Creative Mum Transforms Bland Kitchen Into On-Trend Space For Under £100
- Dorota Kuzmicka, 34, wanted to transform her kitchen without spending a fortune
- She used budget materials such as £6 self-adhesive wallpaper and £1 new handles
- Dorota even made a chandelier herself from an old ladder
With the average kitchen renovation costing £8,000, it’s no surprise many of us are putting off giving our kitchen a new lease of life.
But one mum has proven you can truly breathe new life into your kitchen for less than £100.
Dorota Kuzmicka, 34, a mum of three and insurance agent from the West Midlands, used a series of savvy money-saving tricks to totally transform the look of her kitchen.
She used budget materials such as £6 self-adhesive wallpaper, £1 new handles and even made a chandelier herself from an old ladder.
Dorota told money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK: "A few years ago, when we moved to the UK, we only had our own clothes.
"I made our first furniture from wooden boxes and pallets, then I bought second-hand things from charity shops or found something on the street and so I started my adventure with DIY.
"I love changes, I love old furniture and mixed styles. Not everyone will like it, but I'm glad that we can live, in part, the way we want, not the way we have to.
"I work from home as an insurance agent and I am a mother of three wonderful children and I love creating their little worlds out of nothing.
“Everything is second-hand things bought for pennies or for free from Facebook Marketplace. Paints, veneers and wallpapers are normally bought from The Range and most of the accessories I buy for the children's rooms are often ordered from Aliexpress.
“The changes to the kitchen cost us much less than £100!
"In the beginning, we cleaned the entire kitchen.
“We took off the fronts of the cabinets and painted them with white paint, then I degreased the countertops and tiles and glued the self-adhesive veneer on them.
“There was no door on the island, so we made it with a piece of a pallet. We used brick wallpaper on the other side.
“I used marble self-adhesive wallpaper from The Range for £6 a roll, AliExpress handles that cost £1, self-adhesive geometric wallpaper for the tiles at £10 a roll, and brick wallpaper from ebay for £8.
"We made the chandelier from an old ladder, so that was free, and I painted the cabinets and tiles with Johnstone's wood and metal paint, which cost £9.
“It would have cost well over £1,000 to do professionally, but we did it for under £100.
“It took me a day to transform the kitchen.
“It feels perfect to have saved so much money and that we have created a wonderful and safe place for our family on a budget.
"We do everything with the consent of the landlord, but at our own expense and at the lowest possible cost.
"We mainly use wood, paints and veneers.
"When we move out someday, all the walls will be painted magnolia just like they were at the beginning.
"It doesn't matter that you rent a house, it is important what kind of place you create for your family!"
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “Looking at these before and after pictures, I would never have dreamed that this transformation cost less than £100.
“It looks like it cost thousands!
“Dorota’s clever work has just proven that if you work hard and harness your creativity, you can totally transform a space for less."
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