2025 ideas for making a budget kitchen/diner look more expensive

[Lemonflavouredcaterpillars]

I’d like to start a new thread on this topic as there have been some similar previously but they were from a good few years ago and some trends have moved on a bit.

so, yes - we are getting a budget Howdens kitchen (Witney range but can’t decide on colour - that’s one thing I’d like advice on, does a particular colour look better/cheaper?). However we haven’t yet chosen worktops and all the accessories or any flooring but interested in any ideas for making it look more high end. Ideas and questions I’d had so far :
Beko appliances for things that won’t be on show (fridge, freezer, dishwasher) but Neff induction hob and ovens
Worktops I have no clue - would like to go quartz but not sure if we can afford it. Other options are 22mm laminate (not compact laminate as it’s seemingly v expensive to install) or wood. Maybe a waterfall edge on breakfast bar?
upstand or tiles?
maybe some open shelving?

Please hit me with your ideas! Thanks

I agree it looks intimidating the planning process with DIY kitchens, but a PP said they turned her John Lewis kitchen plan into a list for her- and I used Karen Wallace of One Plan design (I’d seen her recommended on here and on Houzz) to design mine and write the list. It cost 3 or 400 pound I think- worth it to have an expert and avoid hassle.

Regarding solid wood versus MDF- I imagine it depends what style you are going for? As I always go for contemporary glossy styles I think they’re usually MDF based- MDF is pretty stable so I don’t think more quick to age or likely to warp than solid wood.

Personally I think a clean kitchen is the most inviting and friendliest kitchens.

We all have the friend with a top of the range kitchen and it looks very nice, and we all have a friend who’s kitchen has evolved and looks stunning because of the way the “throw has been thrown” has cost less than £100 and we are all jealous as hell of *itch for being so talented.

The trick is buy what you love in my opinion

DIY kitchens. Most of their units come in 5cm increments so I would be very surprised if you can't get the sizes you want. Much higher quality too. They have examples of Howden's, B&Q, IKEA and others in their showroom so you can compare the quality.

My fitter recommended Howden's. After fitting the DIY one he said he'd never recommend Howden's again

Get cheap cabinets, spend the money on nice tiles/splashback, handles and appliances. Other thing I would recommend is designing it very easy to clean. Nothing makes a kitchen look crap like greasy dirt. For this reason, I always choose to-the-ceiling wall cabinets, and NO open shelves ever. Sorry, I agree they look cool in pictures but in reality they get absolutely filthy.

We made all those mistakes with our first kitchen. It cost £££ and had lovely open shelves and a good quality laminate worktop, although we had fairly basic tiles. The laminate peeled by the sink after about 5y and no way to repair it. The kitchen always looked old, cheap and dirty even though it cost a fortune. We had to replace it after a roof leak and then we were skint so we got Howdens after recommendation of the builder who fixed the roof. Howdens design was crap so I did my own - tall cabinets, making sure upper and lower cabinets aligned, no weird fillers. We got wood worktops as we were not getting laminate again and we couldn't afford granite. We got nice handles and posh tiles. It always looked fab and it stayed that way. No problems at all with the wood worktop, we did about 5 coats of oil when it was fitted then just oiled it once a year. When we moved house 15y later it still looked brand new. We were so happy with it we have done a similar style with the kitchen in the next house.

The place where MDF goes is normally where there is water, so around the sink and the dishwasher. The water gets into it and swells it.

I think the key would be to go for cheap stuff where you can't see it. So the cabinet carcass for example.

Worktops are the first thing I look at in a kitchen as a sign of quality, because everyone knows good ones are expensive. Stuff like laminate does not age well.

RE: wood vs mdf at DIY Kitchens. We have Norton, which is wood and the quality is outstanding. I would say yes- but I didn't look at the MDF ranges aa I knew what I wanted.

Right I’m off to DIY showroom tomorrow!

(If I can save a couple of grand on the units compared to Howdens then I think we will be able to afford quartz worktops!)

I wouldn’t do a waterfall edge. It’ll save money not having it, and they’re already looking dated.

This would be without labour though, right? Labour is very expensive now unfortunately.

I think you make a good point with your kitchens, as with anything it’s not the kitchen alone, it’s the context that makes a kitchen brilliant or crap. The walls need to be plastered, tiling neat and modern, modern tap, solid flooring and art and decor right. Even the most basic kitchen can look great if the surround is clean and stylish.

OP - it’s not quite what you asked but our best buy has been an extendable hose tap, it’s really the best thing ever.

I agree. I think they look dated already.

i think you’ve decided now not to go with Howdens but here’s another voice for how poor quality they are. My ikea kitchen looked brand new after ten years in my last house, my Howdens kitchen is falling apart, msg swelling on sink cupboard, bin cupboard half broken after way less time. I’m never doing Howdens again.

I would suggest seeing if you can find an independent kitchen designer. It's a small initial outlay for a high end finish.
My DIL does bathrooms and you get the designer look with high end products for a similar cost to a basic Howdens plan and can provide a list of products to order either yourself or via the fitter.

You're right, the fitting would be a lot more, my husband is a joiner/kitchen fitter. I still stand by the fact that you dont need an expensive kitchen to make it look designer or high end. As you say, the flooring, plastering, lighting, tiling and artwork all need to be right too.

For example, I don't think slab kitchens look high end. Unless (before anyone jumps in at me) they are very sleek and modernist. No clutter, no colour, the kitchen is the art. Wooden kitchens can look dated, unless, again they are styled. We intentionally went with wood as our house is victorian, so I wanted something that would blend rather than stand out. And painted kitchens can look kitsch. Unless the right elements are used to make them high end - think deVol. To me a 'high end' kitchen is when the room is considered as whole.

i understand from a builder that we knew many years ago that Howdens give huge trade discounts to builders / carpenters / kitchen fitters who have a trade account with them… i think I remember them saying it was something like 85 per cent discount? Whether this is still the case I don’t know, but if you have a friend or relative who is a builder / carpenter / kitchen fitter then ask if you can buy it through their account and ask if they would pass on all / most of the discount…

We have a Howdens kitchen, bought via our builder.

The first quote was a lot more than we wanted to spend. We told him/them that we weren't prepared to pay that and they reduced the same kitchen to wellwithin our budget! Massive saving.

ETA - almost crossed post with the post above.

I suspect that is because the kitchen only cost the builder 15 per cent of the ‘list price’… so the builder has the capacity to reduce the cost of it to the end customer as much as they want (or are prepared to)….

Probably! We were all in the same room together and still did all of the planning with Howdens. There must be an agreed ‘margin’.

Someone told me it is dependent on how much trade the builder gives Howdens. He builds his own discounts.

Given the kitchen style you like is a shaker look I would have a look at the projects and galleries on the high end kitchen websites that do shaker kitchens - de vol and neptune, Tom Howley, etc. Ask yourself what really makes these kitchens look high end. TBH I think most boil down to a few things - the finish overall - so the painting the tiling etc, the quality of the worktops - natural marble/granite/quartz/wood etc, a butler sink with good taps and the handles etc. A lot have upstands that match the work tops rather than tiled walls. At the moment the colour palette for work tops and up stands is quite light so this works (not sure it would work so well with a dark granite).

My OH designed (but didn't fit) mid-high end bathrooms for 20 years, many of his clients being A-list celebs/the Saudi Royal family. The most expensive bathroom he designed - in the early 2000s - cost in excess of 100k!
What he said about bathroom budgets holds true for kitchens imo - spend big on the things you touch, so taps, handles, work surfaces etc.

We've renovated a few houses (all period ones) and our style tends towards the classic/traditional with a modern twist, mostly in the form of the colours we choose. I'd love a deVOL kitchen but can't stretch to that - the most we've splurged was around 8k on cabinets from Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch at our last house. Pimping it up with solid pewter handles/knobs and a £900 tap. OH is handy - these days he's self-employed doing conservation building/decorating work - so does all the fitting, I do the sourcing/painting/arty bits 😉

For our current kitchen (in a Georgian cottage) we've salvaged some of the solidly built cabinets from when the place was last renovated (mid 1960s) and are combining these with a few painted oak in-frame units (mostly pan drawers) I found on eBay for less than £250.

To make these look cohesive and more 'high end', I'm painting everything in Edward Bulmer Pompadour (also the wall colour) and Nicaragua, we're using a mix of deVOL and Corston Architectural brass handles/knobs and a huge Belfast sink I got at a bargain price from Whiteberk sinks. Fortunately, before marketing our previous house we removed the £900 tap, so that will feature too!

After very many happy years with a mix of iroko and microcement worktops I was hoping to have quartz at this house, but OH found some 60 x 30 marble tiles for £3 each at the local car boot sale which we're going to use as a splash back. Quartz will clash with these, so we're going with iroko again.

Agreed but also the actual house goes a long way into how these kitchens look I think, often they are shown in period masterpieces or characterful cottages and they don’t look quite so high end in an average 3 bed semi, they are very aspirational looks for sure.

Yes - but the basics are a shaker style kitchen so looking at the details like the hardware/taps and worktops are a good point for inspiration given that is the style the OP likes. Pewter hardware, a belfast sink and a high swan neck or pump style mixer tap will go a long way to making her kitchen look more expensive but putting as much of the budget as possible into a natural worktop would be the best way to make it look expensive. (Also floor tiles that work with the shaker style eg slate or terracotta)

Oh definitely all those things make a huge difference particularly even if you don’t live in a Georgian pile!

Diy kitchens are fab mines nearly 10yrs old and still looks good i had painted to match a f&b colour. And was excellent match..
Handles definitelly make a differedce i went french ceramic as matched vibe and were v cheap as a bonus! glass splashback to reduce lines..
Ended up with laminate worktop to save money and its been fine so practical esp with kids/teens

Starting to look a bit knackered now so may change..

Other things that help are good well thought out lighting.... Colour/art ..plants?? Im not a fan of open shelves as wouldn't clean enough but did get cabinets to ceiling..

@Seaside3 Can I ask about the gorgeous floor in your current kitchen please? Did you fit it (and if so where did you get it from?) - I presume solid wood by the looks of it?