Kitchen Ideas and Thoughts Please

[Solo]

I have decided to update my kitchen. It's about 30 years old, small and in dark oak MFI Hygena. I don't have adequate storage space and some of the base units (2 of the 3) are falling apart, so I think it's time.
The entire kitchen is tiled in horrible 80's tiles which I cannot afford to replace.
I have a 30+ year old traditional eye level (grill) cooker which is dated, but that I love cooking on, so would like to keep.

I have decided to get a gloss white Ikea kitchen with wood worktops and a white ceramic double sink unit without drainer.

I'm a bit stuck with the walls. I thought maybe I could put wall panels around the worktop areas, but I don't know about the rest. I could paint all the tiles white instead, but I'm not sure that will look any good.
Also thought about using old recipe books to cover the remainder of the tiles ~ you know, paste them on at jaunty angles, overlapping etc, a bit like some people paste music sheets on music room walls...or is that really naff?

Any ideas please?

[ChewyGiraffe]

Just one thing. Get the biggest freestanding fridge/freezer (American if poss) you can fit. We didn't, and the integrated 70:30 fridge/freezer we have is the most useless thing ever. Hate it, hate it, hate it!

[Soonish]

That sounds like a proper masterplan Solo I like.

just wanted to mention one thing. We've just bought a house and are renovating it before we move in.

We've had a full rewire and tbh the guy said it is a nightmare to try and work aroundthings when a person already lives there. Luckily ours is pretty much empty (except for a few bits I have brought over, which we had to stack up and it was difficult to find an area where either the spark or the heating engineer wasn't going to need access to something (particularly under the floor).

So do get it as clear as you possibly can before embarking on that. You might be lucky and the wiring is in pipe which makes it a quicker job but if it's not or it's a bit complicated, there will be all sorts going on from channelling walls out to getting up in the roof space (ours had to cut out a loft access hole!!! Got to repair that now...)

Looking forward to watching your progress. Personally I am desperate to have the floors back down so we can get some actual flooring down!

[ChippingInLatteLover]

Wow! Chipping grin, I like your style!

Why thank you!! Everyone else has just kind of gone at me

Getting the stopcock replaced was an enormous faff because we had no idea which of the cluster of 'street stop cocks' was ours, so had to get the water board out as well as the plumber, but they were all great & it ended up not being too expensive.

I'm quite a hoarder and disorganised, but I've been busy getting rid of stuff and packing things into boxes so that my rewire can be done

I was going to PM you to see how you were doing with this as I didn't want to put it on the thread, just in case you didn't want it mentioned. It sounds like you are doing brilliantly, I'm really impressed


. Total rewire - good place to start, it makes a big mess! Really really think about where you want switches & plugs.


. Wood burner installed. - I'm I'd love one or an open fire but can't here :(

. New windows and doors. - Thankfully I didn't need windows, but I do need a door, that will be the very last thing so that the fitters don't damage it when they are carting things in and out

. Roof repairs. Any reason you're not doing this first??

. All necessary plastering and ceiling skimming. It's quite expensive, but makes a HUGE difference

. Put a new upright radiator in the lounge. I looked at them, but they were too expensive for me

. Lay Oak flooring in my new bedroom. Nice. I'm going to carpet mine

. Paint my new room and put in wardrobes. Ditto

. Make stud partition wall to make (old) master bedroom into two small singles. New laminate flooring. Nice

. Decorate all finished rooms. I need to do that, can't find the energy!!

. Kitchen. Yep - at least I've started :) pfffffttttt

. Finally, put down new flooring in hall, lounge and a new stair carpet. Yes, second to last before my door!

. Whatever I've forgotten!! I'm replacing the loft hatch, internal doors & all door frames

I'm good with ripping it all out, quite enjoy that, but I'm not that thrilled with the thought of painting it all. I'm currently living with pink plaster!

I have a total budget of around £25-30k, but I'd like to keep under that if I can as I've got to do the outside of the house and then the gardens. Kitchen I'm counting on about £3k. Reckon it's possible? Think I need a job!

Did you rob a bank to get the £30k

It's hard to say if you can do it for that or not - it depends on how much the roof, windows & door will be for a start. It's good you aren't re-doing the whole bathroom, that was expensive. Kitchen - depends what you are including in getting done for that.

If I can do work myself, I will try, but my health is not good, so I will be roping people in where I can! but also paying for services like rewire, plastering and windows. Every so often, I pull wallpaper off my bedroom walls!

I did all of the 'ripping out' myself but have paid for quite a lot of the work.

Do you have a wallpaper steamer? They're cheap (about £30) and are brilliant. I would offer to send you mine as I don't have any paper left but I borrowed if off a friend and she might be a bit miffed

I love my actual cooker! it's not about the style or where the oven or grill is, it just cooks well; I know how it will cook or bake and the oven isn't narrow like so many new ones are now. The hob is still white, the glass in the oven door could be clearer and the ignition and light buttons need reattaching, the flame spreaders (ceramic) are disintegrating on the hob, but it has character and has been with me since 1984

I know, I love mine too - I just like the retro aspect of it, love love the open eye level grill of my childhood :) BUT it's going to have to go as I'm going to put an under bench oven in and some kind of 'smooth' hobs

Between the heating guys, the plumber, the electrician & the plumber we lived under and inch of dust for months - it's finally subsiding a bit!

[Solo]

CG I have had an Admiral American fridge freezer since 1994! :) it is in the dining room along with my upright freezer. I agree with you completely about fridge size btw; my old fridge was a small undercounter job and would not be adequate now with children!

Soonish I know! I'm dreading it! The electrician is a friend of my brother, and knows that I'm in a flap about it. I need to show the house so that a plan can be implemented. I'm hoping that it can be done in layers, but sparks will tell me when it's been looked over

Chipping I have redundancy money; no bank jobs!! but I need a job ~ especially after all this is done.

Not looking forward to the dust and noise!!

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

I inherited a Cannon cooker in my current house. When we called out an engineer to service it, he tweaked a few bits, got most of it working again but said that the model was so old there were no spare parts available. He then gave me a voucher towards replacement with another product [Cannon are now owned by another company but memory escapes] or a Cannon one.

[Solo]

I know! there are some spares available, but there aren't many at all :( I once saw the same cooker as mine on the back of a truck with a load of other metal goods ~ going to scrap I guessed. If I hadn't have been going somewhere, I would've followed him and tried for spares! .
Mines a 505DL
like this one here the grill folds up, so it's all neatly away!