DIYer Saves £1000s Turning Dated Kitchen Into Modern Minimalist Space
- Jonathan, 50, wanted to upgrade his dated kitchen on a budget
- He used a 20% off deal for supplies from B&Q and found a reduced splashback on eBay
- The DIYer found the project challenging but managed to save £1000s by doing it himself
Kitchens can easily look outdated after a few years, and keeping up with the latest trends isn’t worth the huge expense. However, by thinking about the designs you enjoy most and picking a theme which is timeless, you can transform your space without worrying about the latest fashion.
If you go DIY, you can easily save a lot of money on the process, as the average price for a professional kitchen installation is £10,550. Indeed, one savvy DIYer has managed to transform his kitchen for under £3,000.
Jonathan Barnes, 50 from Rochdale, Greater Manchester who works as a spray shop manager, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘Having recently finished renovating my lounge to an industrial theme and my master bedroom taking on a minimalist style, I decided once again to buck the trend and go for something less traditional with my new kitchen; opting for an ultra-modern design.
‘Nothing in particular inspired the design, as I have eclectic taste when it comes to interior design. All I knew was that I didn’t have the funds available to hire a professional, and I am aware that using any fitting service provided by the retailer would add £1000s on top of the initial kitchen price. So instead of getting it professionally installed, I decided to do it myself.
‘Once I had decided on an ultra-modern style kitchen, I started to browse online for kitchen retailers and settled on B&Q as they had the units and splash walls that I wanted, plus a 20% discount on all kitchens and accessories with a minimum spend of £2,500. I took a sketch of my proposed design together with the measurements into my local B&Q store in order for them to draw it up professionally.
‘All of the units, including the fixtures and fittings, cost £1260. I got three copper splash walls for £355, and a Franke Orion sink for £217. My brass and black tap was £116, and my pull out corner rack system was £167. Finally I got a pull out bin set for £75, then I went to other stores for the rest of my supplies.
‘At Worktop Express I got three grey woodstone worktops for £450, and on eBay I found a liquid glass splashback reduced from £80 to £40. On Amazon I found 12 brushed copper edge pull handles for £31.60, and on Argos I got brushed copper blinds for £12. In total, the supplies cost £2732.60.
‘I was now able to get started on the project. Firstly, I removed the old PVC cladding that had been attached to the walls by the previous owner, I used an old chisel to prise the panels free from the wall and good old elbow grease took care of the rest, taking around half an hour to complete.
‘Next, I removed the kitchen worktops simply by unscrewing them, followed by breaking apart the base units with a lump hammer. This process took one hour to complete.
‘Once I had removed all of the cupboards and cleared the kitchen floor of detritus, I moved onto removing all four layers of the old lino flooring. This took over three hours as I had to cut the lino into small sections in order to bag it up ready for taking to the tip.
‘It was now time to assemble all of the new base units and line them up against the walls in their respective order, making sure that they were all level and an equal distance from the wall. Getting this right is crucial because if the units are not positioned correctly, then the worktops will not fit properly.
‘Once I was satisfied with their positioning, I attached the units to each other and the wall using 30mm screws. This was the most time-consuming part of the installation and took around twelve hours from start to finish.
‘The next step was to assemble the two tall larder units that were going to house my fridge freezer, electric oven and microwave. I left these units until last because when assembled they are rather flimsy until attached to the wall and the neighbouring base units.
‘I now moved onto fitting the pull out bin set and the corner shelf rack system inside their respective units. Fitting the bin set was pretty straightforward and took around one hour, however the corner rack system was rather fiddly and took far longer than I was expecting; about three hours.
‘The next process was to fit the worktops. As a special guide template is required for this task and combined with the fact that I did not possess the confidence to undertake this myself as the prospect of making an error could work out rather costly, I decided to hire a professional joiner to fit them, this also included cutting out the holes for the sink and hob, the cost of this service was £150.
‘Next up, it was time to cut the plinths to size using a mains-powered circular saw and attach them to the legs of the base units using the clips provided, which took around an hour and a half to complete.
‘I then moved onto assembling and hanging the wall units using the brackets provided, as there were only four units in total. This process took me around three hours.
‘The next task was to attach the handles and matching blinds that I had purchased from Amazon and Argos respectively, taking two and half hours to complete.
‘Next, I needed to attach the copper splash walls. This turned out to be quite a challenge because the splash walls were only 2.4m long and my longest kitchen wall was 2.8m long, meaning that I would have to add an additional piece on the end so it would cover the entire length of the wall. I didn’t want to do this because the joint would be clearly visible, so I worked out exactly what size lengths I needed in order to cover all three of my kitchen walls.
‘By doing this I was able to determine that I could cut two lengths of the splash wall and join these pieces behind my hob and cover the joint with a glass splashback. Not only does this hide the joint, it also adds a bit of pizzazz too!
‘The final task was to build a new cupboard around the gas boiler using the extra panels that I had ordered alongside my kitchen. I designed this cupboard so that it could be easily removed if there were any issues with the boiler breaking down, or if it needed replacing at a later date. This process took around four hours from design to completion.
‘Out of all of my DIY projects over the years this was by far the largest and most complex challenge I have ever undertaken, and I don’t mind admitting that I felt out of my comfort zone prior to starting this renovation. However surprisingly enough, once I managed to get my head around the floorplan drawn up by B&Q, the installation of the kitchen was more straightforward than I was anticipating.
‘If I was to do this project again, I would hang the top units lower down because you’d need to be fairly tall in order to access their contents. This isn’t an issue for me as I’m 6’2”, but my partner is only 5’4”, so this is a good place to stash all of my chocolate!’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Jonathan has done an impressive job turning his kitchen into an ultra-modern space. It’s always wise to know your limits with DIY and bring in a professional when needed, as he did for part of the installation. Overall, he has no doubt saved £1000s by doing most of the work himself.’
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It looks fabulous, I think you should be really proud of your DIY skills, we would have to get someone in, as neither me or my partner are very hands on.
Wow what a beautiful kitchen. Love the attention to detail - the copper coloured blind to match the splash back and the black and copper tap.
A good job; well done! I've fitted several DIY kitchens and know how rewarding it can be, both to save money and to get the good result you deserve.
One tip: It is very helpful to fit a horizontal (and level!) batten (19 x 38mm roofing batten is fine) to the wall(s) to bear the back/end of each worktop before cutting and laying the worktop(s) onto this. Only then should the base units be placed underneath and their height and alignment adjusted to touch the worktops, before fixing them together and up into the worktops. That saves much time and effort in trying to get a row of units all properly levelled to then take each worktop.
