Orange/antique pine kitchen - would it put you off?

[greenlotus]

I'm wondering whether to update our kitchen before putting the house on the market.

The kitchen is from about 1998, MFI style, full-on deep orange antique pine, ornate mouldings, blue Rangemaster, multicoloured tiles, terracotta floor, cheap speckly laminate worktop. The overall effect is a bit too country-theme-pub.

It's fairly sound and the layout is reasonable but I think it looks so horribly dated it drags the rest of the house down.

I think for about £1k I could paint the units a nice heritage colour, replace the doors with Shaker ones and put on a wood style worktop and at least it would then look light and contemporary if not brand new.

What do you think? Any other ideas? Would wall to wall pine put you off?

OMG- you've just described the exact kitchen in the house we just bought! The rest of the house was perfect and the kitchen is a decent size. It didn't put us off as we will probably be extending it but I know that kitchens are a PITA to refit so someone looking to move into a house that needs no work doing on it won't be too keen (unless they have a fetish for Harvester pubs!). If you reckon you can give it a facelift for 1k I'd go for it.

Yes it would probably put me off, but I would be thinking about the changes I would need to make.

It would definitely put my dh off the whole house.

Yes do the work - can you just repaint the doors rather than replace them. New worktop, paint the tiles if they are horrid. New handles. The house we are buying we are going to tart up like this until we can afford a kitchen extension. New lino if that will be an improvement.

I hate pine.

I think I would have a go without altering the kitchen - if initial viewers comment on it then spend money but a bad redecoration job could look worse. Sorry.

No it wouldn't put me off BUT I would seriously lower my offer to reflect the fact that I would want to rip it out and replace it. Prob by about £10/£15k

I would say that you stand more of a chance with a quickie makeover (but nicely done) if the carcasses are in good nick. Some buyers will not look deep enough to spot that it's a makeover job and will take it as face value. Others will spot that it is a makeover and will probably want to change it in the longer term BUT will be able to live with your makeover for longer; and will therefore not reduce their offers quite so much as if they walked in and felt it had to changed NOW (as will likely happen with your orange/formica nightmare).

DO NOT PAINT THE TILES.

It never looks nice. It always looks amateurish and tacky.

Show us a pic ...

i would definitely update it

it wouldn't necessarily put me off, but it would alter how much i was willing to pay.
if the rest of the house needed updating too then it could be a big deal, but if it was the only thing that needed changing then not so bad i guess

I wouldn't paint tiles or bodge it I'm thinking House Doctor not Changing Rooms!

OK bad taste alert coming up, see profile, please don't out me if you recognise it .

Paint the units off white and replace the worktops with oak laminate square edged.Get some plain tiles and tile over the current ones it gives a great finish.get rid of all accesories and just clear the decks to get rid of that busy feel.Good luck it wouldn't put me off!

The rest of the house is OK, neutral, quite cottage-y. But then it costs hardly anything to say repaint a kids bedroom, but as you say, £10K to refit a kitchen.

Also there is no dishwasher, there is the plumbing but we didn't have one and put a cupboard in its place - it could easily be put back. But I think it's more the feel & atmosphere rather than practicalities which are the issue.

I can't get into your profile (and I do love a good poke round other people's houses) .

I thought it was quite tidy at the moment

Noddy I was thinking the same lines. Is it easy to tile over, what do you do about the edges? I hadn't thought about that, I hoped toning the rest down might leave the tiles as a burst of colour.

hang on
I'm too private I think

should be visible now

Here is what you need to do

Take off the existing handles, fill the holes with wood filler. Sand them down,paint with a primer then repaint the cupboard doors, with this .
Replace the handles with plain white ceramic knobs
Get rid of the roman blind.
Get rid of the utensils above the range cooker
If you can, replace the work tops with the plain beech wood IKEA £40/meter.

The floor, I would leave. The cupboard doors will take a while to renovate, probably 2 weekends, or every eve for a week at least.

The tiles aren't too bad if the units were in a more neutral colour. You could make a real difference if you painted the units a nice farrow and ball colour and changed the handles. New worktop would look good too, and change the blind.

It's not as bad as I thought from your op!

Ha ha, x post, but great minds....

F&b bone is good option also

Having seen your photo I would deffo have a go at freshening it up as it looks like its a decent quality kitchen.

I agree with painting the doors in a sludgy, matt eggshell and changing the worktop, I'd go for laminate I think, rather than solid wood,much cheaper.

I would also have a go at painting the tiles, as I think your coloured tiles look very dated, plain white/cream would look much better and the tiling itself looks ok from what I can see.
And yes declutter and remove the blind and the clock.

mmm, all good. You think the handles are bad then? I thought the ornate doors were the worst, but the in-frame look is popular and I know a place that does MDF Shaker doors made to measure ready to paint.

TBH it's not a certainty we will try to sell at the moment but if we do I know DH will not think there is any point spending effort on the decor but the market is so flat at the moment it would just be another reason to put off buyers.

I did contemplate a wood worktop but then what sink? Also it might break my heart to then move away from it!

It didn't put me off, since I just bought a house with a kitchen that sounds rather like yours...

I can't afford to replace the kitchen right now, and it is getting to me a bit. Can I just do a quick highjack to ask these super-informed posters:

Is painting tiles a real no-no? Does it always look grim? Because I have blood-red tiles with my 'rustic' units and I'd really like them to be pale and neutral. Is retiling on top a better option? Is it something I could do myself, or worth getting in a professional? (There's a LOT of tiles, btw.)

SEcondly, my delightful units are actually plastic wood-effect [shudders]. Will they still paint up ok, with the right primer?

Oh, and another one: do I need to take off the doors and rehang, or can I just repaint them as they are?

AFAIK Zinsser B-I-N will cover anything, that's what I was planning to use underneath my Farrow & Ball.

I'd leave it - it's not a wonderful kitchen but it looks clean and efficiently laid out, it's not as if doors are hanging off or the worktop is split (I actually quite like the tiles ). Changing the worktop is a professional job and a relatively expensive one. Just let people come round and be prepared to negotiate on the price if they really loathe the kitchen. I promise you that painting these doors, unless you are really good at decorating, will end up looking a lot worse than leaving them be.

Handles are very old fashioned, I would change, new ones would make a massive difference. I think the existing doors would look ok painted a flat colour with brushed steel handles.

Sink looks ok, can't see the tap but a good tap would be something I would notice. I would go wow with a butler sink but you would have to seriously rejig things so not worth the effort I think.