£1000 to make kitchen presentable? Pics

[HarriesofHarrogate]

Pics below. I need some inspiration.

Our kitchen needs completely ripping out but that's not possible. We've about £1000 to make it non-embarrassing. The pics don't show the full grottiness.

I've not done anything like this before so I'd appreciate some help on how realistic the shopping list is and any inspiration.

We need:

• replacement cupboard doors. B&Q carcus. Ours are missing/damaged.
• something on the floor. The marks on the picture are stains and chips. I'm guessing the budget means flattening the tiles somehow and covering in lino rather than retiling? I'm not sure what is under the tiles.
• something on the huge window. It turns the room into a furnace but I've no idea what practical covering would work?
• paint and tiles. Would love some fancy/quirky tiles but not sure how to keep the budget low or what would work in the space?

We had a window like that, in a kitchen, and venetian blinds did the trick. You can angle them in or out to reflect light in the direction you want and make the room shadier or brighter.

Paint the cupboards, cover the worktops with dc fix, Lino from online, paint the walls, new handles from amazon/eBay.

Is that damp above the window? Scrub with bleach, let dry and then buy ronseal damp paint (it's a spray) and spray it and paint over it with the rest of the kitchen paint.

Click together bamboo floor
Farrow and Ball All white for walls
Scaffold boards as shelves with chunky cast iron square brackets. Use this to store anything beautiful and do NOT clutter them up
Sand, paint and fill doors. Warm baby oink with brass slim handles.
Get rid of absolutely everything that you can from the surfaces. Everything. Anything left place on chic square trays- home sense.
Have a Roman blind made in a simple grey or blue ticking stripe for window
Remove curtain and poll from door. Paint door. With blackboard pain and use a thin rail from Ikea to store chalks etc on there
Replace light fixture. If you have the height go for clear glass pendant. If not go for unfussy simple spotlights.

I have just up-cycled my kitchen for about £1000 and it looks brand new. I will attach pictures. We retiled the walls and floor and painted the cupboards and replaced cupboard handles when we have a little more money in a few months I will also replace worktops to laminate wood and a new white ceramic sink.

If the budget allowed, I would move the cooker to where the fridge is and move the fridge next to the door. Wall cupboards can go above the counter and a towel rail can go on the wall by the door sink side.

Lose the curtain, paint the walls and Lino the floor with a roller blind on the window.

I am quite jealous. That is a lovely little project for that money and space. Some great ideas on here already. I would second the open shelves either side of the extractor, some cheap but well fitted Lino, curtain down and a nice bright paint job. Can we have an ‘after’ picture?

If you're competent DIYers you could put a new kitchen in for less than that.

You've not got many units - I reckon £500 could replace the lot plus add two wall cupboards.
Large handles - £50
£60 on a cooker hood.
Worktop plus upstand/splashback £150
Vinyl floor - £100
Blind for window - £50
Paint - £35

I actually think your cupboards are fine. I would definitely replace the handles though will make more of a difference than you realise. Paint the walls, maybe some open shelving, floor tiles can be painted. Check Pinterest for some tutorials.

@FawnDrench - the cupboards doors are missing or too bad to paint. They need replacing. We're keeping the carcuses.

The worktops are in OK condition and removing/replacing them is a bigger job than we are planning. Plus, I suspect the carcuses would fall apart if we start messing about too much! Haha!

Upstands are those plastic things that go on the wall aren't they? That's a good idea - easier than tiles.

The curtain is to keep out drafts. Once we've got kickboards in, hopefully we won't need it. It is ugly though, I agree.

Are vertical blinds easy to clean?

I forbid you to get vertical blinds.

Units and worktop look fine. I think your priorities are:
Flooring - vinyl mat sounds best, presumably there's something you could get cut to size. Suggest a plain light colour, no pattern.

Then paint the walls and architrave around doorways - it will instantly feel clean and fresh

Splashback and/or cooker hood/extraction

Towel rail/hooks - try to get out of the habit of hanging teatowels on unit doors

Shelves or cupboards, to right of sink, and above worktop to left of stove

Get rid of curtain or cut curtain rail down to its just wider than the door

Blind for window or I liked pp suggestion of a glass shelf midway up the window, that the plants could sit on, leaving the window sill feeling less cluttered.

I think you can make a big impact quite quickly and easily, good luck OP!

@popsadaisy love your makeover! Can I ask what type of finish your cupboard doors were originally? Look very similar to mine which I want to paint

You could re-tile the floor once you've taken the existing ones up. Providing none of the current ones have cracked (which could be a sign there's an issue with the floor underneath, but unlikely) it can be done quite cheaply. Lots of ideas on Pinterest.

@Batinahat thank you ☺️ according to my OH the cupboards are veneer which I didn't paint myself personally I found someone to do it for me via Facebook who had lots of good reviews doing similar projects and it seemed so easy to do so probably could have easily been done by either myself or my OH. I did a lot of research about painting kitchen cupboards before hand and everything I read implied that it was a difficult job to do well but I am honestly so pleased with the outcome of mine ☺️

@ChinUpChestOut and @Heymummee - the highest point of the ceiling is about 7.5ft. With the hob, it means there isn't enough clearance/space to put in wall cupboards or an extractor fan (one within this budget anyway).

The damp stains by the window were caused by an issue with the guttering which has been fixed. The kitchen has doors either side, one of which is broken so is always open and that stupid window provides a whole load of extra ventilation (in the form of drafts).

The broken door is a project in itself involving false walls and digging into concrete floors so we're not dealing with that right now.

We're getting kickboards. :) Long boring story about why we don't have them but we are definately getting them! The cat will be devastated to lose her favourite hiding place.

@RippleEffects - the fridge freezer needs to stay there but I agree, it does take up a huge amount of actual and visual space.

The curtain is to stop drafts, hopefully adding some kickboards will help with that. It looks awful and is always dirty but it is necessary during the colder months. It took my husband ages to put it up a few months ago so I daren't take it down even if we don't need it right now. Haha!

I want some open shelves but still working on my husband... hopefully he will see what a great idea they are while we're doing this. :)

The window is a long term plan. Eventually we want to move the sink right over so we have more counter space and reduce the width of the window. Then put some sort of cupboard/shelving against the filled in bit of window. We can't agree what. Long term though.

The kitchen is a corridor from one part of the house to the other so no door moving is possible. The view is of the back garden.

@itstoobloodyhot - rugs in kitchens remind me of bathroom carpets, sorry. Maybe they work in bigger kitchens though.

Our counters are too small to have toasters, kettles etc out. The collection of teas, sugar and so on is my husband's and as he is incapable of putting them away, it's just easier to leave them than constantly argue or get mad at him.

@Forosu I'll take a look, thanks. Might be good for our hall/porch which is just a concrete floor.

@PickAChew how are the blinds to clean? They will be right up against the taps/sink so will get wet and dirty.

We are missing 2 cupboard doors and the ones that remain are blown (I think that is the term) so painting them isn't an option.

We're keeping the carcuses and the counter. The counter is generally ok plus removing it is a bigger job than we want and I suspect if we try to remove them, the whole kitchen will fall apart. 😂

I read a blog where writer used a children's play mat to cover their small kitchen floor.
Those thin dense foam ones that come in interlocking pieces.
Google found some that are not all dayglo colours - with edging borders so that you can make it fit your room.
www.thekitchn.com/a-stylish-alternative-for-kitchen-fatigue-mats-253327

We have a really wide roller blind on our kitchen window. Its from the Range.

Paint the walls and ceiling a bright white. Same with all the skirting boards and the door. Buy a massive tub of trade white.

Count and measure the doors needed. Ring round stores and see if they have the size and number you need. Go for something simple. Add nice handles.

Flooring - if the grout isn't too deep or wide, you could lino directly on top.

I guess the curtain isn't a MN favourite then? :D :D

It's a short term fix for drafts. Once the kickboards are in and we replace our back door (fingers crossed by the end of the year) we hopefully shouldn't need it.

We can't just close the kitchen door because of the cat so we'd close it as much as we could and use the curtain. Works quite well even if it's ugly. Alternative was a cat flap in the kitchen/dining room door. :D

@popsadaisy - that looks amazing. It does look like a new kitchen. Good job! Did you just get the cupboard doors from a normal kitchen/DIY place?

Sorry, I missed that you painted the doors. That isn't an option for us unfortunately but your pictures are great.

OP dust can be a pain but splashes just wipe straight off. Just don't choose rough ones and make sure you vacuum or dust them regularly.

@titchy - to do the kitchen properly will be a big job as it isn't just cosmetic. It's false economy to replace the kitchen when everything else needs doing and will hopefully make the kitchen more practical. Where to start...

• The wall with the unpainted door is a false wall between the kitchen and a small hall. The door is a sliding door (unfortunately necessary due to the space). We need to move the wall and rebuild it a little further out so the door can slide into the recess and to get rid of a weird ledge thing in the hallway. At the moment there isn't anything holding the door in place so it falls off. There are also water pipes in the false wall which we need to consider.
• the hall will need work as a result as well.
• the ceiling needs replacing. It's a single story extension and there is an issue with the crawl space between the roof and the ceiling. Plus husband wants to put up insulation boards. Same with the hall.
• there is an issue with the flashing on the roof which is fine now but will need dealing with when we start messing about with it.
• we want a pyroplastic (sp) oven which will involve changing the oven electrics/housing.
• we are pretty sure the other electrics need replacing.
• the window needs to be replaced with a smaller one.
• the floor needs pulling up and God knows what we'll find then.
• the sink needs moving.
• we need to work out if we can fit in one of those flat extraction fan things.
• I want a skylight. I suspect I won't get one though.
• the pipes are very old and it would probably be a good idea to replace them.
• we think once we've done all that we might be able to fit in a small dishwasher which will need plumbing in.

No idea how long it will take to save for all that but we really don't want to mess about replacing the kitchen twice.