Ideas for a cheap kitchen update

We painted our kitchen cupboard doors with ivory chalk paint. Painted the worktops a mid grey. Waxed the doors but protected the worktops with clear yacht varnish.
Needed 24 new cupboard/drawer handles and sent for them from Amazon which was very much cheaper than B & Q.

Painted one kitchen wall a soft sage green, the others were already an ivory colour and just needed refreshed.

We don't have any tiles, just a stainless steel splashback at the cooker.

Went to the Charity Shops and picked up a few items in the sage green tones, e.g. a jug for flowers, and a couple of nice bowls/dishes.

Cost us about £100.
And it is fabulous.

Red kettle and / or toaster, new work tops although they can be expensive if you have several metres.
A new wall colour and new curtains IKEA is a good place for them Perhaps a large ultra modern clock.
A lot of work but worth it. New kitchen cupboards have a closing mechanism- its gets on my nerves, I intend to keep my old ones which I can just shut, sometimes with my foot.

In our old house we changed and 'lit' up our entire (and somewhat dark) kitchen by painting our old wooden cupboards white and we did everything ourselves. The cupboards had to be stripped (plenty of steel wool and remover) then a primer and two more coats of white satin. We added new light fixture, new hardware, gave the walls a fresh coat of paint (soft beige), and replaced the counter top with imitation butcher block (formica). The finishing touch was new laminate (imitation) wood floor. Added a few plants and lots of copper. It may sound a bit outdated but not for the mid '90s. My old neighbor was there recently and says that kitchen still looks good! PS. ....and white kitchen cabinets are making a comeback again.

My kitchen is 23 years old. I have thought about painting the cupboards but the tiles are horrid too and the worktops so I thought long and hard and I'd rather have a holiday!

If you paint your tiles prepare them well, use appropriate tile paint and a small sponge roller.
Paint each tile individually as it's worth taking time over.

Have you heard about "wrapping" These days you can have almost anything wrapped. My son and daughter in law have had their kitchen cupboards wrapped in plastic, you can choose from a range of colours. It cost about £6 a door. Certainly not worth prepping and repainting doors.
Paint your tiles, choose new door handles make sure they cover the screw holes of the original ones.
Stick to one colour for accessories to tie it all in.

There is a Primer called ESP Owatrol. You can check it out online. It is supposed to chemically bond with paint onto any surface even Melamine !
It sounds brilliant.
Have any Gransnetters tried it ? I would love to know from an impartial source.

Yes, icy.

The painted chair was the best thing ever! I haven't quite finished mine, yet.

I get a bit carried away with painting furniture.

DH repainted our beech kitchen units with Farrow and Ball eggshell in Charleston, a shade of grey. Two years on, they haven't chipped and clean easily. Took quite a while and several coats but much cheaper than a new kitchen. Friends had theirs spray painted off site, but that cost about £2 K.

I think Kitchen Magic is the new trading name of Kitchen Restoration which is the company who revamped our kitchen with new doors. You keep the cupboard shells and they update the rest. They charge a fraction of what a new kitchen costs but the result is as if it is all newly fitted. Absolutely brilliant - and cheap too.

My worktop was old and dark, we sanded quite deeply, oiled several coats. Helped uplift the space.

Painted my daughters dark oak cupboards pale green dragged effect years ago. Worked really well.
One word about painting tiles, it works fine but use a grout pen to do the grout lines so it doesn't look painted.

Great Interior Design Challenge?

Hope you go on Wednesday and get your 10% off

Cherrytree you're right about measuring carefully as I think standard kitchen doors nowadays will not fit our cupboards.

Yes I had all the cupboard doors stripped as they are oak and not laminate,then they were bees waxed cost with labour £400 and looking good too

Glenfinnan, may I ask how much it cost approximately? I will understand if you don't wish to share. I would just like a ballpark figure so I know what I might be saving for!

Frenchie, was just about to ask the same thing, but then realised it possibly means Great Britih Interior Design Challenge.

Placing the kitchen doors is a good start or if you have room put some shelves up.
If your tiles look a bit tatty where the cooker is you can take them off and put a splash back there instead.

I've just painted my kitchen cupboard doors too and I'm really pleases with the results. I used the Annie Slaone chalk paint in French Linen and then sealed it with clear wax. I changed the door and drawer handles to neater ones in a burnished stainless steel. The whole job cost less than £150, and looks fab --I think-!

You can get amazing results painting tiles. We did ours a bit nervously thinking they might look patchy or paint not set properly. However followed the instructions exactly washing the tiles first then using the proper paint tile primer .Finally the tile paint, was worth all the effort. Kitchen cupboards and drawers, use fine sandpaper first and then bought an Acrilic semi sheen which we put on using a very small roller.Very quick drying and not messy to do. We used Wickes and Homebase.

Think you could be correct about that cherry but B&Q do separate doors that fit standard units. Door paint works very well, used it in our utility-DH used small radiator roller as it avoided any brush marks and it's a nice finish. Another idea for covering tiles is to fit glass splashbacks but it depends on your budget.

our - not pour!

We had a very nice lady come in and paint pour kitchen units. She took the doors and the drawer fronts away and painted them at her place; then came back to finish it all of. It is completely transformed - the units were a very very dark oak and we had them painted cream - it all looks lovely and light now.

It wasn't cheap, but we budgeted for this when we bought the bungalow as we knew we could not live with the gloom!

Polly I have a feeling that IKEA doors will only fit IKEA carcasses
I would recommend that anyone who wants to change kitchen cupboard doors measure
very carefully before purchasing.