Talk to me about kitchens

[HelloCanYouHearMe]

And in particular, whether its worth just replacing the doors and worktops?

I've just purchased a new house and the kitchen is tired and shabby. Nothing wrong with the units per say - they are all solid and in fairly good condition, but its just old and tired looking and the doors are painted green

Money is tight and I could stretch to a new kitchen, but I was wondering if just replacing doors and worktops might be a better (and cheaper) approach?

Has anyone done this? If so, how did it turn out?

If the units are only tired looking but otherwise sound and particularly if they’re real wood, might be most cost efficient to have it painted (change handles too) plus new work surface. Can really change the look. Have a look on Pinterest for ideas.

I didnt even consider pinterest.

Current doors are from the 80s i think... very similar to the attached except for the colour. Im not 100% sure what I can do to rescue them tbh!

I've just been through this thought process, kitchen is 20 years old, there is nothing at all wrong with the cabinets and the doors are in good condition but dated, and having lived here for 18 years I want a change.

I had the doors on the 1 unit in my utility spray painted because the wrap had lifted so much I took it off and the plain MDF underneath was in good condition.
Looks so good and started thinking about getting the kitchen done as well.

In the end there are other things I wanted which involve work to the kitchen (new radiator fitting, new flooring as tiles 85% cracked - and need to come up to put in radiator, moving some units, rearranging utility, new power sockets due to moving units, wanting a run of wall units where currently nothing and not being able to match the existing doors) and it's all just snowballed into a brand new kitchen and utility.

I'm currently in 2 minds on reusing some of my existing carcasses, it would save some money but not masses in the scheme of things, but it just seems to wasteful to take out something that isn't actually broken. And I can't imagine I'd be able to sell it, or even give it away.

Anyway, having looked at lots of examples of people just returning it can make a massive difference. Get googling and see what takes your fancy.

The bloke I'm seeing spray painted my utility doors, he does car/bike sprays and used the equipment for that. I was offered British racing green, TVR purple or grudgingly a cream - which I went for! The finish is amazing and cos it's car paint it's the paint and a hardener and is very solid.

Attempt no 2 at the photo... these are the units only the cream is a pale green. Could i do anything with these?!

Surely it depends whether you feel the layout works, or whether you’d want to rearrange it for more storage, new appliances etc.

With those units, if you wanted to keep the layout, I’d change doors, handles and worktop.

The layout is fine with the exception of where the previous owners had a table, im looking to get an island/breakfast bar and i want to replace the floor as at the moment its carpet

Depends on the cost difference. If you're looking at new custom doors, eg because you can't get off the shelf with holes for the hinges in the right place, it might be nearly as expensive as ripping the whole lot out and replacing with a new kitchen from somewhere like Ikea, or DIY kitchens, especially as you've mentioned wanting an island so will need new units there anyway.

But then again, you may drop lucky and find that you can get some new doors that swap straight over and maybe even in a sale somewhere. Years ago we wanted to revamp that exact same kitchen would you believe and we found some end of line doors in B&Q that swapped straight over and redid the entire kitchen (just doors and handles not worktops) for less than £200 but that was just a quick freshen up prior to selling.