Tarting up a dated kitchen

[WittgensteinsBunny]

So, we're in a bit of a kitchen pickle. We moved house last year and decided that we would just live with everything as we've stretched ourselves to move into a bigger house. So far we've done the essentials, replaced some floors and bought some new furniture.

The house is a project and at some point everything needs doing. We're happy to live in a project, but the kitchen is really starting to get to me. Unfortunately because it's an odd extension on an old house, the kitchen / dining space is quite a big room but a rubbish layout. We have plans to knock through into our hall and completely revamp this end of the house at some point but not now. We can't afford it. I've had a kitchen designer in to talk through the costs of improving the layout and replacing what we've got but it's going to be between £15-£20k, which I'm not prepared to pay if we're going to rip it out in a few years' time.

Does anyone have any tips for tarting up a dingy, dated 15 year old kitchen? It's pale wood effect MDF and it's peeling. I'd love to replace the tiles, cooker hood, appliances and maybe even replace the cupboard doors? I contacted one company about doors (about 8 doors and 6 drawers) and the cost of those alone was £2k. Surely, there must be some cheaper options out there?! Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Maybe painting the cupboards, the preparation would be key though making sure they are grease free, light sanding & using a really good quality primer/undercoat zinsser Bin is a good one then use a good quality satin eggshell, maybe a new worktop/sink/tiles & replace appliances especially if you will reuse in the future.
Sorry can’t help with replacement door costs.

I wouldn't bother. You're throwing good money after bad - just save save save and get your new kitchen done properly as soon as possible.

Sounds like too much to waste time and energy on if it's eventually going - maybe take off some of the cupboard doors and make them attractive open storage?

Could you get it all commercially sprayed?

No useful advice just wanted to say thank you for pushing me to book an overdue contact lens check as I opened the thread thinking it was titled "Tarting up a dead kitten"

We replaced our kitchen doors. I know they’re not high spec but they should tide us over. We paid just about £300 for a similar number of doors and drawer fronts; that price included having the hinge holes drilled, and all the handles. We fitted them, without too much bother. We bought them from here. They look fine.

Having been in your situation I would say: don’t. Save the money and keep your eyes on the end goal.

Whatever you do it will never be right, any improvements just highlight other bits that need doing and it’s just not worth it. Save save save.

Need to take my own advice right now too 😂

I solved my big room crap layout issue with a second hand kitchen bought from a local Facebook selling page. A mix of fitting the "new doors" onto our cupboards that were in the right place, fitting their cupboards in gaps and moving stuff about plus new work tops and a lick of paint and some tiles has given me a much more usable space. My husband and I are both quite practical so could fit the new the new bits. The total cost was under £600.

If you really don't like the look of it but you want to change the look cheaply, maybe you can watch some youtube and try tiling a backsplash yourself? Also maybe change the door knobs and paint the doors yourself? If you make a mistake at least you can tell yourself that you really couldn't make the kitchen any worse at this point

if they are standard size doors you can get replacements from b and q about £40 a door get mdf sheet glue them directly onto tile and paint it plain colour .Spray paint the appliances

Slightly different angle, but maybe look into freestanding kitchen units that can be moved & reused rather than thrown away later.

In terms of improving function rather than tarting up, IKEA do freestanding "island" units and even quite functional mini-kitchens if the sticking point is layout more than anything else. Ripping out old wall cupboards and replacing with open shelving can also be a cheap fix, though open shelves aren't for everyone. Maybe look at adding a tall, shallow larder cupboard if you have space - it'll transform the storage capacity and might be amenable to reusing.

I don’t like my kitchen either, same sort of age, sounds similar OP so am watching with interest as I can’t justify the cost of a new one. 22 doors and 11 drawers and I will only live here for seven years max.

Knitted fairies - did you change the plinths and add ons etc.?

We’re just doing the same thing - have done new flooring, a couple of extra wall units, new cooker hood and completely new doors. The new doors are from hotdoorsuk and are amazing quality. We went for shaker style doors in muscle with D handles, new blind etc and the kitchen will probably do us for another 3-4 yrs until we can totally refurb it. (Having an extension at £30000 which means we can’t do it all at once)

You could get a tin of furniture paint from Wilkos, about £15, heard lots of good reviews and people say you do not need to sand or undercoat in preparation. Try D - C fix which are roll of sticky back plastic to cover your work surfaces, loads of people doing this on face books DIY on a budget. I have used the transparent sticky back film on windows and it looks beautiful. Get some tile paint , scary, but quite easy when you get going. Or order some tile stickers off Amazon.

Do you have a budget in mind that is acceptable to you OP?

I have spent the morning looking at the link from Knittedfairies. I am really not sure I can justify the cost to myself - different if I was planning on staying here for longer and I didn’t have so many units.

I think I am going to just decorate, replace the tiles and the work surfaces and hob. My appliances are all built in and I have recently had to replace the oven.

I am not especially fond of my floor tiles either!

When we moved in to our house, it had an old and dated kitchen with a bizarre layout, and little work surface area. We thought we would have to make it our first project, but then unexpectedly had to attend £6.5k of savings (my kitchen fund!!) on a new septic tank.

We moved a peninsula of units, salvaging the tall oven housing unit and repositioned that, fortunately the lino had been laid before the units were installed, so we didn't have to replace that. This created room for a kitchen table.

We then installed an induction hob (second hand from eBay), this created a better food prep area, so now we have a smooth run of 140cm (the literally was no prep space before).

We also removed some of the wall cabinet doors to make open shelving.

I have considered painting the doors and getting new handles, but we have been busy with the rest of the house.

Looks like a lot of us are in the same boat! Thing is that whilst I don’t like mine I don’t think it is bad enough to sink a lot of money into it. Problem is it is big enough to make even a reasonably priced kitchen cost more than I want to spend.

The layout isn’t bad, I think my biggest run of worktops is 5m from the job to the wall the other side so lots of space.

I wouldn’t entertain painting it. Photo (is getting on for ⅓ of it for context).

OP is yours the same era?

Save and have what you really want

@heboxofdelights yours is 100% no way near bad enough to do any kind of bodge job on!

If you painted your walls white rather than off yellow it would freshen up the room.

Your worktops and cupboards look perfectly acceptable.

I wouldn’t bodge it! I think it is the fact that it isn’t what I would choose and that it reminds me of my parent’s kitchen that bothers me so much.

I will be replacing the worktops, hob, tiles and redecorating. I would like to do something with the rest (sorry OP I should have just started my own thread!).

I suspect from the age and description the OP’s kitchen is similar to mine, hence I jumped in here. Mine is covered mdf and it was coming unglued in a couple of places. I sorted that out with wood glue and holding a piece of wood on it to make it stick firm with bungees.

Dd and SIL painted some really horrible old dark brown melamine cupboard doors - it made a huge difference for very little cost - they were ultimately having a kitchen extension so it wasn't worth spending much and they couldn't afford to anyway.
If you can, I'd paint and maybe find relatively cheap new handles from e.g. Wickes.

I will be replacing the worktops, hob, tiles and redecorating. I would like to do something with the rest (sorry OP I should have just started my own thread!).

I just think this is a waste of money when you could save for bit longer and have it completely to your taste with a whole new kitchen?

Knitted fairies - did you change the plinths and add ons etc.?

No - they were ok.

I doubt I will be replacing it all though serbska.

I can’t see that it would be cash well spent in a short term house. I reckon it would cost £15-20k for a replacement and I would rather spend it on holidays over the next six years.

So my thinking is £3k on worktops, decorating and tiles will help me to live with it until I move on - it is a house for secondary school years only, fantastic location for school but not where I want to be when I don’t need to be here.

The cost of a kitchen will pay for absolutely everything else in the house to be done.

This is ours - very dated!