Cheap & cheerful kitchen

[Changingplace]

Is Ikea the best place to get a cheap-ish quickly installed kitchen?

We ideally wanted to build an extension when we moved into our house, because the kitchen is absolutely tiny but increasingly that seems way out of our price range with the cost of everything.

The existing units are literally falling apart, so I’m thinking of replacing them with a fairly cheap but tidy solution, and don’t want to spend too much because in the future hopefully we’ll be able to afford the extension so I don’t want to pay £££ for something and rip it out in a few years.

I’m thinking Ikea would be our best option? Any other suggestions?

IKEA kitchens are great. My cousin has a 20 year old IKEA kitchen that has survived her 3DC growing up and my cousin and her DH being keen cooks so using it heavily every day. Meanwhile, we bought a house with a WREN kitchen, also have 3DC and despite the kitchen only being 8 years old we've already had 2 doors fall off and the whole kitchen feels shoogly. Can't decide to replace it with an IKEA kitchen or go very high end in the hope that I get something solid.

My tip would be to be smart about your choices - e.g. a 1000mm cupboard will be cheaper than two 500s. And cupboards are cheaper than drawer and pull out units. But it's a trade off as cupboards can be less practical. If it's not going to be in long, then go for a nice laminate or even a compact laminate - don't go for quartz. Also, chrome taps tend to be cheapest. If you want a little splurge then consider spending a bit more on nice handles to give it a lift.

Good luck! I nearly bought a house that would have needed an interim kitchen, and I got quite excited picking stuff out.

If all you need is a really tiny kitchen, keep your eye on Facebook marketplace and eBay for secondhand ones. I often see decent quality, medium size kitchens being sold there for £500-1k. If you look at medium sized ones, it should give you enough choice of cabinets to make it work.

I recently did a smaller kitchen and it's surprising how much things cost. It was too small for ikea units as they didn't have enough size options so I went with DIY kitchens. I spent £3k on the units, £1k on wooden worktops, another £1kish on all the appliances and sink. On top of that I had plumbing, electrics and fitting but don't have breakdown because it was part of a wider renovation. I think the size was about 1.8m x 1.5m. Awkward space really. If you can do just a straight run of units it could be cheaper and easier.

Definitely, I've done last two houses with IKEA kitchens and everybody comments on them. First one with their freestanding range which included butchers trollies so when I moved they came with me. Then again I'm not a big fan of sleek fitted kitchens so depends on your taste, I'm more country and butlers sink type. I did get oak work surfaces cheaper on the Internet though than IKEA.

This is a great idea! Thank you hadn’t thought about doing this.