Help with the new house!

[Jpreston90]

Ok so my partner and I have bought a new house and it is beautiful and perfect, except for the kitchen! It was a new build we bought off plan and sadly didn't get a say in the decor. To my horror the kitchen has white cupboards with cream tiles floors! I'm really not sure what to do because we don't have enough money to replace anything. I've thought about painting the kitchen cabinets but I'm worried they are going to get chipped easily being a place that will have a lot of wear and tear! Does anyone have any ideas on how I could make the cream and white work together? Or do you think I should paint the cabinets if so any tips on how to make them hard wearing?

My partner thinks I'm being ridiculous worrying about this but I am really house proud and I just think the kitchen doesn't work as is.. let me know what you think from the pic

If you wanted to you could replace the cabinet doors rather than the whole kitchen.

A high gloss turquoise could look ok with the rest of the kitchen.

I should have said, I don't dislike it as it is, it's just a bit bland and that could be fixed with blind/accessories.

I would be putting a new cabinet up to cover the boiler.

Thank you, I was thinking I will change the handles to be a bit more exciting and cover up the boiler already

I would be putting my stuff in and living with it for at least a year...

It's really not bad at all..

Your outlook will change as you live in it..
Patience is a virtue...

I don’t think the kitchen cabinets are the problem - I think it’s the floor. Why not replace that?

I'd also replace the flooring if anything.

But the kitchen isn't that bad - just a plain, low budget thing that's inoffensive.

I think the floor & kitchen cupboards are really nice but agree the boiler needs it's own cupboard.
On a practical level, not keen on those type of ovens with the grill inside. Too much bending down. Double oven much better imo.

I'd definitely change handles maybe something more in line with the worktop colour.

I think once you have stuff in the floor won't be a problem maybe try and get accessories etc in the same colour as worktop or floor to bring it all together.

Can you live with it for a while?

Take your time, get to know how the light moves through the kitchen, see how all your kitchen/dining stuff fits in it, settle in and then decide what you want to change and when to do it.

It doesn't have to be the perfect kitchen now. You could get a lot of mileage out of the kitchen with it being new, and then make it your own when the time comes.

Set out stylish accessories (tea towels, fruit bowls, trivets, whatever) and kitchen appliances (kettle, toaster) as a previous poster said; blinds, ornaments for window, plants.

We've had our new build home for 2 years and also had no say in the choices for the kitchen (apart from flooring). Now we're doing it up with additional cabinets, new cabinet and ceiling lighting, wall length splash back, new paint.

I would put some worktop covers (black worktops are my pet hate), paint the cupboards, change the handles, house the boiler, and put some funky lino down (yes, lino).

I'd change the floor to a dark grey - it'll match the worktops and won't show the dirt!

Thebkitchen is fine, those floor tiles though are a bit could you not just get some link laid over them? There are some really torgeous linos around now, and it’s realitigeky inexpensive. Couple of hundred quid and you could have something really fab down.

We too are about to move to a new build where we have had no say in the choice of kitchen. Like yours they decided to go for white gloss units and black worktop When I first saw it I cried. It's MUCH smaller than yours though. I have decided that we will just have to live with it for 10 years a while until it needs replacing. It's still usable as a kitchen (I hope).

Like pp have said, I'd probably just change the flooring as I CBA to clean that twice a day and then brighten it up with some blinds, tea towels etc. I'm dithering over this at the minute. As im struggling to work out what colour to put with white and black.

Also I'd get a casing for the boiler. I don't understand why developers would leave it on show. But then I think in the whole buying process it's clear that developers don't work on the same common sense as me!

Enjoy your new home.

I'm with you, @Jpreston90 white with cream would hurt me every time i looked at it.

First off, I would get some vinyl probably in grey as@minniemoll suggested, right now. You can lay it yourself or have them do it, probably even before Easter, £100 would probably do it and would get rid of the very worst of the clash for me,

Having dealt with the very worst of it, I would then plan to replace the doors and worktops as soon as I could afford it. I would go for pale wood and rose quartz worktops, which would work well with your tiles, but then that's the colour scheme i always go for. DH calls it porridge.

I want to cover up my boiler with a cupboard and I've been told you're not allowed to any more by building regs, something to do with fumes/ventilation. Worth finding out first.

I think your kitchen is nice, white kitchens are the standard 'fashion' in new builds at the moment it seems. I think it will look better once you have some accessories in there. But I'm not keen on the floor, I would either have light glossy tiles or something dark.

As everyone else has said, change the floor. You can do this relatively cheaply - grey lino, stone effect or similar and once you’ve got a lovely blind up on the window it will be much better. The boiler though on the wall.... why oh why do building co’s do this? That’s just on a different level.. I’d have to get that boxed in somehow if it were me.. I noticed that far more in your picture than the floor/cabinet combo to be honest.

It is very bland - I think using a bright colour eg orange or turquoise for accessories, electronics and blind etc will make a great difference and no one will notice the floor.

Yy to changing the floor to a grey then bringing in bright accessories

Our boiler is definitely going to be behind a cupboard door because the stupid people that fitted it haven't done a very good job - the cupboard door drags across the draining board!

Similar kitchen to ours and ours is also new build and we didn't have any say in the kitchen.

Ours has a wood effect worktop and wood effect vinyl with cream cupboards. I never like the wood effect vinyl but put up with it until now, and we are getting quotes to replace it with something grey/black. The cupboards and worktops will do until we have the money to replace the entire kitchen as they are acceptable.

I personally don't see much wrong with yours, although maybe a darker floor would improve it?

We also painted our kitchen in quite a bright colour to distract from the dull cupboards! When it's magnolia/white it usually makes the room quite bland.

Re the boiler, as others have said - I don't like you are meant to cover them either by boxing them in or hiding them in a cupboard. Something about ventilation I thought.

Thanks for all your comments. I think I have a plan now I'm going to change the floor to a nice grey and white patternd vinyl and still stick to changing the handles to nice cupped ones. Then accessories will be powder blue to add a bit of colour

Regarding boxing in boilers usually the only clearances you need are a few mm each side, and a bit more top and bottom. All the ventilation comes from outside, and nothing gets hot because the efficiency is reduced by heat loss through the casing.
Here is an example for a modern boiler.

I don't understand about the ventilation but that's what we were told by both a builder and a gas safe plumber. But by all means check

I would cover the boiler with a casing, and swap some of the doors. They are standard cupboards, so you can get them easily. Lots of colours out there!