Kitchen Renovation Without Spending a Fortune

The eagle-eyed of those who follow my blog may have noticed that I have renovated my kitchen. I wanted to share my experiences with you to give you some ideas of what you can do to get a totally different look for your kitchen renovation without spending a fortune (and some of the frustrations and pitfalls that are involved).

Key learnings:

• Even if you plan to replace things gradually, check everything out initially to make sure you don’t get unexpected surprises such as changes in dimensions
• Provided you don’t need significant structural changes or repairs, you can get a new modernised look for your kitchen without replacing the whole thing.
• If there is no hurry you can project manage it yourself to keep costs down, without any significant loss of function
• If you need new appliances, they will always be expensive but you can keep an eye out for sales and buy them together to get further discounts.

Getting started

My kitchen was 25 years old and I was concerned that all my appliances might start to die – likely all at once and at the most inconvenient time. So I intended to start replacing them gradually in my own time. Then I discovered that fridge and freezer dimensions have changed considerably in the last 25 years and that I would need to modify my kitchen in order to be able to replace them. I definitely needed to determine whether I would be able to replace other appliances simply or whether I would need to redesign the whole kitchen.

I was pretty happy with the layout of the kitchen, having designed it myself originally. When I thought about what I might want to change given the chance, the only things I could think of were still as limited by the size and shape of the space available as they were first time around: I was never going to be able to get the butler’s pantry that I’d love (and my spare room does pretty good double duty for that now anyway). So provided the appliances would fit, there was nothing I really wanted to change in the layout. The basic bones of the kitchen were all still in good condition.

Thankfully all of the other appliances were still available in the same dimensions so no other serious modification would be required. I figured out that if I could gain some extra space by using the wall cavity behind my fridge and freezer, I might just be able to accommodate the extra 10cm depth in the newer models. A friendly builder confirmed that as the wall wasn’t load bearing it would be possible (phew)!

My original kitchen appliances were all white (that is why they are called ‘whiteware’!) but I quickly discovered that many were no longer available in white, so I would have to change over to stainless steel for all of them if I wanted them to match (which of course I did). I’m glad I found that out at the start.

Appliances

Finding a suitable fridge/freezer combination that would fit the space I had was the most difficult part of my renovation. Eventually I found something would work but had to have the space remodelled: shortening up the shelving above the unit and cutting into the wall cavity behind. This also left a large space alongside the unit that I needed to figure out how best to fill as it was too big to just leave as it was.

You can often get very good discounts when you buy a bundle of appliances all at the same time. Even if you intended to replace them gradually, it may actually be more cost effective to purchase them at the same time. And of course that will save on delivery charges as well.

Installation

One thing to be aware of is that while you might expect ‘delivery and installation’ to mean that they set everything up all ready to use, I discovered that ‘installation’ apparently means ‘take appliance out of the box and, if it is easy, plug it in’. If it is anything more complicated you have to sort it out yourself! For example, the guys delivering (and ‘installing’) the dishwasher were not allowed to disconnect the pipes from the old dishwasher and reconnect them to the new dishwasher even though nothing else was required to be done or changed. Similarly, with the new hob, they could plug in the electric part but weren’t allowed to connect the gas part even though it was exactly the same as the previous one.

Another thing to be aware of is that Building Code Standards may have changed. For me this meant that even when I did get the appropriate tradesperson in who could reconnect the gas fittings, the gas bottle was no longer allowed to be where it previously was (and had been quite happily for 25 years) and had to be moved and plumbed elsewhere before it could be signed off. Similarly the extractor fan now had to be positioned considerably higher above the hob than it had been previously and the gas fitter couldn’t sign off until that had been done.

All of this means that you do need to be prepared to juggle a series of different tradespeople in order to get what might have initially seemed a simple job completed.

Resurfacing Cupboards and Benchtop

Once I finally had the appliances installed, I realised that whilst the white appliances had reflected the light, stainless steel was acting like a black hole and making my kitchen feel very dark. So that meant that I did need to update the rest of the kitchen to a different colour before too long. I am usually an “anything but white” person but in this instance I decided that white was probably the best option to make the kitchen look lighter.

I knew that it was possible to resurface the kitchen without replacing everything but I didn’t know where to start. I had been recommended to talk to Steve Battersby at Kas Furniture and IQ Kitchens and he was so helpful: even though I wasn’t actually going to be using his services directly he put me in contact with a whole range of different tradespeople who could help with the different aspects of the kitchen update. Thanks so much Steve.

My first port of call was Surface with a Smile who can paint your existing cupboards and drawers to give a totally new look at a much cheaper price than replacing everything. They come and remove all the cupboard and door fronts and any other facings that can be removed, take them down to their factory and spray paint them to give a fantastic new finish. My kitchen is built in (even up to the ceiling architraving) so there were lots of bits that couldn’t be removed but they were able to spray paint them on site. They did a few touch ups on the cabinets themselves where needed and fitted some new handles to update the look and match the stainless appliances. I had to live with an open plan look for a while when things were off being painted but everything was still fully functional so there was no inconvenience.

My Formica benchtop was also in need of replacement but it was going to be difficult (but not impossible) to take it off and put a new one on because of the way the upstand was attached. But other than being old and tired everything else was still in good order. Superior Benchtop Solutions were able to install an Earthstone (engineered stone – quartz and polymer) benchtop over the top of the old one. They used 6mm engineered stone to essentially encase the old one and nothing else needed to change (except the sink and tap that I was updating anyway). This was the only time in the whole kitchen updating exercise that I was unable to use the kitchen at all (for 2 nights): I had to have the water and gas disconnected before they did the install and then had to leave the ‘glue’ to set until the next day before reconnecting it all. I was very pleased with the result.

The last stage was getting a new splashback installed and then the finishing touches of new switches and plugs. Even though I am happy with the final result, getting the splashback put in turned out to be much more of a drama than it should have been so I won’t share the details of who I used.

The final step was to get a pull-out cupboard made to fill the gap beside the fridge/freezer. I had thought about a range of options such as a wine rack or shelves but eventually I decided on a pull-out cupboard to store tricky items like larger jars and bottles, and trays that I struggled to find a sensible place for elsewhere. I drew out exactly what I wanted and the lovely Steve from IQ Kitchens organised a builder who could make it up for me. I am really pleased with the result and have now been able to store all the difficult items that were annoying me in other places.