A savvy mother who wanted to give her kitchen a makeover turned down a £4,000 quote and transformed it herself with just £110, paint, and sticky back plastic.
Katy Tate, 32, wanted to freshen up her kitchen after buying her 1930s home in Durham in March.
The mother-of-two was quoted £4,000 for a brand new kitchen but decided the money would be better spent on a trip to Disneyland with her husband Jason, 32, and their daughters.
Mr. Tate knocked down the utility room wall to make more kitchen space, while his wife painted the drab brown cupboards white, put bathroom vinyl on the floor, and wrapped wood effect sticky back plastic on the blackwork surfaces.
All in all, she spent £60 on five tins of white paint, £20 on two rolls of sticky back plastic, and £30 on two rolls of vinyl designed for her bathroom floor.
The marketing manager said: ‘The brown and blue weren’t really to my taste and it was all quite dated – I just wanted to put my own stamp on it.
‘We were quoted £4,000 for a completely new kitchen and we could’ve gone for it, but we chose to take our twin girls on holiday to Disney instead.
‘We weighed up the options and thought our money would be better spent on creating memories with our daughters, so we opted for something more temporary for the kitchen.
‘Last month, I started working on the kitchen on a whim because I’d had enough of the brown cupboards.
‘I gave it a go despite everyone putting off doing anything to the kitchen at all because they said it would look a mess and would be hard to do.’
After first taking on the project, Mrs Tate began to search for inspiration on Pinterest to match her quirky farmhouse-style vision for the kitchen.
She spotted tins of paint on sale for £12 in B&M Bargains and painted over the brown wooden cabinets and cupboards in the kitchen, which took two and a half days overall and cost £60 all together for five tins.
The DIY-mad mother then wrapped the kitchen counters, which were previously black and textured, with wood-effect sticky back plastic – and two rolls of it cost just £10 each.
But for some time Mrs Tate didn’t like how her new edits to the kitchen looked and felt that the cream paint didn’t match grey tiles behind the surfaces.
So she came across more sticky back plastic, which was initially supposed to be used for her new bathroom floor tiles, costing £30 for two packs, and used this instead.
The mother-of-two managed to juggle decorating with looking after her twin girls Mabel and Edie, two and divided her time wisely to spend under one week transforming her kitchen for just £110 in total.
She later splashed out on parquet effect ‘wooden’ flooring which was also made from lino and cost less than £200 to buy.
Mrs Tate added: ‘I’m very pleased with how it all came so cheaply and I’m surprised at the durability so far after having it up for three weeks – I couldn’t envision cooking Christmas dinner in the old one!
‘My husband’s friend even came into our home and said ‘I didn’t realise you’d bought a new kitchen.’
All in all, she spent £60 on five tins of white paint, £20 on two rolls of sticky back plastic and £30 on two rolls of vinyl designed for her bathroom floor
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