I hate my kitchen but it cost a lot of £££

[RightMoveAlong]

Namechanged.

I had a new kitchen fitted around 18 years ago and it cost over £20K in total. New boiler at the same time (in kitchen), built in fridge, granite worktops, solid light-wood kitchen installed by an upmarket company.

I was never happy with the worktops (glittery black) but DP wanted them and I gave in.

It's so dark. The room faces north so I need the lights on all day as the window is small. The black worktops don't help.

It's very dated now because everyone is going for white or pastel painted units.

I don't know what to do , if anything.

We may move at some point and I guess buyers would know it was a quality kitchen even if not their taste and rip it out.

I can't bring myself to re-new it even though the money is there, as it seems such a waste. The property is worth around £650-£700K.

Would it be possible to sell it 2nd hand or get something for parts of it?

I'd love black glittery worktops!

Well I have black glittery granite worktops and I love them! They still look stylish after 10 years.

new worktops would also be £3k+

What??? They needn't be. I had an entire kitchen put in a couple of years ago for not all much more than that.

**not all that much more

I would keep the black granite worktops and change the cabinet doors. I may be biased though as I have black granite worktops and pale cabinets and I think it looks lovely. I really dislike pale worktops.

I have a black and copper granite worktop and our house is on the market . Potential buyers have all loved the kitchen .

We painted our doors. You can get a professional finish if you invest in the right paint and tools, and remove the doors and properly clean and sand them back. It took a good few days to do ours, 3 coats to cover the wood. You need a roller not a brush to avoid brushmarks and use thin coats.

You can't tell they are hand painted.

There are many companies that paint or wrap doors or replace them.

We have a black surface. It looks completely different and nice against ivory cupboards compared to the oak we had before.

When I moved into my (newly built by the previous owners) house, I really disliked the kitchen. It was a traditional shaker style and it did not suit the modern look I wanted. I had to save for my new kitchen, but I sold my old one and matching utility room on e-bay. Have never regretted changing it. We re-jigged the rooms and I now have an open plan set up in a different part of the house, so was definitely worth while.
E-bay, and local selling sites advertise used kitchens all the time.

@RightMoveAlong Just pull it out and buy a new one.

I can't imagine why ANYone would want to pay for/buy a second hand kitchen that's 18 years old.

I wouldn't have an 18 year old kitchen in my house, if someone was giving it away for free.

And you hate it, but have had it for 18 years?

Virtually nothing in your posts make sense...

Upthread you mention that the Utility room is the same style. If you were a little nervous about spending a lot you could experiment with the utility room first.

[quote littlepattilou]@RightMoveAlong Just pull it out and buy a new one.

I can't imagine why ANYone would want to pay for/buy a second hand kitchen that's 18 years old.

I wouldn't have an 18 year old kitchen in my house, if someone was giving it away for free.

And you hate it, but have had it for 18 years?

Virtually nothing in your posts make sense...[/quote]
Because a high quality one will last for decades. Hell I expect to get that sort of time for mine from Ikea that cost about a quarter of what the OP paid for hers.

The OP could probably get a decent amount (certainly a grand or two) if she happened to find a buyer who's looking for a kitchen of that type and size.

The problem with the specialist repainting OP, is that, unless your kitchen is very small, I imagine that will also cost thousands, because the high end people just seem to charge a fortune.

We're in a similar position with our bathroom. Very dated, probably 35-40 years old, but it's a good quality suite and professionally tiled, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, except it just looks old fashioned to modern tastes.

We changed the worktops and tiles in ours about five years ago and the difference was massive. It’s kept it going until we replace it completely next year.

Well you are right, it's serviceable and it's wasteful and environmentally unfriendly to change it, especially if you might move and new owners might rip out your new kitchen!
But it is also not unreasonable to update a kitchen after 18 years. Do what you can afford and what makes you happy, whether that is sticking with it, updating it or scrapping it.

I would echo the pp who suggested Frenchic paint. It’s so easy to use, and gives a great finish. I would do this first, change the handles too, and then if I still hated the worktops, replace them with something lighter. It sounds like your kitchen units are still in excellent condition, so there’s no need to replace them. Solid wood units are an investment that will outlast every fashion for shiny foil covered rubbish.

I think at your house value, with an 18 year old kitchen - a replacement is perfectly reasonable. More so if you want to enjoy it for a couple of years.

I’ve used Granite transformations in the past and was really delighted with the results. They glue a composite material on top of your existing worktops and you really couldn’t tell that they were not solid granite. The only difference was that the new worktop was much easier to care for - heat resistant and a wipe with a damp cloth was all that was needed. Not cheap, but much easier and installation was done really quickly.

A couple of my friends have had good quality wood kitchens professionally spray painted. They look amazing!
New handles can make a great difference.
We recently changed a light wood / black granite worktop kitchen in a v dark kitchen for white paint and white/ grey worktop.... Amazing difference!

Also you can get sets of battery powered LEDS with a remote to turn them on and off all at once (amazon) to pop under cabinets

@NotMeNoNo

Have you looked at specialist painters? traditionalpainter.com/. I should think it's just the sort of good quality kitchen that would come up well. We have a dark worktop with cashmere colour units, not my choice but they make a good contrast and the room would still be dark without them.

People are saying dark coloured worktops are dated. We have grey units and white quartz worktops. The white is horrendous and shows every little mark. It’s only been in a couple of years. We’re changing the tops for black. This kitchen is lovely dated about this whatsoever. I love it.

A kitchen with 18 years of use, regardless of what is paid for it (and here I do not equate price paid with quality or value, as often a great deal of the price is the installation cost) is really not worth a great deal secondhand. 18 years of use is the kitchen equivalent of a car with 120,000 on the clock, regardless of make. As for the granite, love our Via Lactea and our trade units, which we installed and customized, but then we went for something that ignored the trends, but made us happy and 6 years later still looks like the day we finished it. Why not get someone in to look at how it could be updated and you might find a renewed love for it. Certainly worth the effort to ask for another opinion.

I don't hate the before kitchen in that link!

Mind you, kitchens just don't interest me at all.

Mine needs replacing, it's about 20yrs old but I really cba to choose anything!

I'm fancying grey!

Wrapping? I know nothing about it but a company that does it locally wraps high end cars and yachts as well as kitchens.

I had a light wood kitchen with dark granite tops from Martin Moore. The floor was terracotta. I had the units painted cream, kept the worktops and had the floor changed to Slate. The whole effect now is black and cream with cream walls. I do tend to have the undercabinet lighting on all day but the overall room is not dark and it looks quite modern as I have also changed the drawer handles etc

It is similar to the photo up thread. If I were doing it now I would probably go for a lighter floor but at the time I had younger children (and a dog)

I was in this exact situation except we bought the house with the expensive kitchen. First off we had it professionally painted which was a big improvement and we added the dark granite top- big mistake.

A few years on we decided to replace the lot and someone wanted the kitchen units and granite but in fact it was impossible to remove without smashing it up as it was so strongly glued down.

If you can afford to replace it go for it. If not repaint and try to love it.

Good quality solid wood units should last a hundred years years not twenty. As others have said a professional respray will transform the look and not cost anywhere near replacement. Start with the worktops, see how you feel, then respray if necessary. Reduce, reuse, recycle.