What to do with my kitchen? (Pictures included)

[AnonymousArmadillo]

I’ve name changed for this as I’m posting pictures of my actual kitchen and want to keep my normal username.

I’d love to redo our kitchen completely but I don’t think we’ll have the money any time soon. These pictures were taken before we moved in and the walls are white now.

We’re hoping to move in the next few years as we’re in a 3 bed and would like a third child. I love our house for so many reasons. It has a lot of redeeming features: good sized bedrooms, separate large dining room, big garden, popular area, two brand new bathrooms fitted last summer...

Would this kitchen put you off? If you’ve just redone your kitchen, how much did it cost?

You say you love the house and the area and sound reluctant to move apart from wanting an extra bedroom, is there any way you can extend the house to achieve what you want?

We’re a semi-detached house on a sort of corner. There is no where to go on either side. One side is the other house and the other is the shared drive that leads to two more houses. The garage has already been built over to make it a 3 bed instead of 2. Extending out the back would reduce the size of the garden considerably to make it worth it and would undoubtedly block the neighbours light so wouldn’t be approved.

It’s currently a good size 3 bed. I wouldn’t want to make it a small 4 bed.

Paint the tiles white it will make a massive difference. I did mine got the tile paint from Homebase and just started with one tile to see. It's honestly fine looks good you will be surprised !

Paint the tiles white. Everything else looks fine. We bought a house with painted white kitchen tiles - they are fine.

We stripped the awful tiles and 80’s tile effect wallpaper from Fil’s kitchen, if the walls underneath are decent just get them smooth and paint. We did that then I got some huge samples of tiles for £1 each from homebase and DH cut them down to make an upstand all the way round the worktop, upstands are very trendy just now and it transformed a very dated oak kitchen . Our buyers loved what we’d done, the agent’s photos were from before we did the work. We’ve also put some beautiful but cheap chevron wood effect vinyl flooring down. Cost us £65 to utterly transform an ugly 80’s kitchen.

@GenderApostate19

We stripped the awful tiles and 80’s tile effect wallpaper from Fil’s kitchen, if the walls underneath are decent just get them smooth and paint. We did that then I got some huge samples of tiles for £1 each from homebase and DH cut them down to make an upstand all the way round the worktop, upstands are very trendy just now and it transformed a very dated oak kitchen . Our buyers loved what we’d done, the agent’s photos were from before we did the work. We’ve also put some beautiful but cheap chevron wood effect vinyl flooring down. Cost us £65 to utterly transform an ugly 80’s kitchen.

Do you have any pictures of it?

DH probably does.
I will get the ‘before’ pics off rightmove to show you how awful it was.

Here

@GenderApostate19

Here

Looks very similar to mine.

This is the flooring and tiles, £1 each from homebase, we got 4 but only needed 3. DH made 65mm tall upstands.

I love the colour of your tiles. I'd be inclined to paint your units white with proper cabinet paint and either repaint the doors, or get them replaced. Not used this company, but they offer lots of different designs www.kitchendoorworkshop.co.uk/

As you've said the rest of your house is white with accents of colour. The kitchen would be the same if you did this.

I say leave it too. Sounds like your house has a lot going for it anyway, so no need in my opinion. The only thing you might do is just replace the green tiles for something more natural as I think they’re too dark for the cupboards.
I saw your before and after post @PotsofPaint and thought the after pic was black and white 😂

@AnonymousArmadillo

You say you love the house and the area and sound reluctant to move apart from wanting an extra bedroom, is there any way you can extend the house to achieve what you want?

We’re a semi-detached house on a sort of corner. There is no where to go on either side. One side is the other house and the other is the shared drive that leads to two more houses. The garage has already been built over to make it a 3 bed instead of 2. Extending out the back would reduce the size of the garden considerably to make it worth it and would undoubtedly block the neighbours light so wouldn’t be approved.

It’s currently a good size 3 bed. I wouldn’t want to make it a small 4 bed.

Ah that's a shame.

I would leave the kitchen as is, just make sure it looks clean and tidy. Maybe put some high stools or chairs under the bit in the first picture to make it look like a breakfast bar because, honestly, painted units and tiles may look okay in staged photos on Instagram or whatever but they look awful when you see them in real life.

Painting a kitchen can definitely look amazing - just do the research and get decent paint. I painted some old furniture in rustoleum paint and it is truly rubbish compared to the results I get now using Frenchic paint.
These are my kitchen drawers done in Frenchic using a roller - you honestly would never know I'd painted them myself. They used to be high-gloss units.

Maybe put some high stools or chairs under the bit in the first picture to make it look like a breakfast bar

We have bar stools there. Those photos were taken before we moved in and the previous owners had started moving their stuff out. They are just the clearest photos I have without people in them.

@GenderApostate19

This is the flooring and tiles, £1 each from homebase, we got 4 but only needed 3. DH made 65mm tall upstands.

They look nice.

@FrankieTross

Painting a kitchen can definitely look amazing - just do the research and get decent paint. I painted some old furniture in rustoleum paint and it is truly rubbish compared to the results I get now using Frenchic paint. These are my kitchen drawers done in Frenchic using a roller - you honestly would never know I'd painted them myself. They used to be high-gloss units.

You would not know they were painted!

I’ve recently had a quote for nearly £20,000 to refit my very average sized kitchen!

@FossilisedFanny

I’ve recently had a quote for nearly £20,000 to refit my very average sized kitchen!

Id retile and possibly paint the cupboards or get someone to do it. Will make a huge difference.

I like the tiles but then I love greens and blues - paint the cupboards, change the handles

If the cabinets are OK just replace the doors and worktops, then retile.
You could make it less dark by replacing the wall cupboards with open shelving and some wall lights?
We did all this and got a kitchen that looks brand new for around 1k. We used a local replacement door company we found on the web. Around £20 a door.

I would try to do without some wall cupboards - is it the boiler to the left of the sink? What is the area on its own with cupboards over.
In the pic the lemon walls, green tiles and blue/ grey floor clash a bit , also pale pine units If you had more wall you could paint or wallpaper the wall to pick out the green tiles ? Leaf print or whatever - maybe some large pot plant/s so change the walls reduce wallcupbords, refloor or add rug and possibly , if keeping dark tiles, some good lighting.

Have a look at some kitchen makeovers on Pinterest, Instagram etc. You could make it look great on a budget just by painting the cabinetry, tiles etc. What I would say is that the bits of open shelving can attract really unsightly clutter as seems to be the case with the vendors. So decide how you will dress that area eg plants and keep it other wise clear. As with the rest of the kitchen, it’s fairly compact so put everything away except select decorative items to give a fresh but homely feel.

@PinkyParrot

I would try to do without some wall cupboards - is it the boiler to the left of the sink? What is the area on its own with cupboards over. In the pic the lemon walls, green tiles and blue/ grey floor clash a bit , also pale pine units If you had more wall you could paint or wallpaper the wall to pick out the green tiles ? Leaf print or whatever - maybe some large pot plant/s so change the walls reduce wallcupbords, refloor or add rug and possibly , if keeping dark tiles, some good lighting.

The boiler is above the sink to the left.

The area on its own is a breakfast bar area with glass fronted cabinets above. We have chairs there now and use it for eating at and doing DD’s home learning.

The range of colours definitely clashed. It’s better now the walls are white.

Thank you for your suggestions. I’ll have a think about how we could make it look better with a small budget. Nothing at the minute as I’m on maternity leave.

I like the green tiles and the light coloured units btw