Thursday 1 May 2014

The kitchen... here's the plan...

After I bravely shared my less than beautiful kitchen with you last time, I'll now share my grand plan.

This is a case of working with what I've got, spending the least amount of money possible and creating the look of a £20,000 kitchen.

Okay, I'm kidding about that last part.
But let's take a look at a kitchen that costs £20,000.
Probably.



Here's my cunning plan. I shall take my flat melamine eighties door...


And add thin strips of timber...

see my pencil line?


...all around the edges, creating the look of a shaker door. 

The wood will be primed with super-primer. The melamine will be wiped with ESP...


...a product I have NEVER used! This is a very exciting prospect for me. Apparently it's not just a primer. Oh no. It makes the paint CHEMICALLY BOND to a non porous surface. Like magic. It's all very scientific I'm sure but let's just call it magic.

Then, I can paint. I've ordered Farrow and Balls Cornforth white. Okay, F&B paints are not cheap BUT, if you're getting the look of a £20,000 kitchen for under £200 then it's a bargain.



The colour was chosen for its ability to look great with the cooker and the splashback.
New handles and you'd never know what lies beneath.

For the rest of the room, I'd like to replace this...


with this...


but I have a sneaking suspicion I'm not going to pull that off whilst keeping my budget under £200.

We have concrete floors so gorgeous boards aren't going to happen either. Also wood would worry me as our washing machine has been known to flood the floor.

I think we might end up with this...


...pretend slate. And even that's going to bust the budget. Unless I pay with paypal generated by ebay sales,
then it's free. That's how I paid for the dining room floor.

The pantry door...


will become another one of these...


but I'm going to have to replace the enitire door architrave to make that work I think.

I'd love to replace the worktops but it's a huge expense and also involves replacing the sink. This will have to wait for another time. (sniff...)

I don't want to do spanktacular expensive tiling and then risk it being damaged or not fitting when we eventually replace the worktops so I have a few cheap options that would look good but could be replaced somewhere down the line. I'll keep those up my sleeve for now.

The lighting...


...totally sucks. I'd like to find a spotlight track that fits the exact footprint of a strip light but there don't seem to be any. Why ever not? People don't want to have to replaster a celing when they update their lighting. Someone needs to invent this. Fast.

The ugly radiator will be hidden behind a radiator cabinet. And I think that just about covers it.
 That little lot could take me until Christmas. So I can't sit here chatting about it all day. There's work to do!




12 comments:

  1. Your plans sound excellent! I'm researching kitchen floor options at the moment myself, and just wanted to let you know (in case it helps) that Tesco do a clubcard vouchers swap for Topps Tiles credit at 3x the value (£5 of Tesco vouchers = £15 TT credit). So if anyone you know has a stack of vouchers sitting around, you could spend them on some lovely tiles :)

    Also, I'm sure you're aware (and I have no idea how professional-looking the end result is) but you can get tile paint- so you could paint over your existing splashback tiles rather than replacing them before you do the counters?

    Sorry if I'm stating the obvious with both things above; I'm sure you know more about DIY options than I do :) Good luck with it all! xxxx

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    1. Thanks Katie, sadly I don't shop at Tescos but that sounds like a great plan if you do. I might use some tile paint on the tiles behind the sink as I don't think I can take them off without flooding the cupboards below!
      xxxx

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  2. Do you know Emma Kate I don't think you will have any trouble at all making your kitchen look as if its a really expensive one because you have a wonderful knack of seeing what is possible then carrying it all through! Cant wait to see the finished kitchen!

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    1. Thank you Anne. I started filling the lumpy walls today. Bored of that already! xx

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  3. Bloody hell, who spends 20 grand on a kitchen? I wish they'd adopt me.
    I have every faith in you, Em. At the rate at which you work I'll probably be finished by Whitsun. x

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    1. Where my best friend used to work, the lady there spent £60,000 on her kitchen. Around the same time, I bought a house for less than that. The kitchen was SHITE! They tried to make it trendy and it was just UGLEEE!
      The moral of this story is; just don't.

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  4. I have seen people in blog land paint their floor and have then turn out really classy!! You have to use floor paint..and do prep work but what the heck? Also have you see the vinyl plank floors?

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    1. Yes, I'd wondered about that. I think we need the floors screeded to level them and I'm not sure how durable that is to walk on. I saw someone do a kind of faux flagstone once by drawing into leveling compund before it set, then painting a stone effect and a mortar effect on the lines. Hmm...sounds like fun!
      I shall investigate vinyl planks too. Thanks Heather!

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  5. Emma - which finish of F and B paint did you use? Maybe you've said somewhere but I can't find it! I'm thinking of painting the ghastly wood effect melamine cupboards in our new kitchen, that is if I can persuade husband to let me. I've got to make sure I've got all my research done before I even mention the subject as I know he doesn't really want me to bother! But I can't stand them as they are!

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    1. Thanks! We now have a wonderful much expanded local paint shop in Wantage which is selling F and B and Little Greene. I think it'll take me weeks just to choose the right colour though......

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