Is £2000 a completely unrealistic budget for a new (tiny) kitchen?

[Wenchelda]

De-lurking to ask for some advice please. We have a tiny kitchen - roughly 8ft square - which desperately needs redesigning to make better use of the space (I only have 3 full size cupboards for heavens sake!) Trouble is our budget at the mo is only approx £2000. Is it even remotely possible we could do it for this amount? Don't want anything fancy, just functional! Basic white units will do me as long as I somehow get more storage space. Any ideas of where's best to go? Was thinking ikea.... Thanks

Screwfix also do kitchen cabinets. I'd say it's doable if you're not replacing white goods, just units. DIY stores may have end of summer sales - do some website browsing first.

Does this factor in labour costs? Flooring? Electrical work? If so, I don't think it's enough at all. If not, you should be able to do it if you shop wisely.

Do you have any contacts for good reliable local tradesmen? I had my kitchen completely gutted and refurbed last year and ended up with a beautiful handbuilt wooden kitchen for a staggeringly reasonable price. What are you trying to do with 2k? Just cupboards? Flooring?

Totally fine if you're mostly doing it yourself and just paying a plumber to do the gas work and an electrician to do the electrics. And if you don't mind Ikea. Have a play on their kitchen planner and see what you can do. You can buy from them and get someone else to install (and it will almost certainly be cheaper) or you could build the carcasses and let someone else hang doors etc.

Can you re-use anything like the carcasses and put new door fronts on.

Are you hoping for £2k to include all your appliances?

Shop around and see who has offers on - you don't have to get everything from one place.

If you trawl ebay you can. I have found amazing deals over the years.

Depends what that needs to include but yes, I think so, if you think creatively.

Don't rule out freestanding units if you can find ones that fit neatly. The less labour time there is, the better. Kitchen fitters won't understand this though

Is your 8x8 such that you could have two sides of the kitchen lined with 8ft of units IYSWIM? That's the best way to maximise practical storage space IME.

Would you be happy with some open shelving instead of wall units? Cheap as chips.

If you go for fitted, definitely don't have schmancy things like pull-out larders (this, by the way, is why I prefer Ikea to Howdens, you can play around and maximise the budget).

Thanks all - I think a trip to ikea is on order to see what we can get ... Do they have kitchen designer people or do you have to do it yourself?

Look on their website at their kitchen planner thingy before you go in - very helpful.

They do have them. Never used them though. Half the fun is in using the planning tool!

Look on gumtree for free stuff!

We just bought a really good quality second hand kitchen on preloved for £100 and its lovely. We are going to fit it ourselves and buy new counter tops and floor. Definitely doable on a budget!

One tip for a tiny kitchen is to use slimmer wall units as base units. Also tall wall units optimise space. Ikea do tall 90cm wall units. As for planning, it can help to draw up a scale plan on graph paper and cut out boxes to scale of different types of wall and base units and play with it like a puzzle. £2k on units and laminate worktop is plenty in ikea but won't stretch to a fitter too. Fitting yourself and getting electrician and a skilled worktop fitter for a corner mitre then its def possible. Also, use laminate up stands to match worktop then gloss the walls. Glass splashbacks between hob & cooker are very cheap and can be painted any colour.

Is there any chance of reusing the cupboards in your design?

Do you like the country look- sometimes old dressers can be really good price on ebay and add a lot of storage.

Also look on "Maison du Monde". They do free standing units and they are gorgeous.

Failing that I have seen some gorgeous full kitchens go for next to nothing on ebay! But be prepared to rip the kitchen out you buy from the seller and then reassemble.

We've just had our new kitchen, about 8 by 10 so slightly bigger but not much, for under 2500 including sink, taps and tiled flooring. We reused the oven and hob though and haven't got a cooker hood.

For that we got a drawer unit, sink unit, hob drawers, base unit, larder unit, high level oven unit and three wall cupboards (500, corner and 1000). The increase in storage is amazing. We would have had more but need to access our enormous floor mounted boiler!

We didn't have the very cheapest options either. We could have done it comfortably for 2k if we had. Fitted it ourselves though, that's what makes the most difference.

Ours was through magnet trade, but Howdens came in very close in price and BandQ were crazily cheap - look out for their 20% off offers they do them every six weeks or so it seems!

Go for basic Ikea
you can always change the doors another year
buy appliances as graded stock from somewhere like Southern Domestics
and you'll have no problems

my HUGE kitchen came in at under £6000 - including all the Neff and Bosch I could fit in