How would you 'refresh' this 90s style kitchen?

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I can't afford to properly renew or replace the kitchen, so I've been looking at cupboard and worktop paints (and wondering about tiles...).

Can anyone suggest some nice colourways to repaint in? And do you know where to get better, less dated door handles?

Thanks for any advice and thoughts!

Night all and thank you for your comments and detailed advice. It's really helpful. Will pick it up in the morning

Mine looked like that. I replaced the tiles with white metro tiles in a brick pattern and the worktops from worktop express. Then changed the handles. The doors look more modern because of the worktop and the tiles. I looked into frenchic but they don't allow any negative reviews at all on their page. Another FB page was started to give good and bad reviews. It's great in drawers etc but high traffic areas like kitchen doors, patios and door handles get chipped. I fell for the hype and my bathroom handles are now flaking from frenchic. I would be wary of painting the doors.

It's vinyl wrap for the worktop covering. Not sure how hardwearing it'd be though. You can also use it over the tiles.
Would definitely paint the handles, or replace but you'd need similar size to use the existing holes. Good luck.

I actually don't hate the tiles - they look neutral enough and I think the wavyness/texture is intended to look "rustic". Imo the whole kitchen could look very different if you painted the cabinets the creamy colour from the tiles and replaced the handles with a slightly chunkier D handle (those thin bow ones look a bit 2000's).

And the good thing about the kitchen tiles is that it looks like you have various shades of "neutral" tones in there - so you could get samples of different coloured handles (brass, nickel, stainless steel, chrome etc) and see which looks nicest - just look at the back of the doors to measure the hole centre distance so you know what size you need and then head to your nearest DIY store/kitchen showroom to get ideas (it's better imo to see handle shape/size in person, even if you eventually buy similar ones online instead).

I think if you get rid of the warmish colour of the tiles as well as the orangey colour of the cabinets then the terracotta? floor could look too orange/warm if there is nothing else of a similar tone in the kitchen? Equally I would leave the brownish? worktop (assuming it's not damaged) until you've painted the cabinets and see how it looks then.

Stick on wall tiles. You might want to skim some filler over them first.

These are the tiles. As someone said upthread, sort of 'fake rustic'.

And this is the worktop. It seems designed to look cluttered and dirty when bare

Op we have had very similar kitchen, try painting over a brought tile see what you think, painting the tiles was so pleasing. Instant lift!

Depends what your aiming for, if you want short term lift fix for a few years or.. Something longer term.

You can't use plastic stick on tiles behind a gas hob but you could protect them with glass panel over the top just at hob.

My ds has a very similar kitchen.
He paid someone to remove the tiles and replaster. Wasn't that expensive. Then he repainted the kitchen, finally he bought a piece of glass online, specifically for the splashback behind the hob. It was cheap, made to measure and was easy to stick on.
Honestly it looked amazing, much better than painting the tiles.

I think the tiles are actually fine. I'd focus on painting the cabinets and replacing the door handles. Maybe also replacing the worktop, which shouldn't cost the earth.

But it also depends on your timeframe, i.e. how long it needs to last before you get your dream kitchen

I agree, the tiles are fine!

Yes, the tiles would look totally different teamed with different coloured cupboards. Tile paint looks shit anyway, just paint the doors.

Gah!
I’ve got those same bloody tiles and hate them.

If you do paint them, please please post a photo so I know whether it’s worth doing mine or not! (Planning a new kitchen in next
2yrs but fed up with the tiles already.)

What style of kitchen do you like? I love country/shaker vibe, would be fairly easy to do from yours:

The tiles would look good painted white. If at all possible I think I would replace doors rather than paint, as the shape is also very dated (IKEA doors). New handles from IKEA—maybe brassy buckets? And a nice big brassy light. Leave worktops as they are.

Please don't use frenchic on the cabinets.I've used it on wooden furniture and its good enough for that but I can't understand how people paint kitchens with it...it marks and chips easily.Paint the tiles if you can't replace them and save for a new worktop.Leave the doors until you have done that as they will look so much better with those changes.

It's clean and doesn't look bad, just a bit dated. Live with it for a bit

The tiles will improve with a plainer worktop. We changed the worktop in our kitchen 2 years ago from a horrible, scratched black thing full of glitter to a wooden butchers block style and just that improved the look of it completely.

Measure your doors and have a look on B&Q at the costs. If your carcasses are fine then just replace those. Even replacing handles can make a big difference.

It’s actually the worktop and handles that are the main problem. The worktop is ugly and the handles are harsh.

The tiles are neutral!

Cupboard paint, and new handles from e.g. Wickes. (It was a wall of horrible melamine wardrobes, but I saved us a fortune like that - a total of £65 as against £3k+ to replace them.).

Dd and SiL painted some really horrible, 70s dark brown melamine kitchen cupboards in an off white - the transformation was amazing.

I don’t know how long it would have lasted - the kitchen was going in a year or two anyway since they were planning an extension, but it looked
miles better in the meantime.

I would paint the cupboards either white or a very pale grey and new handles. I would get the tiles removed, as suggested upthread, and a glass splash back around the hob, either a darker grey if you’ve gone for pale grey units or a pale grey if you’ve gone for white. If you can’t do that get acrylic fixed over the top. I’d keep the worktop as I think it will look fine once the rest is neutralised!

Thank you for all of the suggestions- it's so interesting to see how differing views can be! I think essentially my kitchen is like a person wearing too many different prints- one wouldn't be so offensive without the others on at the same time! Your advice has spurred me on and it's so helpful to hear what others have done. Thank you

I'm at the awkward midway point on tiling...

Dithering between painting the cupboards white and using white matt dc fix (Thank you for that recommendation- I'd never heard of vinyl coverings before) to cover them.

Are you re-tiling? What about worktops? I would 100% get new worktops, you can get them pretty cheap from IKEA / wickes etc and if it’s not a big kitchen it wouldn’t cost a fortune to get them fitted. If you’re going to do it then do it before tiling!