top tips for getting a budget kitchen to look like an expensive kitchen!

[ministryofsleep]

we have a galley kitchen that is getting replaced in January. Budget is around £5-6,000 for everything including appliances. Does anyone have any tips to make it look more expensive if that's possible or can recommend any particular suppliers

Try to plan it so you have a good run of worktop, bnot broken up by tall units. Better for working on and also cheaper to fit and buy!

Hi GrendelsMum - thanks for the tip about drawers - not something I've thought about but we do get very irritated about things out of cupboards to reach the stuff at the back so will definitely look at incorporating drawers into the new kitchen.

ledodgy do you have any problems with the worktop splitting or warping where it has come into contact with water or is it not an issue?

I have a sort of plinth thing running all the way round my kitchen which is part of the foundation so can't be moved. My builder put my cupboards in front of it so my worktops are really deep which actually is brilliant.

Don't get solid wood floors in a kitchen, go for engineered - they are much less likely to warp.

If you search under my 'normal' name, you should find my profile which has pics of before and after in my kitchen which I did for £5.5k including washing machine and dishwasher.

Decent worktops
Integrated appliances
Decent cooker
Ditto floor
Treat as a room not purely functional so art,beautiful shelves etc

Ministry- no no prblems with warping etc. Though we are careful to wipe any water away swiftly. We have a dishawasher so the washing up we do in the sink is limited.

Yes agree with not solid wood floors in the kitchen our solid wood floors are in the hall and living room.

I think LeDodgy makes a really good point, there - it's important to think about what YOU do in the kitchen, not what a magazine or your friend or a kitchen designer does. We cook a lot, and we wash up a lot in the sink (as well as having a dishwasher) - which the woman from the kitchen design shop seemed to be baffled by. And that means we need a big sink and a big draining board, not something tiny but elegant. But if you don't wash up a lot, you can go for a much smaller sink, and not worry about wooden worktops.

I suspect that a lot of people in kitchen magazines don't actually cook very much, as if you look at it, their beautiful, hand-crafted kitchens don't look terribly practical.