My shitty kitchen!

[HokeyCokeyPigInAPokey]

It has light wood units think b&q at its cheapest!

White tiles with the odd random yellow one thrown in and a bloody hideous faux marble work top.

So what I want to know is, are cupboard paints any good? Are tiles paints any good - if so what ones?

Is there anything I can do to improve the hideous work top?

Can I make it better at not much cost before Christmas?

Anyone?

What I really want is for someone to tell me how to make it look fab for about £2.60

Hi Hokey this is one area i night be able to help in. Try ebay for work top. You can sometime pick up worktops for as little as .99p. I would not brother with tile paint, it never looks good,,agaun try ebay, you might also pick up gro ut and adhesive their.
There a lot of other sites like freecycle and gumtree. Good luck

I painted my kitchen cupboards using crown cupboard makeover paint, after about 6 months it had chipped a bit and also it had got a stain on that I couldn't scrub off.
I wouldn't bother again.
You can get Self adhesive fake tiles off eBay but I don't know if they are any good.

Should have read "again try eBay for tiles"
I once used ordinary satinwood paint for cupboards but the effort of sanding, painting, lightly sanding, then painting again although looked ok it really was not worth the effort. B &q or ikea or other such places sometimes have reasonably priced doors or again there is always eBay. Be careful with Ikea doors as don't know if it still happens but sometimes Ikea doors only go with Ikea cabinets. I absolutely swear by eBay as I am always doing up flats or houses. I have had a brand new solid oak 3 metre length work top for £69, normal price in excess of £32 and I did the shower room in a flat I did recently in Limestone tiles which were from Fired Earth, normal price £44 each which covered approx .30sqm. I picked up 22sqm for £140. I have enough left over to do a bathroom or another shower room.
Having said that your kitchen sounds positively luxurious compared to mine. I have a broken washing machine, only 1 ring on my hob working, my oven you have to times by 3 the length of time it takes to cook anything. You actually have tiles and cupboard doors, I have chipped plaster and only 1 cupboard door which hangs at an angle. The whole thing is being held together by a dictionary opened at the letter P placed on top of my fridge which holds up the work surface. Don't get me started on my floor of cracked Lino and floor boards.

This isn't going to come in under budget, but if the cupboard carcasses are in good condition and are laid out well, you can change the doors quite cheaply.

I used tile stickers in my old bathroom and they were pretty good.

if you like the look that most Café Rouge restaurants have on their tiled surfaces, then paint your tiles... rustolem do a worktop paint - might be worth a go ... take your wall cabinet doors off maybe ?? if what's inside is neat ??

If you budget is tight i would put worktop replacement at the top of your list and forget everything else. it would still transform your kitchen and you could tackle the tiles/doors next year.

you can get transfer for tiles or just paint the yellow squares.

even replacing the handles on the door would make a huge difference.

Thank you got your suggestions.

We have used the tile stickers before and they are good.

I think I will look on eBay for a work top.

Might see if we can change the doors too.

I have painted tiles before in my first house and they turned out great! You need a good primer and a few thin coats of tile paint, I used white and applied with one of those small foam gloss rollers! Then I just repainted walls, and new floor it really tarted up kitchen for few years until I could replace!

I know a few people who have used rools of sticky bavk plastic on cupboards and then just replaced handles. Cupboards need to be flat for this and if done well can look ok

I also painted tiles and loved the result. I transformed a 70s bathroom into something that didn't make my teeth itch. You need a special tile primer but after that you can use any paint.

For your kitchen, you can paint the cupboards -- use sandpaper to take the finish off the old ones and then clean really well with mineral spirits. It's easiest to do all of this if you take the doors off, but number them so you can put them back where they belong. Once cleaned, they can be primed and then painted. With light tiles, I recommend a good dark grey for the cabinets. You might end up loving the tiles if they contrasted nicely with the cupboards.

Take a look at updating your cupboard hardware -- this can make a lot of difference to a kitchen look.

Butcher block is nice for a worktop.

IKEA worktops are really good too.we just had one in our utility room

Annie Sloan pain is suitable for kitchens - 1 or 2
tins would do your whole kitchen. No need to sand either. There are plenty of clips on YouTube showing you how it's done. The sealing wax is a bit time consuming though, so I'd recommend a clear, matt varnish to seal. Annie Sloan stockists will give you advice and most offer painting classes.

That said, even the most hideous cabinets can be left as is if the tiles and work tops are changed. You could try freecycle or freegle where there are often work tops going spare.

£2.60 you say?

Spend it on ouzo and the whole thing with LOOK better :) HTH X