New kitchen on a budget

SpanielCuddler

Depending on your budget and if you were planning on a new one, lots of people on MN recommend DIY kitchens. Meant to be a fraction of the cost.
The showroom is in the North but you can browse online and order sample doors. You’d need a fitter.
Look at reviews or threads on MN.

DIY Kitchens now have a showroom at Witney. I had one of their kitchens fitted 5 years ago and I have been happy enough with it to be in their Witney showroom on Sunday with DD, both of us having just moved/about to move and planning new kitchens.

When we replaced the kitchen ten years ago we bought it on our builder’s Howden”’s account, saving about 20%. It still looks like new so was a good investment.

Several years ago, when I was in my 1930's house, I had a very long, galley kitchen. It was solid, good wooden doors and drawer fronts, lots of them all in a dark oak colour. This kitchen always looked dark, just one window above the sink about half way down.

To replace the whole lot would have cost a fortune, looked into replacing doors and drawer fronts, but even that was a good few thousand pounds. Also, I was very reluctant to see those solid wooden doors go to landfill and to replace them with modern flimsy ones.

Solution - I found a company who came down one week, took off all 12 base doors, eight drawer fronts, and seven wall doors, take them away for spraying (Colour of my choice - I chose white), brought them back one week later and it looked like a lovely bright new kitchen. Cost me under a thousand pounds at that time, and when I sold the house about seven years later it was all still beautifully bright and clean.

I know a few people who have simply replaced the doors and drawer fronts with great success. You can have a stone or quartz worktop fitted, some of them fit over the existing worktop, and a new splashback would help too.
I'm not sure if you plan to have somebody in to do the work for you, but if so I'd ask them where they can buy kitchens at a discount. I think Howdens and Magnet give tradesmen a fair amount off what would be the cost to you.
A second hand kitchen is a great idea, but you'd need to be careful that you got all the furniture that you wanted as you're unlikely to be able to get extra to match.

You can have just the doors changed if the carcasses are still good.
Someone locally who makes and fits them gave us a price for doors and worktops. His work is excellent but in the end we decided to go for a whole new kitchen as I've compromised for many years, changing worktops, floor and appliances but not the cupboards.

Yes, some people will get rid of nearly new kitchens just because they move in and don't like the colour! Look on Freecycle, Gumtree etc.

LBROWN1

We found a brillant company at the weekend who sell ex-display and Used kitchens, didnt even know it was a thing!
www.theusedkitchencompany.co.uk so many amazing kitchens to choose from!!

Nice! Good job finding a reasonable way to modernise.

We found a brillant company at the weekend who sell ex-display and Used kitchens, didnt even know it was a thing!
www.theusedkitchencompany.co.uk so many amazing kitchens to choose from!!

My chum sold one.. She had just moved into a new home, but kitchen not to her liking it was only about 2years old, went like a shot on FB.
Worth a look.

Sago

I put an IKEA kitchen on Gumtree, it sold in 20 minutes!

The buyer paid for the kitchen and the removal saving me extra labour and the cost of a skip!

My husband said it would never sell.

I think I may have said “I told you so”

Depending on your budget and if you were planning on a new one, lots of people on MN recommend DIY kitchens. Meant to be a fraction of the cost.
The showroom is in the North but you can browse online and order sample doors. You’d need a fitter.
Look at reviews or threads on MN.

Our home is quite old. My grandparents retired here, after purchasing our old home, in the 50s. We bought it when we married, soon after they died. Luckily they had modernized somewhat.

We've added extensions, a conservatory type space, a Mansard addition - always keeping what bases/ shelves they had and painting or sanding/sealing. Perhaps fresh paint, new hardware is a way forward?

A S/H kitchen will have parts you can’t use because they don’t fit in your plan.

If the bases and shelves are still good, refinished door fronts make a massive difference combine that with new handles a transformation is possible with small cost.

I know two families who have sold kitchens.
It was a middle man who bought them, I seem to remember it was a woman who came to negotiate, what happens to it after that i.e. how it is sold on I don’t know.
It was a friend and their S who sold them and they were in good condition.

Try Wickes budget range, not the stuff that’s on display

I gave my wooden doors away on Freecycle.org
You could take a look there.

Or could call companies that do kitchens for an ex-display possibility?