New kitchen on a small budget

[NoisyBrain]

We have a 12' x 8' kitchen and a small budget; £4 - 4.5k. Haven't properly started researching yet, but wondering if any of you wise people know whether it is remotely possible to get a kitchen, including appliances (except fridge freezer) tiling, flooring, and fitting, for that price? Or am I dreaming

Nothing could look as awful as our old kitchen which is, quite literally, falling apart. So the new one just needs to look, well, new.

Labour costs a lot so it depends on what you’re able to do yourselves. Units needn’t cost much. Eg in the past I did a low budget kitchen: the appliances were freestanding so we only bought units to go in between them. For wall storage, we had open shelving - cheap pine shelves from B&Q that got painted. Units can be bought quite cheaply from Ikea (less than 1k for a few basic ones). They also do cheap worktops. Cheap tiles and appliances can be purchased online.

Have a look at DIY-kitchens.co.uk - very good quality abs come fully assembled and very competitively priced.

I think that labour will be the issue for you - can you do much yourself?

I would have a look on eBay for 2nd hand kitchens or companies online that sell ex display kitchens.

Ex display ones are usually sold off very cheap. I saw a beutiful one in b&q for £500 a few months back

Perhaps you can remove the existing kitchen yourself to save a bit?

I did my old kitchen from Ikea, £1400 for units, oak worktops and sink, £300 on flooring, £50 tiles, £50 taps and £1700 to fit but that included leveling the floor, laying the laminate and replacing the skirting boards x

Labour is the expensive part. If you can rip out your old kitchen (take to the tip in your car, save on skip hire), do the flooring etc then you could save about £400.

I think it's possible for a simple kitchen. Look at the costs of everything to see where you can save.

If you can source all the parts yourself and pay a fitter it will probably be cheaper than a kitchen company doing everything.

Also DIY-kitchens are superb quality for the price.

I think do-able but you need to go for super simple. Freestanding appliances. Basic cupboards and only one set of drawers. Laminate worktops. Lino or laminate on floors.

If you can remove and tip your old kitchen that will save cash.

I wouldn't bother with tiling - just get a spalshback behind the hob and paint the walls in kitchen paint so its easy to wipe stuff off.

Also if you do get flat pack cupboards, you can assemble them yourselves so the fitter just doe the fitting and isn't wasting time assembling.

Thank you all for your replies, they are really helpful OH is pretty handy at DIY and —shirks— works from home, so there is probably a lot he could do to cut down on labour costs. We’d both gladly take a hammer to the old kitchen. I feel hopeful now that this is doable!

Oops, strike through fail!

I think it depends on whether you need to change the layout very substantially or do any major work like replastering or sorting out flooring or moving major services.

If you're just replacing like for like, and you are prepared to do most of the fitting yourselves, you could easily do it in budget with DIY kitchens or Ikea.

don't buy appliances, or sinks and taps, from the kitchen supplier. Prices are high and quality isn't.

Just wanted to resurrect this thread to say a big THANK YOU to all who gave me such helpful advice

We now have a lovely new kitchen, purchased from DIY Kitchens, which came in at approx £4,200 including fitting. Happy days!

Glad to hear it went well. Which kitchen did you choose ? How much of the work did you do yourself?

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽pics!

Pic pls OP!

We went with a 'Malton' shaker style in alabaster. We have freestanding appliances, but did go for an integrated extractor. Scored a bit of a result with the flooring in that our wonderful builder had some real oak that we got for less than I was going to pay for vinyl.

OH ripped out all of the old kitchen and he's doing the painting. There's just the ceiling left to do and we need to buy blinds. I will attempt to upload some pics later

Looking at giving our kitchen an update atm.

A great update! You sound really pleased with your new kitchen.

Labour is going to be at least £1500 -that was the lowest we found for our small kitchen It is the fitting that counts actually You can have expensive units but if the fitting is naf then any kitchen will not look its best.
Ikea probably have some good value units Also try a kitchen fitter who has a trade account with Howdens lots do. Other things to watch to keep to a budget are:

1. Expensive floor level and cabinet lighting -pointless in a small kitchen Again it is the labour costs and electricians charge a bomb
2. Again electrics. When I wanted to put a built in electric oven in they wanted £400- £500 on top of the price of the oven as the circuit board has to be updated each time a new appliance over a certain wattage is put in. It is quite legal and they have to do it . This was a double electric oven and they gobble up . Check if a lower wattage single electric oven may be plugged in.

Anyway when buying any electrical appliance check if it hard wired or plug in . Also they are fussy if lots of appliances eg dishwasher tumble drier are on one circuit. We have gas boiler in our little utility area and it was only £125 to get gas pipe etc connected so we opted for a gas appliance, either a cooker or separate gas hob and oven We saved £200 by doing this

1. Go for a free standing cooker rather than built in but still check if hard-wired or plug in. I think if it is a double oven electric cooker it may still have to be hard-wired in
2. Buy your appliances,yourself Everyone has to make a living and even if your kitchen fitter can get you a deal with Howdens they may still want you to buy appliances from them as they have to make money somehow
3. If space is tight getting a carousel in one of the cabinets may give you more space.

NoisyBrain Can't wait to see the pics of your new kitchen.

If (fingers crossed) we get the bungalow we are after I will definitely be going with DIY kitchens again, and probably the Malton Shaker in Alabaster too. I'll be interested to see what colour you paint your walls, and the flooring you've chosen.

We can't speak highly enough of DIY kitchens - we had their units for our current small galley kitchen and they really are the best for the money with a great choice of cabinet sizes to fit every cm of a small space. That was the deciding factor for us at the time but now I know the quality (and the fact they come ready built, with drawers and doors already fitted now) there really is no other choice for us on a budget.

Finally got round to posting a pic! village we went for olive green walls, which look a lot darker in the photo than they really are. I like it but I’m still trying to decide if it goes with the units
The flooring is a bit of a sore point at the moment as OH had to pull it all up yesterday! We had a major dishwasher leak which has destroyed the underlay but we’re hoping the flooring will be ok when it dries.
Our builder is coming back to refit it next week and is supplying new underlay as it was his fault the dishwasher leaked. Hey ho.