I have £1000 to spend - on bathroom or kitchen?

[tvaerialmagpiebin]

My house was built in 1989 and has its original grey sanitary ware and pale grey/white kitchen. I have painted over the patterned tiles in the kitchen and now they are plain white. I hve also painted the (once grey) wood trim cream. The bathroom taps are all on their way out (hot basin one broken, nasty scaling on all others.) The bathroom tiles are in reasonable condition but there are a couple of holes where the previous owner had fixed things to the walls which fell off.

I have £1000 to spend, what should I do? I don't think it would cover a whole new kitchen but I was wondering about a new sink and worktop, maybe new oven. Or I thought it would be posible to get a new white bathroom suite fitted.

I am not planning to move, just improve. What would you do?

Thanks for your help!

£1,000 will make more impact in the bathroom than the kitchen I would suggest, it'll feel as if you've done more iyswim.

Agree, do bathroom.

I'd do the bathroom, it sounds in more need of attention, the issues there are more than aesthetic.

yep, another vote for the bathroom

Bathroom, you'll see it there, kitchen not.

Can you clean up bath and sink, get new taps and tiles?

You'll be amazed how quickly you can spend it.

This site is good for bathroom fittings, decent quality and well priced
www.plumbworld.co.uk/

Thanks everyone
That's a resounding vote for the bathroom then!!! Now to find a plumber.......

If you wanted to change tiles you can use your tesco clubcard vouchers at Topps tiles.

We're just finishing doing the bathroom on a very tight budget, and am about to move onto the kitchen.

My best tip would be to shop around, most especially at independent shops. We looked at BnQ, Homebase, Bathstore, Topps Tiles and IKEA, and ended up using local independent trade-style shops for the suite, taps etc and tiles too because we found stuff much cheaper, and better quality at the trade shops.

For tiles, we found Topps tiles to be very overpriced, and wasn't much impressed by their range either.

We discovered a brilliant place called Al Murad. Their prices are much better than any of the big chains (for the kinds of tiles we were looking for anyway) and their range is much nicer.

Don't let their appalling website put you off! Definitely worth a visit if there's one anywhere near you.

www.al-murad.co.uk/branch.html

Where are you? If you're in London, have a look at Chris Stevens towards the Archway end of Holloway road (N7), and ask if you don't see what you want there. They have loads of catalogues of baths etc which they offer really decent discounts on. We got a perfectly decent toilet from there for £45 for example. (And she came in a box labelled "Becky" which makes me smile - and she'll be called Becky" forever now I suspect )

I just ordered the towel rail today, so I can't say if it's any good yet , but it was cheap! www.firstbathrooms.co.uk/

Are you paying for labour BTW? If not, a kitchen is doable for 1k. Have a look at Wickes take away kitchens range. They're really good value. We got the Daytona one and we're really pleased with it.

I can see that I am going to have to do a bit of looking round....

Hmm.... was sitting in the kitchen earlier and thinking that it was a bit worse than I had previously thought. When I was cleaning the bathroom earlier I was thinking it wasn't quite so bad. Decisions decisions.

The £1000 is to cover everything, including installation. I don't think I could realistically do a whole kitchen (although the Wickes ones are surprisingly cheap).

I will have a look at all the links - thanks again everyone.

What's your kitchen like now?

If you already have fitted kitchen units, you can just buy new cupboard doors and put them on the old kitchen (or carcass as they call it - lovely! ) and it looks like a whole new kitchen for a fraction of the cost - particularly the labour which is a big consideration.

You could probably then afford to get a new work surface and sink (which would need to be professionally fitted) and paint the walls and it would look great!

Grey grey grey 1980s grey!!
Yes I could do the doors and have thought of that.
I will make a list of all the things I think I need and see how I could distribute the cash!

I have to say I'd go against the majority here and go for kitchen.

I would spend the money where I spend most of my time. I love cooking so spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I shower so spend very little time in the bathroom.

I agree with taffetacat, especially if you're able to just do the doors.

I'd go for the kitchen if at all possible, it seems like more of an improvement IYKWIM.

If you do for the kitchen (and I do agree with taffeta that if you spend lots of time in there then its prob more of a priority), then have a look at B&Q IT range for replacement doors. They often have promotions and you could get a whole new set for a reasonable price and then change your sink and worktop too.

Hmmm. The doors are not too bad!
In an ideal world I would rip out the kitchen and start from scratch. It is so badly designed. But that would be £££££££ which I don't have.

So far my list says
replace kitchen sink and worktop
new oven and hob
new basin taps in bathroom

D'ya reckon I could do all that for a grand? I don't want expensive stuff, the cheapo £30 taps would do fine.....