Savvy couple transform drab kitchen into dream space using £1.75 IKEA bargains & it was SO easy to do
A SAVVY couple completely transformed their kitchen on a budget using £1.75 Ikea bargains and clever DIY.
Rachel Green, 29, and Max Butler, 31 didn't like the plain brown cupboards and black worktop in their kitchen so decided to create a chic monochrome space instead.
They kept costs down by using products from B&Q, Ikea and Facebook Marketplace.
Speaking to , they said: "During lockdown when we were house searching we had a lot more time on our hands.
"So I spent hours on Instagram and Pinterest saving pictures of my favourite ideas and creating a mood board for each room.
"The kitchen had plain brown cupboards and black worktops, so we decided to create more of a monochrome feel with marble effect countertops and matching accessories.
"We did the whole project on a budget by sourcing items from B&Q, IKEA and Facebook Marketplace."
They also bought some materials at Homebase, which is where they started the project.
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They bought the Harris Ultimate Woodwork Gloss 4 inch roller set for £5.50 and two tins of Maison Deco Refresh paint for the kitchen cupboards, worktops and splash-back.
They said: "To add a special touch we decided to make all the handles on the wardrobes and drawers gold.
"We did this by removing them all and spray painting them with a can from Amazon. It cost just £11.98."
They also picked up two rolls of self adhesive film to cover the worktops for £5 from B&Q.
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They added: "One addition we wanted for the kitchen was some shelves.
"One of our friends gave us the idea so we could get some cupboard space back, as well as have the ability to rescue some of our nicer ceramic pieces from the back of the cupboards.
"I’d also seen the idea of a shelf pantry all over Instagram and wanted to recreate it for myself.
"To find the materials, we searched Facebook Marketplace for people selling scaffolding wood for cheap and we managed to get them for £3 a board.
"Then we just sanded them slightly, keeping some of the roughness, as that was the look we were going for.
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"We got the brackets off Etsy, and these turned out to be one of the most expensive purchases. We went for some rustic handcrafted brackets made from reclaimed timber and they were £22."
They styled the shelves with pretty kitchen items like a casserole dish from Asda for £9 and some Poundland glass jars with lids.
Overall it was very easy to do, it was just time consuming waiting for the paint to dry and hard to get to some of the cupboards to paint them.
They said: "Some of the other jars came from IKEA for the pasta, and they were £1.75 each.
"While we were in IKEA we picked up some faux foliage for the shelves and the tops of the cupboards for around £30, and a gold rail for additional wall storage for £8."
The pair cleaned down all the surfaces with sugar soap and then sanded them down.
Then they removed the draw handles and sprayed them gold and painted the skirting boards, ceiling and cupboards with two coats of paint each.
Finally they applied the adhesive to the worktop, mounted the shelves and styled the stunning space.
They said: "Overall it was very easy to do, it was just time consuming waiting for the paint to dry and hard to get to some of the cupboards to paint them.
"If we had to do it again, we would take the doors off to complete the job.
"We had tried to avoid doing this as we thought we might struggle to get them back on.
"However, it made it a lot harder to paint without getting inside the cupboards too."
In other news, a DIY fanatic wowed social media with her way of getting neat wall edges in seconds WITHOUT using masking tape.
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