of their stuff at discounted prices. The hours are pretty limited, and the good deals usually go quick. See you down there!