"Tarting Up " A Kitchen On A Serious Budget - Any Tips

[colette]

We are going to improve the look of our 1980's kitchen before our flat goes up for sale , hopefully later this year. The units are all quite good still , flat fronted and a sort of beige colour. Unfortunately the double oven and the hob are brown , so we are thinking of replacing them .
The base of the units are lined with a (I don't know the proper name for it) brown (yuk again)thick band of laminate that I am thinking of replacing with a brighter colour to tie in with the floor. I would really like to paint over the beige tiles but dh is sceptical as to how it would look. His parents have painted their kitchen cupboard doors and it looks obvious that they have.
So I would love some tips on painting tiles and doors - can they look like they are new and if so what product did you use ?
Also any advice on where to get the cheapest hobs and ovens? Do you think we should put handles on the cupboards to update them? Should I keep the walls white ? I was thinking of a colour but thought white may make the kitchen look more spacious. It is a long narrow kitchen. Any things not to do as well?
Can you tell I am a bit of a novice

i'd buy cheap but glam replacement doors & kickboard at Ikea, then put mosaic tiles over the existing tiles. New stainless steel or white oven & hob. is it built-in or slot-in. Instant new kitchen!

We repainted our cupboards with a cream paint, think it was one designed for 'painting over' ifkwim! Not sure what it was called but it was from B&Q and cost us about £10. They look great (they were very country kitchen before) but we kept the pine door knobs as the contrast looks good.

Either tile over the existing tiles, you can get value white ones from B&Q, and it's really easy, I know cos I did it! It does look better than just painting them, but if there is only a bit of tiling that needs to be covered then you van paint them.

If i think of anything else I'll let you know! Have fun

if you're doing it to sell I wouldn't replace the hob and oven just because they're brown (although agree not to my taste) .. unless you can then take them with you

if the rest of the kitchen looks good (just replace the doors with MDF painted cream, nice handles .. see DIY stores, new kickboard) you could do it in beiges and cappucinos, have some bright greens in accessories and it should look ok to sell

how much is the flat going on the market for?

I painted over browny cream tiles (which had a pattern on them) with the International tile paint. I did use the primer and then the paint and painted them cream. I then used some lovely blue tile transers randomly so they looked cool. They lasted about 3 yrs before it looked tatty.

Could you update with new kickbords (cheap), painted tiles and funky handles. Clean everything really well and totally declutter the worktops - just leave out one nice kettle.

I wouldn't buy a new hob and oven TBH as I doubt they would stop someone buying the flat. They other thought it to get a quote on new ones and explain to a potential buyer (once they have shown interest) that to replace them would cost £xxx. This means someone would see it wouldn't cost much.

for the tiling you could try stick and go self adhesive tiles which should do the trick in no time

fab idea & crean tiles are nice, but the brown ones! Yikes!

oh yes some are vile, but htey even do tiny ones,

I had a kitchen that sounds similar to yours, old beige units with a sort of plasticky finish - I painted the doors in pale green, having sanded the shiny finish and then applied primer and two coats. I was v v careful with the painting and it looked fine. I would say chose a pale colour rather than white as white looks so rubbish when it gets marked, and I think a bit of pigment in the paint covers more flaws. I also used a remnant of pretty checked fabric (everyone seems to love ginhgam in a kitchen) to cover a bit under the sink where there were no doors, and made a fake blind to match. We had an ancient rayburn which I just cleaned as best I could. I'm sure there would be some info on the internet somewhere about what colour you could use to minimise the look of the brown appliances - maybe one of those hip sage green colours? We sold our house a couple of months later and the woman who bought it said how pretty the kitchen was!

Thanks all for your ideas,
Cd cheers for the link. They look easy, plus even if I was to paint tiles I would need to regrout I think and these would save me the trouble.
I would rather not replace the oven and hob if possible as it would use up a big chunk of the budget. The hob rings look a bit rusty , I wonder if we could just do something with them.
Aloha I think it would probably sell for about £110,000 or maybe slightly more. Except for being skint I don't want to spend too much on the kitchen as we have lived here for 9 years and I won't get the benefit iykwim.
Wilbur I like your idea about adding colour to detract from the impact of the brown.

Just replace the hob then, that is the bit that will catch their eye

Get a cheapo ss one from ebay

eg this or this

what is your budget?

CD you are right about it catching their eye as I noticed it when we were viewing the flat 9 years ago and it looks worse now
I will look on e-bay , but do you think it will look funny not matching the oven ?

We face a similar dilemma with our house and EA advised us not to fiddle with it as whatever we might do would make whatever we didn't touch stand out even more iyswim. We have beige with splashes of blue (bin, blind etc) and have made sure the draining board and taps are as shiny as poss. Our cooker is an oldish white freestanding gas one with high level grill, hardly derigeur, but at least it looks clean ! What type of hob is it - would a soak in bio washing powder or a scrub of ajax powder help !

Will look later ds is throwing wobblies

I have to say if I was a first time buyer and I looked at flat with a brown kitchen and a white kitchen, otherwise comparable, I would choose the white, because as a first time buyer I would be spending all my dosh on the flat, and wouldn't have anything left over for improvements, and secondly as a first time buyer I would probably have wildly inaccurate ideas about how much things cost and would think a new kitchen would be hugely expensive.

Do you think your flat would sell easily? i.e. is it a desirable price & location? If so, don't spend too much tarting it up so no need to swap expensive appliances. I would work with what you have. The beige tiles and brown appliances are at least fairly neutral. i would prefer beige and brown rather than loud colours. Could new door knobs be enough to tart up the kitchen? IKEA do some that are inexpensive. Also, the paint that you can get for doors is pretty good. Apply a couple of coats with a foam roller for a nice finish.

Lizs , it is an electric hob, they really are knackered. I know what your EA means but our kitchen actually looks a bit scruffy not just dated.
Aloha , I know what you mean but it is difficult to know how much value we would put on a property by improving our kitchen without ripping it out .
suzi2 what paint have you used ? Mil's painted doors look dreadful , although could be the application rather than the product.
I am off to try and take dds tamagotchi apart again that has stopped working since she dropped it in the bath
Your tips are very encouraging thanks

collette - I have used something that was for covering melamine - the name escapes me! It does look seriously crap if applied with a brush. But with a dense foam roller you get a great finish.