Budget kitchen refurb

7 years ago

Hi everyone, I've just recently bought a 2 up 2 down and am on a really tight budget with the refurb. Wondered if anyone has any advice on trying to make this kitchen a bit more contemporary? Unfortunately cannot afford to replace the whole thing at the moment. Thank you, Wendy

Featured Answer

Patrina

7 years ago

Firstly I'd say you need to replace the ceiling tiles as I think they are a fire hazard. Depending on budget you could add a tall cabinet for a double oven with storage above and below against the back wall, change the cabinet doors and worktop and tile area around the sink and paint the wall to the right to brighten up the space. I've posted a few pics for inspiration.

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Comments (15)

Jonathan
7 years ago
Good start taking off the wall tiles. I would also take off the ceiling tiles and the wall cupboards in the corner.
Then I would paint the walls in a pale grey that has a brown quality. I would put down a wood effect lino. Metro tiles are inexpensive. Then I would put up some shelves instead of the wall cupboard.
I would then swap the fluorescent light for a track of spotlights- make sure you choose warm white LEDs and have a track with lots of lights on it so you are not always working in a shadow. Lastly change the current blinds for either cafe blinds or a roller depending on which part of the outlook you want to hide.
Emily
7 years ago
If funds are low paint is always a cheap and surprising effective measure and a white on the base cabinets would help make the white goods less obvious and with a dark grey blue green or even black on the walls would give the contemporary edge. Taking the top cabinets down and replacing with open shelves would modernise it too. Would be good if you could replace the doors but would only be a bit better than painting. If I were you I’d go cheap option and paint and plan for when you’ve saved enough to replace the kitchen. The blinds are pretty ugly too but before throwing out I’d paint them too!
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Thanks for all your comments! Yes, I was worried about that being an issue, even though we don’t particularly mind (we hope to settle in this home). Jonathan - we have a £20k budget and that has to include a new kitchen, white goods, tiling, labour, electrics...everything. I like the idea of an external extension but I’m sceptical as to whether we can afford that. If we could afford an extension we’d prefer a warmer/more energy efficient extension than a sunroom could offer - we live in the West Midlands! The main thing to highlight is we are very keen cooks, buy in bulk and batch cook. So ideally would need to fit a large American style fridge freezer, full sized dishwasher, cooker, pantry/cupboard/shelving space for our dry goods, cupboard space for all our cooking equipment and crockery and enough counter space to prepare food on. Bearing this in mind, having such a large toilet/utility space seems a bit of a waste. What about if we reduced the size of the bathroom, replace bath with washing machine and put a door in between? That way we could potentially create a walk in pantry out of the rest of the bathroom. Is a WC off a pantry an issue?
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Wendy B
Original Author
7 years ago
Wow thank you to all of you for such wonderful ideas. I had been feeling very despondent at my lack of ideas prior to posting. Not any more. Much appreciated!!
Emily
7 years ago
I know these aren’t ‘makeover’ kitchens but the white and black effect is so strong I think you can achieve a decent look just with painting. Then save and plan for new
User
7 years ago
How much of a budget do you have? If you can only afford to do one thing, remove the ceiling tiles and get the ceiling plastered. Polystyrene tiles are a fire hazard and definitely not a good idea in a kitchen! If you're overlooked you could try window film on the lower half of the window. There are some attractive ones available for about the same price as a roller blind. If you're like me you'll probably need as much storage as possible in the kitchen, so I wouldn't get rid of the corner wall cupboard, but I would look into either changing the doors to something with a sheen to reflect light if your budget can stretch to it, or painting a lighter colour, if not.
Wendy B
Original Author
7 years ago
Hi there budget is approximately £500 so not much but hopefully sufficient for a light makeover!
Ribena Drinker
7 years ago
I think I'd paint the doors & cabinets in a light colour and replace the handles - you can get some great looking, inexpensive ones, which will smarten it up right away and make it look more contemporary. If you are repainting the doors, if you find handles that have different hole spacing to those on currently, you can always fill the old holes, sand down before you paint, .

Paint the walls a neutral colour - I think it's too small to carry anything too dark.

Reduce the number of wall cupboards - remove the one on the cooker wall, but the remaining ones in that corner, could be moved up bit to be closer to the window, which would enable you to put up open shelves along the wall above the cooker (obviously don't go too low to the cooker top) - but these would give you the appearance of more space, with good storage, also if you feel you have enough storage these are a chance to have more decorative things.

As others have said, most importantly you must remove the ceiling tiles and preferably replace the light - as Jonathan says a track light is good.

Ditch the blind, the only place on earth for vertical blinds is an office! I'd hesitate in choosing a blind with too much pattern, because of the size of the room. And consider the film option for the time being.

From the pictures, the floor doesn't look too bad in terms of condition, does it just need a clean up from removing the wall tiles? If it's not good, we've bought adhesive floor tiles before as a stop gap, which have been most effective and surprisingly good for what they are.
PRO
amordesigns
7 years ago
Hi Wendy as there are only a few units, if you don’t want to paint them I would consider the following:
1. changing the cabinet doors - this option will cost less than you think. Your local B&Q or similar Will have standard doors
2. If you can’t replace worktop you can get self adhesive paper that just goes on top of existing worktop... very effective and very cheap as an alternative
3. I would get rid of wall cabinets and have shelves
4. Paint the wall opposite window
5. Where the cooker is either paint or maybe have a splash back halfway up wall
6. Window blinds I agree get rid and have roller blind or other

I think the above is all very achievable for your budget. Good luck and can’t wait to see what you do
Jonathan
7 years ago
If you are on a very limited budget then I would spend £180 on plastering the ceiling. £120 on paint and supplies for decorating so that you can paint the room. The ceiling light could cost £120 plus £60 electrician if you can’t install it. You could probably tile the wall by the cooker for £140- you do it yourself don’t get a beveled tile- choose one that is forgiving of a less than professional finish.
Having done these things I think you will find there is no money left for tackling the cabinets but the room will be transformed.
Add wall shelves later and a new blind later when the budget allows.
J
7 years ago
Some great ideas here. I'd just be careful on the ceiling tiles. They could be asbestos.
Jonathan
7 years ago
There are lots of things this tile could be made out of so it is likely not asbestos but a testing kit is inexpensive

https://www.amazon.co.uk/asbestos-testing-kit/s?page=1&rh=i:aps,k:asbestos testing kit
stephfallon
7 years ago
I would spend the money on:
1. Getting rid of the ceiling tiles (essential) - free if you can do it yourself
2. Get the ceiling skimmed if poor quality - £170.00ish
3. Remove the wall cabinets (easy to do yourself for free)
4. Paint the walls white (white paint is cheap - could probably do the kitchen for £30.00)
5. Paint the cabinets dark grey (I did my brother’s entire kitchen cabinets with one tin of F&B paint for £60.00
6. Tile with white metro tiles - est cost will depend on height you want to take the tiles to - but these are £11.00 per square metre in Homebase
https://www.homebase.co.uk/metro-white-wall-tile-25-pack_p398071
If you’re canny you could probably get it done for £250.00 including the cost of the tiles.
7. Get four Lack white floating shelves £10.00 each in Ikea - easy to fit yourself. Even I could do it!
Ok I’ve gone over budget! But you could have something that looks like this for around £540.00
stephfallon
7 years ago
BTW - They look like polystyrene ceiling tiles to me. Deffo a fire hazard but easy to remove. We had them in our bedrooms when we moved in.
stephfallon
7 years ago
Oh and yes the blind - something like these would look great with white walls and dark grey cabinets. You may find that the ceiling isn’t too bad underneath the tiles - while not the dream ceiling if you were stuck for cash in the short term you may get away with using thick textured paint rollered on - in a brilliant white. If I could afford to spend on only one major thing I would go for the metro tiles and paint the rest myself Anyway, here are the blinds: