Ideas for Kitchen Makeover

[sweetcorn]

Hi! Hoping someone can help me out with some ideas as to what I should do with this old kitchen. 
The intention is to eventually complete a full extension/reno of the house with new open plan kitchen, but that won’t be happening anytime soon.. maybe 5 years+ down the track, so I’m just looking for a relatively low cost makeover to tie me over til then. The whole room needs to be painted. Hinges & handles needs to be replaced on all the cabinets, but not sure what else I should be doing? The layout doesn’t seem to be very user friendly. Limited space for appliances, prepping etc.
The bench is quite low, so was thinking new benchtop to raise the height? New sink & taps most likely. Any feedback, thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @sweetcorn. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for your questions.

Just to confirm your intentions, you are looking for advice on a relatively low-cost makeover for the kitchen? It's one thing to install a new benchtop, sink and spruce up the cabinetry with the Dulux renovation range, but once you start discussing layout you are really looking at a significant investment into a kitchen which you plan to remove in five years.

Here's a similar discussion Reno 1950's Kitchen about refreshing a kitchen versus a full renovation. 

Careful consideration needs to be made as to whether you should do a minimal refresh (cosmetic) and save the additional funds for your major renovation. An even better idea would be to choose elements now that could be carried over into the final layout. If you could provide a plan of the room with dimensions then we could render some potential layouts for your final open plan kitchen. These would assist you in making some great decisions moving forward.

Let me also mention the fantastic @redracer01 to see if he would like to join the discussion.

Mitchell

[redracer01]

Hello @sweetcorn 

One way of renovating your kitchen that I have accidentally recently stumbled upon is to use AA finish birch "Plywood" for your doors! By doing this you will save heaps, however there is a trade off. You will need to be really handy and have tools to cut the plywood with a high degree of accuracy. You could build the whole thing in plywood but it would be easier if you just purchased the carcass and made the doors yourself. The doors can be painted, stained or just sealed with a clear coat, its up to you. You could go down the path of repainting the doors and changing the bench tops, but its good to know that there are options. To ball park it for you, you could change your existing kitchen for just around $2,500 ( materials only ). I've attached a drawing for you and hope it provides you with inspiration and perhaps gives you ideas outside the regular path. Good luck and stay safe.

Cheers,

Red

[May]

Oh wow what aa fantastic kitchen 😍😍

Mines 💩💩💩 

Ok I think paint would be your best friend right now.  

Are you keeping the plank ceiling cos if you are you can make that your feature.  Without knowing the colour scheme you doing throughout and not onowing how you want to open it up as it's hard to say. You could paint the ceiling a dark colour or sand it which is massive job. I  would then paint the walls completely different colour to ceiling, so it makes it a space. 

Those cabinets look sooo low or is it the picture? 

Paint your cabinets if you want whit but two tone would look great. There seems to be no real splashback so a few cheap tiles would kick off with a new benchtop. If anything I would make an island as well and you could do a different colour benchtop than what's at the back to make extra work space and statement. 

Just buy a couple of cabinets in sizing you can use later on, adjustable legs for right height. And either benchtop or table top, add some posts for legs then you have a seating area. Just make sure it's all removable.  Or just make a long table or I currently use the black garage storage shelves in half as extra space for storage yet they do have a work bench on wheels that would look great in there just stain the top I think it's wood or make your own top. There is seriously sooooo much you can do in there. 

First thing we did was put a new tap in our kitchen made 200% improvement 🤣🤣🤣 ours is really bad