Kitchen Ideas and help - cheaply please

brownbake

Hi I am looking for any help and advice doing up my kitchen on the cheap. My budget is around £500.

When I moved in I replaced the floor myself with tiles - not a perfect job but better than was there. Cost about £80. Now the imperfections bother me a bit so am looking for solutions. Could I get it linoed over the tiles or should I dig tiles up and start again?

Also I tiled the walls - I know they don't go with anything else and I don't like the look now but they were free!! I know if I had just done it all white it wouldn't have mattered but cos we had the expensive black borders - I used them. Dumb I know.

Lastly the doors on the units. The carcasses are in very good condition as are the doors but man it looks dated!! Can anyone recommend a good, cheap kitchen door replacement company or could I just get away with taking my time painting them?

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u206/booksgreatoffers/KitchenBoilercorner.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u206/booksgreatoffers/Kitchencornecookerr.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u206/booksgreatoffers/Kitchenfrontentryview.jpg

Please help me. We now have a lovely bathroom - see other posts _ but kitchen is letting the flat down I feel. And all our money went on the bathroom so am I being realistic with my £500 budget if I do nearly all the work myself?

Also if anyone knows what I can do to hide boiler safely please let me know

Any help, ideas, suggestions, comparisons or suppliers info will be greatly received. If you just want to say it looks rubbish save your time please.

Massive thanks in advance.

amandada

Have a look on ebay for cupboard doors-a friend of mine got enough to kit out her kitchen for under £10!
Depending on what you get doorwise, why not think about changing your worktops to black/mainly black. Capitalise and work with those black tiles, I think it could look really good

brownbake

Thanks amandada, I suppose really I don't like my tiles or the tiling!! The pics were taken immediately after doing it about 18 months ago and I constantly notice all my imperfections.

The problem with replacing the worktop and getting it fitted is that is probably gonna double my initial budget. And if I did that then I may as well get a built in hob and oven - yet more expense.

I want to try and work with what I have - guess replacing ALL tiles and doors is the (expensive) way I am thinking.

Saw this

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9746486&fh_view_size=6&fh_eds=%3f&fh_location=%2f%2fcatal!!!1%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b10057%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b10058%7d%2f_special_offers%3e%7bClearance%7d%2fstyleStyle%3e%7bplum_style_shaker%7d&fh_refview=lister&ts=1216811699551&isSearch=false
on B + Q and could replace all door and drawers for about £180 - but then nothing else including worktops would match!!

My budget of £500 all in would be helpful. Any ideas welcomed.

Thanks

arnie&caseysma!

We used B&Q last year to do out our kitchen and we were mostly replacing door etc although we did add a few cupboards to wasted space in the kitchen. We have loads of cupboard, added a drawer stack, added cupboards and where the previous owners had put on a mny old wardrobde for storage we got a larder unit to replace.
We also ended up having to buy a length of worktop to try and match in with adding cupboards we needed another length. We did everything including kickboards, cornice and pelmet, etc for under £500.

We used the Cherry Style Modern range from B&Q.
Handles came from Argos at £10 for 10 - not sure if they still do this tho.
The length of worktop came from either Builders Center or Howdens at £24 for the length. Sometimes worktop is not as expensive as you think, just have to look harder. Dark worktops would totally change the look of the tiles and complement them, and I think you would look at them in a different way!

choccybuttons

Depending on where you live some warehouses do really good worktops and doors. Then you would just have to find your own joiner to fit. If your floors level you could just tile over the top with some nice black or slate tiles. Keep shopping around and dont be afraid to ask for discounts if your haggling.

on_a_money_mission

I asked my carpenter a similar question for my kitchen and he recommended painting the 'orange' wooden trims etc, as it makes a dramatic difference. He's also making me an open base cupboard to cover my boiler.

I would say that the painted finish has to be perfect otherwise it will drive you mad (eg my own kitchen - pre carpenter advice) - one of my friends has had hers spraypainted by a specialist firm.

want2bmortgage3

I would definitely replace the door fronts and worktop. The wood you have does look very dated. I would probably go for a light wood door such as maple/beech, and a dark worktop.

Check out the take away range at your local b+q or wickes/focus. If you have a howdens they do a really cheap range called technik, you could probably replace all the cabinets + doors for a few hundred, if you know someone with a trade card.

Floor tiles look ok to me, neutral. I think the main think you need to replace is the doors/worktops, I dont think the floor is bad at all. Boiler could probably be boxed in but double check with a plumber as it might need to be vented if it gets hot.

Bungarm2001

When you are considering changing kitchen cupboard doors, make sure you measure up the distance between the hinges as well as the external measurements of the actual doors themselves. Don't know how old your cabinets are, but you can never take it for granted that new doors will simply screw into place without any problems.

My OH replaced all the doors in my DIL kitchen recently, but had many problems because the hinges didn't line up. He did get around it, but then again he's used to doing this kind of thing. It was very time consuming adjusting each one as he went along. Just something to bear in mind. ;;)