Jenn Todryk's Tips To Blend Existing Floors With A Modern Kitchen Renovation

What happens when you still love your home after living there for decades but want to give your kitchen a modern makeover? You can look to someone with vision, like Jenn Todryk, who often shares budget-friendly ways to update a kitchen. That frequently means keeping the same footprint, or basic layout, so that minimal construction is needed. When costs need to be cut further, however, what stays and what goes? On an episode of "No Demo Reno," Todryk decides that she can indeed change a dark kitchen the owners want to update to one that's light and bright without replacing the flooring.

After walking through the updated kitchen with the homeowners, Todryk remarks, "The best part about seeing that kitchen is that I had to point out the existing floors ... That was the whole point of my design is to just make those floors disappear." One of the main ways she does that is coordinating the creamy color of the existing flooring with cream undertones in the grained quartz countertops she selects. Together, they work well with the newly updated white cabinetry and navy blue island.

Pondering a kitchen remodel of your own? Consider how the color of your old flooring can work with other materials and color selections in the room to keep costs down. Adding other finishing touches during the renovation and decorative accents like Todryk does with this project can help, too.

Another way Jenn Todryk makes the cream-colored tile floor disappear in this kitchen makeover is to draw the eye up and away from it. She does that with the polished chrome pendant light fixtures suspended over the island as prominent focal elements in the room. A new façade for the range hood over the stove also adds architectural detailing that draws the eye away from the floor. 

A feature like this is one of the ways you can help break up the mundane look of builder-grade white cabinetry, too. Polished chrome pendant light fixtures can run from about $150 to $500, depending on the style you select. A prefab wooden range hood that can be painted to match cabinetry might run in the $1,300 range. Both add a luxe look to the room that complements the existing flooring Todryk leaves in place.

It's not all about drawing the eye higher, though, since she also places accent rugs on each side of the island. They cover part of the floor while adding more color, more texture, and an eye-catching pattern to the space. Worried about putting pretty rugs in a kitchen, where spills inevitably happen? Machine-washable rugs are more stylish than ever, and runners similar to the styles Todryk selects can be purchased for less than $200 each. So, yes, you can make your old flooring work and update around it with a few great tips from Jenn Todryk.