Quick fixes for a tired kitchen while we save up?

[teawamutu]

We moved into new house a couple of months ago. Doing the decorating bit by bit - it's basically sound, just v 90s.

Longer term, want to knock down crappy conservatory and have lovely huge kitchen with glass doors and skylights and all the stuff that will prob be desperately uncool by the time we can afford it

So the kitchen is one area where I'm reluctant to spend any money we could put towards doing it properly, but otoh I am sick to the tits of it already.

Issues:
-Badly painted shaker style units
-Cruddy laminate floor that always looks dirty
-Cruddy laminate worktop, ditto
-Cruddy plastic sink, ditto
-Dated patterned tiles, beige.

I do clean, I promise!

I know mn brings together all human wisdom, so if there are any genius kitchen improvement hacks you could share I'd be massively grateful

I once painted a kitchen in kitchen & bathroom paint (the large doggy brand).

It was ok, very cheap... And lasted about 3 years.

It will be hard to to much without spending any money and not much point if you want to replace it. How long are we talking?

A totally decluttered space always looks better. I would have nothing on the worktops except kettle and toaster. Cam you get a nice washable may or some sort of woven mat for the floor? Any walls that can be painted? Replace knobs?

*mat

Knobs could definitely be done, thank you.

When you say you painted an entire kitchen, do you mean tiles and units and all?

Books, prob a couple of years at least. Long enough to be annoying, not long enough to justify serious cash!

Fablon your cupboards and work tops! It's so cheap. £30 Did my kitchen with a few practise runs. It's not forever but itll do for a year or two!
Paint the kitchen tiles £10 or so for some tile paint and grout pen
Vinyl is fairly cheap depending on size to cover the floor £30-50?
Cheap sink and new tap or even a posh sink and tap and keep them for the remodel
New kitchen handles, different light put a blind up / take it down type of thing.

Need not be expensive but may take a couple days. I would certainly look into fablon

Paint kitchen tiles with standard gloss paint and a smooth gloss roller. No need for specialist paint.

Cover grubby floor with large vinyl mat, there's loads on eBay and cheap.

Keep your work surfaces as completely clear as possible. Wood effect, laminate work tops are very cheap.

I'm googling fablon now! Could you use it on doors with inset bits/shaping?

I once painted my cupboards, changed the handles and put a new sink in. It looked like a different kitchen. Might be worth a go?

I think so too - been hesitating because I'm impatient and so crap at DIY, but if I could paint the doors and tiles and walls, change the handles and maybe put in some better flooring it would look better and wouldn't cost too much, would it?

You could tile over the top of the laminate? I reckon that would only be a few hundred. New handles on the units? There are companies that will replace all the visible part of the kitchen units for nice new ones. We had a quote for £2k to do our kitchen.

You can you just use a heat gun or hair dryer on the fablon and mould it into the grooves!
If you have a good basis after a good sanding down you could paint them.

Anything you do will be progress if you dislike it that much and a kitchen is a busy room where you no doubt will spend time daily .. so give it a try :) good luck

Wilkos sell worktop recovering plastic / vinyl , it's sticky back stuff and about £5 A roll ( about 2mts I think ) it's dead easy to put on as long as you make sure the surfaces are very clean scrub with fairy > sugar soap > turps.

Wilkos also sell cupboard paint about £8 a tin . Very strong smelling stuff though.

Ok so reluctant to throw away money, can you get a loan for getting the job done now?

There's a FB group called DIY on a budget ( or similar) .

Loads of tips and examples of cheap kitchen returns using paint and fablon.

www.facebook.com/groups/diyonabudgetofficial/?ref=bookmarks

Well you can basically repaint cabinet doors, actually even tiles, there's is special type of paint for it.
You can buy some new cheaper laminate floor, but not sure if this one will be actually economically practical, if you want redo the whole kitchen later.🤷🏻‍♀️
And for a counter top there's something similar to a contact paper specially for a kitchen surfaces, saw something what looked like marble effect.🤷🏻‍♀️
But obviously all of this changes will cost something, so depends how much you actually want to invest to it.