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We have a kitchen with tiled worktop and all round high splashback with the same tiles, fitted cupboards, sockets, sink and whatnots. All in a sort of fake 80s cottage pine colour scheme. The tiled worktop is a massive PITA as the grout stains, collects crumbs etc. and we want rid....
Bodge option - get someone to replace the worktop MDF with fresh MDF and large tiles (I do like the heatproof convenience) - will never match the wall tiles/floor/grout/fake pine etc.
Then we think hmmm - we could remove the hundreds of spashback tiles. That'd likely need replaster. Might be able to keep everything else in place. Might then show up the mess of the cupboard doors.
Hmmm - could paint the doors - prob a pro spray job or buy new (standard 400/500 jobs). Ah but then XYZ other follow on issues that incrementally get to rip out the whole thing and start again.
Now we don't know anything about costs, practicality, time-scales, and esp tricks of the trade, things we have not considered.
I guess I'd like to pay some kitchen fitter/design hybrid expert on a flat rate to do the sucking of teeth and discussing options in a way that is not going to turn out into a massive upsell with weeks or more of no kitchen/moved out. Don't want a Grand Designs epic, nor (I guess) a competent builder that will just do as we ask - need that upfront info pre-contract so we can make a decision. Might need some iterations.
We are not good with kicking off such a thing, but that third eye expert view would really really help - what is the best approach here?
We have painted our dark oak coloured doors to a pale grey - it's worked really well. Then modernised a corner cupboard with one of those new mechanisms that various shelves come out on a pivot. We then retrofitted another narrow cupboard to a modern sliding pull out system. Then to put icing on the cake, replaced all the kickboards with under unit drawers. You fit a new kickboard to each drawer, and you just walk up, tap the kickboard with your foot, and the drawer slides out - spices, tinned food, trays etc. Made a huge difference to our 30 year old kitchen.
Maybe go with a dark worktop, but you'll need a joiner to fit it without major damage to existing tiles on walls.
See if you can get the bottom row of tiles off.
New quartzite (that's natural, unlike quartz) worktop with a quartzite splashback.
The supplier will cut the splashback to height
Paint the doors
My wife was like we'd like a new kitchen, but we were limited, a new kitchen wouldn't give us extra space. Modernise it, use kickboard storage, then we also got a floor to ceiling unit that we put electricals on, it's hidden next to a massive fridge freezer - we went with a very deep free standing unit (80cm) as it was behind the door, but left a space that a tall Ikea unit fitted. I'm not sure a new kitchen would have delivered TBH as the units themselves are solid.
In small spaces, refurbing works really well. The kickboard storage and the modernised slider units for the awkward cupboards were a game changer.
Lift the entire top and replace it with some oak furniture board or standard kitchen worktop stuff.
Furnitureboard is made up from bits glued together. it is very strong and very stable and being oak will fit into the olden cottage.
Doors are easy to replace. Just make sure you get the same width/height and you can just swop over the fittings yourself.
My DIY skills are passable so much of the above seems feasible and good advice - thanks.
Likely "you'll need a joiner" - part of the top is C shape around three walls with sink in the middle. Nothing else awkward. I guess if I can get the old top off without too much destruction then bodge can be later undone by a pro.
Being time poor, some paid trades would help, but still wondering whether it is typical/possible to get an independent fitter/designer on a fixed cost basis just to pick their brains and offer their experience?
Removing the tiles is inviting a whole lot of pain and expense if you ask me.
In a roughly similar situation with my wife's rental. We just decided to change the worktops & sink, refurb/paint the cupboard doors and put new flooring in.
All DIY, roughly £500 all in.
Still got the splashback to put in and handles to fit but otherwise about as good as we could have hoped for without spending ££££s
Cheers. The whole place is a WIP having not been decorated since the early 90s as far as I can tell, so there's a whole lot more to do. The kitchen was a full week all in but I'm a total DIYer. My day job is sitting in a control room clicking buttons. Most of the work was the cupboard doors and could have been done much quicker if I had a paint sprayer (I now do, after this).
Worktop & new sink was a full day with worktop being the majority of that.
Floor took me ~4hrs to pull up the old tiles, flatten, then install the click-fit stuff.
Cupboard doors were the worst. It was a custom kitchen with odd door sizes otherwise I'd have just bought new and swapped. Used a router sled to flatten off ready for the shaker-style trim, then glued and clamped. Then wood filler in any gaps and sanding smooth. Then a coat of Zinsser shellac primer, then hand-painting with the sage green + sand + second coat. Was easy enough as the living room next door was empty so just set up some long tressles for it all to dry on, but it took A LONG time. If I'd had the airless sprayer I reckon I could have finished this bit in 1/10th the time.
worktop tiles are the same as on the wall (and there many more than this wide-angle photo) - vaguely match the floor. Sorry if you've run out of eye-bleach 🙂
