Help me fix my kitchen

[Letschangeeverything]

Just moved into a new house. We're doing everything room by room. It's not had a lot of love.

I hate the colour and the kitchen is top of the list of things we need to remodel, but things have got in the way and we need to save.

We can't get rid of the tiles and I'm not sure what can be done tbh so I was thinking of changing the colour of the cupboards? I'd like to get the kitchen looking a bit more rustic and homely? I'm not a fan of the modern feel. It's a very very cheap kitchen but it's fine.

The bit on the photo you can't see is a giant floor to ceiling crazy paving wall and fire place, laminate flooring and dining area, an archway into the living room and the other side are 2 french doors leading into the garden.

The living room is currently Hague blue by farrow and ball.

Please help me decide what colour to do the cabinets! I was thinking like a light sage green?

I can only see 1 image of your kitchen. You don't seem to have many wall cupboards. Could you get a few more the same? I think I would paint pale grey. You voild always change the door handles on cupboards too. That can make a big difference. If you can't get any more wall cupboards maybe you could get some wall shelving. The paint on wall is white so looks cold. You could use very pale primrose to give it some warmth. The black floor and black wall tiles makes it look dark. You can get tile paint for wall tiles if you wanted to lighten the kitchen. Wall shelving against a primrose background would give it warmth and not too expensive to achieve.

@Letschangeeverything
I agree with @caringcarer - new handles and paint can make a world of difference. I did this with a friend of mine with her kitchen & it looked so different.

Very difficult to say without seeing more of the layout but if the kitchen leads into the sitting room in Hague blue , then if you have two French windows ( so not dark ) what about choosing a lighter colour from the tame tone as Hague blue so e.g. Pitch blue ( possibly too dark) or going lighter and more grey Parma Gray ( which I think is lovely ) and painting cupboards , walls and units in that & then over the washing machine to left of wall cupboards put up some wall shelves ( again as @caringchanger says ) in some more rustic looking wood where you can have some lovely storage jars - hooks for hanging pans etc. ( though do not blame me for dusting with open shelves and pretty storage jars ) If this is a temporary measure I would just paint the crazy paving wall and fireplace too to blend in & pretend it is like a French chateau kitchen

I know you can paint tiles but if you can make them work without - I would do that.

I once inherited the most dreadful orange pine kitchen - everything - tongue and groove on the ceilings , walls , all the units & I just painted it all one nice colour and put some shelves up & once I had all my stuff in it , it did us for a few years until we could do a proper job & it was homely and nice.

So first off I would paint everything wall and units Parma Gray & change the handles and then see where you can perhaps put up some shelves.

Good luck - would love to see the monolithic wall if you are prepared to show it !

Although you do not like the kitchen , I think where you have and advantage & where paint might make a difference is the units at least are a fairly classic design - so not too twiddly - slightly shakeresque .

Yes I like sage green. I would then also pain the wall a softer white, see what F&B recommends with the cabinet colour you choose. The floor doesn't look too bad to me. I hate the tiles and sink but I'm not a fan of painted tiles so I'm not sure what you can do. It would actually be fairly cheep to remove the tiles and replace though.

So for a more traditional feel something like this for the drawers and then some knob handles for the cupboards which go with ( not saying these ones just an quick approximation of what I was thinking about www.amazon.co.uk/Handles-Vintage-Cupboard-Cabinet-8-2cmx3-5cm/dp/B01D7FW37M?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Oh well ignore my parma grey comments if you prefer sage green but where I do agree with @lollipoplola is , either live with the tiles or if they come off easily without buggering up the walls I am sure you can find some relatively inexpensive tiles to replace them with and that would not be extraordinarily expensive - indeed if it is a straight run with whole tiles - you could do it yourself. I don't think tile paint ( only my opinion - other opinions are available ) works fantastically other than on make over programmes - i.e. not in real life day to day )

But do OP please show us the crazy paving wall and fireplace - I am half enchanted and half astonished.

@BasiliskStare haha here is the crazy paving wall. Which is ... different!

Thanks for the ideas! I don't have a photo of the completed living room as it's being done now, but it looks very nice!

Is it wrong of me to quite like the crazy paving

L@callmeadoctor and @ Letshangeevery thing - Ha ha that is not half as bad as I thought it was going to be - in fact I would rather take out the arched tops to the bookshelves.

Ah - I hope it goes well for you

Basilisk

Have a look at the frenchic fan forum on Facebook ( frenchic is a paint which can be used on practically anything!l) there are some beautiful kitchen renovations on there with people painting cupboards and tiles.

Chipboard over crazy paving and paint cream, even put trim on board to match up and give interest - rather than plain board

You can buy sticky tiles to cover over old tiles

Yes paint.
Tile is paint is good actually.
I also faught agaisnt orange paint, pine and orange tiles with paint... Amazing difference

@gobbolincat - I did similar - from everything & I mean everything - ceiling , walls , cupboards , units being orange pine to restful shades & it only took me a week - ha ha ha ( and a great amount of sandpaper & work )

I actually like those purple tiles. I think light green or light grey cupboards would look nice. The chimney breast crazy paving could be painted white, or might come off easily?