Your money saving new kitchen diner tips please

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

I am planning to reorganise our kitchen/dining room. Most of our budget has to go on boring building work - i.e. knocking the room into one, removing a chimney breast, plastering and electrics.

My dream kitchen would be English country cottage style (oak work tops, mini range cooker, in frame cabinets etc). Unfortunately, I don't have a dream budget... So I need some help with ideas for doing this on a shoestring (probably about 2k). That doesn't sound too tight, but I need:

• a new electric cooker
• flooring
• cabinets (ikea ramsjo or stat, the latter is cheaper but DH is worried it will date)
• worktop (is anywhere cheaper than worktop express? Will 27mm be deep enough?)
• spotlights & under cupboard lights
• probably tiles (I like vintage metro, but I may have some big white rectangular ones we could reuse with a feature strip running through)
• window dressing (how difficult is it to make a roman blind)
• paint (I want 50s green, iykwim?
• possibly a vintage Welsh dresser (if I have the room and can find one cheap enough on eBay)
• sink (I want a franke, I already managed to salvage an Edwardian style mixer tap)

So please tell me where you managed to save money on your kitchen diner, particularly if you now love your money saving solution!

Have you been using the Ikea kitchen planner? It's really useful and you can cost up different variations of cupboards/drawers etc.

The Ramsjo white is the better investments IMO as it's easily paintable which means it will look fabulous for years to come !
Tiles arn't a necessity right now. Wait until you can splash out on ones you'll be happy to live with for years ! Same for under lighting - you can add feeds ready for when you have spare cash to spend on under-lights ! Worktops - lucky you ! Thinner tops are back in vogue !! Yay - shop around and always use a good sealant on the raw edges when you cut out sinks and joins etc !! Appliances ... Again shop around. Check ebay for reconditioned ranges - I had a client who bought a reconditioned Britannia range cooker for a snip of it's new value !
Making roman blinds is easy if you have a sewing machine - if you haven't then tack your own fabric to an ikea roman blind ! Don't cheat and use iron on strips as they will be visible when the light shines through !!

Always get your plans checked by a pro before you order you kitchen - if hiring a pro isn't in your budget - then email the plan for me to check - I won't charge you !! Never compromise on safety !!! :-)

Mabel - yes the ikea kitchen app has been really useful, especially in helping us imagine what the room will be like when the wall is down. I was dithering about whether to have one big galley kitchen or a kitchen and diner separated by an island. The app really helped to visualise both options.

Oneplan - did you recently put up some pictures of your actual kitchen on houz and link to it here? If so, it is gorgeous - esp all the cubby holes for wine above the fridge!

Yes that was my kitchen ! Thank you !!! :-)