Rescuing a VERY cruddy kitchen on a budget?

[QueenGeraldine]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here so I hope I'm observing the correct protocol!

My hubby and I are in the process of buying a house which needs a fair bit of cosmetic work, most notably to the kitchen which is pretty disgusting (see pic attached). However, we haven't got much money left and we've got a baby on the way in October so we need to get it into a livable state over the summer.

We can't afford a new fitted kitchen so as far as I can see our options are tearing out the existing kitchen cabinets/sink etc and getting a new sink unit fitted and managing with a second hand dresser for cupboard space, or else deep cleaning and painting the existing cabinets, maybe getting a bit of new worktop... I don't know! We are both young and of more of a hippy than yuppie persuasion so happy with an unusual kitchen so long as it is hygienic. We can do a bit of DIY and have friends who will lend a hand, but not sure about fitting an entire kitchen! Obviously we are not plumbers/electricians either!

This is our first time owning anywhere so this is all new to us. Is there anyone else here who has been in a similar situation? Any advice gratefully received!! :)

Should also mention that our budget will be around £2500 for the kitchen including washing machine, fridge, and new oven if we rip the old one out.

Well i was going to suggest giving it a really thorough deep clean but with £2500 and such a small kitchen i would just go for new fitted tbh. If you are on facebook there is a company that are offering fantastic offers on fitted kitchens including oven etc. i will try and find the name on my fb and PM you.

I dont work for any kitchen company BtW

Also- if you dont mind second hand there are people who take out their kitchen units and sell them on ebay/ gumtree etc. can be quite lucky.

Have you looked on eBay? Also auction houses - one near me regularly sells off end of line / display kitchens for £500-£1000.
eBay has lots of Welsh dresser type units or people selling their old kitchens when having a new one fitted. So you could go for free standing or fitted.

The floor looks ok so that's good and an expense saved hopefully.

Thank you YoureBeingasillyBilly and Plinkyplonker!

Bit worried about buying second hand units off ebay as I guess you can't see them until you've bought them, and we might end up with something not much better than we already have. However, I'll look out for end of line and special offers. I am also getting more keen on getting a welsh dresser type thing and a free-standing oven instead of the units along the cooker side, so I will look into that too.

Sadly the floor will have to come up too as it is very nasty wrinkly vinyl (just looks like laminate), but should be cheap to get new vinyl down so I'm not too bothered about that.

I wouldn't discount second hand units but I wouldn't part with any money until I'd been able to look at it properly in person.

You would get new from IKEA for your budget, just depends if you could get it fitted well by mates. Plumbing/electrics should not be too much if you keep stuff in the same spot.

look at those drawers, and resolve never to buy vinyl-wrap.

Rip it out. Paint. Get a basic sink unit fitted. Think about buying the free standing units. Ikea do them I think or used to. Easy to install as no fitting! Apart from plumbing. Get cooker installed as a seperate entity and same with fridge.

My mates did this and their kitchen is fab. Has 3 basic free standing units, a cooker, lots of open shelving and a big table.

www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/kitchen/10794/

A couple of the units, some wall shelves, a free standing cooker and fridge are all within your budget.

Is that link Ikea Varde? You get that second hand all the time on eBay, but even new, it's well within your budget. Add £300 or so for a plumber to fit your sink and hob and about the same for vinyl. Bobs your uncle - nice and hygienic!

For a small room a few well chosen fitted units might make better use of the space. Your budget should run to about 6 base units including some drawers, worktop and a newer sink and tap, from Ikea or an online supplier that do mix and match carcases and components. Straight runs are relatively easy to install DIY, also you could tweak the layout a bit if you want to. I would second getting a freestanding cooker nearly new from ebay, and a fridge, people are always selling appliances.

Then you could get some wall shelves or rails (Ikea), a not too big larder or dresser (1950s one maybe?) and then it's just tiles and paint, maybe a vinyl flooring remnant. Having a budget gives you a chance to get a kitchen with a lot of character.

Oh yes, I love those fifties larder units - you could mix it up with nice bright cupboards from Ikea? They do a lovely bright yellow door or a textured white one and their wood worktops are cheap as chips and look lovely once in. If you're remotely handy you can hire a nice hardcore jigsaw and plane and fit them yourself. We just did our really complicated run (wraps from floor over mid level cupboards, down to normal height, round two corners, insert a sink and then back to the floor again) in a couple of days. Hiring tools cost £30 for the two days and we went through about £10 worth of jigsaw blades.

We did our kitchen pretty cheaply by buying the units from Wickes. We have about 4 base and 4 wall units and including worktops, sink (new from eBay), kickboards and splashbacks, it was less than £1000. They often seem to have good deals on their fitted kitchen ranges too. Think we bought ours when it was 33% off or similar.

Wren kitchens are very reasonable.
In the past we have updated by changing the work top with one from B&Q and painting the cupboard doors with a suitable wood paint. New handles also helped.
You will need someone to fit the new work top as quite skilled job. Tile paint is easy if you need to change them.

I would look at Howdens or Benchmarx budget ranges or IKEA if you live near a store.
Try wall shelves instead of wall units and yes a vinyl remnant.
Use ebay for sink/applicances etc.