DIY Couple Transform Plain Kitchen Using £1.75 IKEA Bargains
- Rachel and Max wanted to freshen up their kitchen so it matched their tastes
- They bought bargains from B&Q, IKEA and Marketplace for the project
- After seeing Instagram shelf pantries they made their own with £3 wooden boards
Freshening up the kitchen can easily cost a lot of money, especially if you get carried away with home decor mood boards online, but one budget-savvy couple have managed to transform their space without splashing too much cash.
Rachel Green and Max Butler, 29 and 31 from Leicestershire, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘Long term we want to knock through our kitchen into the dining room to create a kitchen diner but until then we wanted to freshen up the space and make it feel more to our taste.
‘During lockdown when we were house searching we had a lot more time on our hands. So I spent hours on Instagram and Pinterest saving pictures of my favourite ideas, creating a mood board for each room and setting up my Instagram houseno1atno1 to share my projects.
‘The kitchen had plain brown cupboards and black worktops, so we decided to create more of a monochrome feel with marble effect countertops and matching accessories. We did the whole project on a budget by sourcing items from B&Q, IKEA and Facebook Marketplace.
‘First we went to Homebase to find some supplies. We picked up a wood roller to ensure a smooth finish and picked out the Harris Ultimate Woodwork Gloss 4 inch roller set for £5.50. Next we picked up two tins of Maison Deco Refresh paint which is intended for kitchen cupboards, worktops and splashbacks. A 750ml tin costs £26.
‘To add a special touch we decided to make all the handles on the wardrobes and drawers gold. We did this by removing them all and spray painting them with a can from Amazon. It cost just £11.98.
‘Another hardware store we visited was B&Q. We picked up two rolls of self adhesive film to cover our worktop as I wanted to create a lighter and brighter space. In the end we chose the D-C-Fix Gloss Grey Marble effect self-adhesive film for £5.
‘One addition we wanted for the kitchen was some shelves. One of our friends gave us the idea so we could get some cupboard space back, as well as have the ability to rescue some of our nicer ceramic pieces from the back of the cupboards. I’d also seen the idea of a shelf pantry all over Instagram and wanted to recreate it for myself.
‘To find the materials, we searched Facebook Marketplace for people selling scaffolding wood for cheap and we managed to get them for £3 a board. Then we just sanded them slightly, keeping some of the roughness, as that was the look we were going for.
‘We got the brackets off Etsy, and these turned out to be one of the most expensive purchases. We went for some rustic handcrafted brackets made from reclaimed timber and they were £22.
‘Some of the items we picked up for styling the shelves included a grey medium rectangular casserole dish from ASDA for £9, and some clear jars with lids from Poundland. Some of the other jars came from IKEA for the pasta, and they were £1.75 each. While we were in IKEA we picked up some faux foliage for the shelves and the tops of the cupboards for around £30, and a gold rail for additional wall storage for £8.
‘The first step was to clean down all of the surfaces with sugar soap, and then we lightly sanded them. Next we removed the handles and spray painted them before leaving them to dry. After that we took down the fittings we didn’t want on the walls and filled the holes, then sanded them down.
‘After that we painted the skirting boards and ceiling before moving onto the cupboards, which each got two coats of paint. Next up was the worktops, and we applied the adhesive D-C-Fix film to them. Finally, once everything was dry, we added the shelves and I styled them.
‘Overall it was very easy to do, it was just time consuming waiting for the paint to dry and hard to get to some of the cupboards to paint them. If we had to do it again, we would take the doors off to complete the job. We had tried to avoid doing this as we thought we might struggle to get them back on. However, it made it a lot harder to paint without getting inside the cupboards too.’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘‘As Rachel and Max have proven here, DIY transformations don’t have to be drastic or flashy to make a difference. A few changes to the colour scheme and a lick of paint can be all you need to make a space feel completely new.
‘DC Fix is quickly growing in popularity, and for good reason - it’s a great solution for those on a budget looking for a reversible decorative option.
‘Just don’t put anything directly from the oven onto this style of worktop cover, as it’s only generally heat resistant up to temperatures of around 75 degrees Celsius.’
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