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'm seconding that. I moved into a house with wooden worktops and now face the horror of sanding, oiling?, varnishing?, and whatever else they need.

We bought an ex display kitchen (we did have the 'luxury' of not having a kitchen space so the builder built a room to fit it). Top of the range German kitchen plus all Miele appliances never used. We paid about half of what the appliances cost and the kitchen units were essentially free.

Definitely worth seeing what you can find - there are eBay shops that specialise in ex display kitchens..

Hi, it was from flooring 365
Engineered wood, in antique oak. I don't think they stock the exact one any more. I spent ages searching for the right flooring, so thanks for noticing!

They really aren't a problem, apart from around a sink.
Just get some worktop oil, rub it in. Leave for a few hpurs/overnight. Then, find a cabinet scraper - a thin piece of metal shaped like a card - and 'scrape' the burr. The wood grain will have raised a little and this makes it smooth. Repeat process 3 times. Then it will be good to go for years, unless you're always spilling on it. Then do it yearly. Honestly, I loved our old wooden worktop.

Wow, came back to loads of useful ideas. Thanks everyone.

The DIY showroom was fab (even if we did have to wrangle our kids round it #trauma). My favourite shaker style is the Bramley but I’m really not sure about colours still. Reed green is nice but we have a whole wall of tall units and I don’t know if it would be too much.

I also came back to our house and realised that although I do like shaker, a 1970s house is perhaps better suited to slab finish? The kitchen is going to be an open plan living/dining/kitchen and most of the furniture and other bits we have are kind of mid century modern retro style. We can’t really style it super high end in this era because we have white PVC windows and doors and white internal doors none of which we can afford to change, but overall we do have a definite nod to the midcentury vibe and we can choose flooring to fit with this. We have one deep mustard sofa and one deep burgundy and lots of other pops of retro colour and pattern like my German pottery collection. We have a teak coloured G plan dining table and black and teak sideboard. Therefore I’m wondering if I should maybe go for quite a plain slab front kitchen and perhaps save a bit on the units, then add nice antique brass modern shape handles and tap, and 20mm quartz worktop (without much of a pattern, I like the ones that look basically white with a slight beige/gold fleck in them). Some parts of our kitchen will have open shelving so I’m wondering whether to then tie in with the furniture by having darker wood shelves, maybe iroko? With modern antique brass shelf brackets.

If the above sounds like a vaguely cohesive plan then does anyone fancy advising me what colour units I should get?! If we go with DIY kitchen then the slab front ranges in the standard colours are Carrera, the Cento or the Sienna. Unfortunately we can’t wait long enough to get a bespoke colour as they are 4-5 weeks longer lead times. Thanks!

Oh also if I’m going antique brass coloured handles and tap then what do I do about a sink?! I wanted undermount if we’re having quartz but composite is annoying because it stains. Other options I guess are ceramic or stainless steel but would that look weird with brass?

Another tip I would add is that if you are going for quartz, there are other suppliers that are much cheaper than DIY for that- we saved a lot by going to al Murad for ours (other suppliers include Gemini, Purple Granite etc).

I also recommend joining the gacebook group DIY Kitchens - Design and Planning Forum and Finished Reviews - UK. Running our DIY plan past that group saved us making a lot of mistakes, and also helped us save some money on quartz.

Houzz (website) is fantastic for ideas and others (including professionals) contribute.

It was such a helpful community when I renovated our house.

ETA - if you are interested in mid century check out estate agent photos in The Netherlands, their style is perfect and perfect for ideas. https://www.funda.nl/en/

Hope it helps.

I agree and always struggle to accept the hatred towards them!

We've had teak/iroko in three kitchens dating back to 1998 when we bought an ex-display kitchen with teak worktops. We lived with them for ten years before selling that house and with the occasional oiling, they were as good as new when we sold.

At our next house - which we bought to do up - we put in granite as we thought it would be more appealing to buyers (our buyers admitted it was the kitchen that sold the house to them), but I actually hated it. So we reverted to iroko and haven't looked back - we'll soon be fitting it in our new kitchen.

Otoh, adult DS/partner fitted oak worktops in their kitchen and they haven't worn well at all.....

We had wood at our old house but DH despised it, we managed to keep it looking pretty good but it was a constant battle. Our eldest DC can now reach the tap to get themselves a drink but not yet old enough to be properly mindful of water splashing on the worktops and wiping up properly afterwards etc so we just need something less high maintenance. I agree they look lovely and if we couldn’t stretch to quartz I’d get wood over laminate I think because it looks more expensive, even though it’s not! I will be having a couple of long wall shelves which will undoubtedly be a bastard to keep clean so I might actually buy a 22mm thick wooden worktop to make them and ask our joiner to cut it in half to make 2 x 300mm deep shelves.

Your current kitchen looks fab

I’m assuming you meant to tag @Seaside3 in this and weren’t referring to me, although I haven’t posted a picture of my current kitchen, it definitely doesn’t look fab 😂

Yes lol 😝 I meant @Seaside3 !

Perhaps he likes spending time with you both

Thanks @marshmallowmix ! Good old ikea.