The kitchen is our proudest achievement in our rental house- we did it all for about £300! We wanted to update it as it was pretty grim and not at all our style. We also knew we'd be in this house for at least a couple of years. We cook and bake a lot and we knew that improving it would mean we enjoy living in the house much more. We wanted to declutter and really reduce the items we were storing on the surfaces too.

Kitchen : BEFORE

Pitcure green plastic cupboard doors, pink plastic work tops, 80’s tiles and magnolia walls. Oooh. But we needed to update it as cheaply as possible.

The Kitchen: After

The landlord paid for the kitchen worktops from Ikea, but we did the rest to the strictest, tightest budget.

Here’s what we did: UPDATED WITH PRICES, LINKS, AND DETAILS after lots of questions! :

• Drastically de-cluttered. We were utterly brutal with our stuff, keeping only stuff we used regularly or brought joy. We also decluttered other areas of our house and were able to clear our understairs cupboard. We then turned half of it into a pantry which freed up cupboard space in the kitchen, which consequently freed up surface space.

• We got rid of our kettle and toaster, opting instead to use a stovetop kettle and the grill function in our oven. We sold our kitchen aid and blender and instead bought a food processor which was smaller and had more functions. We also don’t have a microwave. All of this means less stuff on the worktops.

• Bought basic white rectangular tiles from Tile Mountain (20p each!), Anthracite grey grout and mape grip which together with delivery was £68 My very lovely and super talented aunt tiled it for us (don’t be afraid to ask for help from friends and family).

• Painted the cupboard doors White. After doing SO much research, we prepped them first with Owatrol, £29 from eBay with delivery, then painted the cupboards with very basic White trade emulsion, then gave each cupboard a coat of clear floor varnish- left over from doing the floors. One year on and there is one small chip to the inside of one of the cupboards, but that’s all. We're pleased with the results, the finish is very hardwearing in our tiny, high traffic kitchen. *Update: in future I would use a different varnish, floor varnish can yellow over time. We didn’t find this to be the case, but if we had the budget we would have invested in a fit for purpose finisher.

• Replaced the work surfaces with HAMMARP Ikea solid wood countertops. We bought 2 of the shorter lengths for a total of £200, and we installed them ourselves, including cutting out the sinkhole! (good work, Mr Bullivant). The landlord paid for these but I included them in the totals in case yours won't.

• Painted the walls bright white using cheap trade emulsion. You can buy a large tub for £20 from Wickes (although we needed far less of it in reality!)

• Replaced the squat taps with second hand arch taps for £6 from eBay which we installed ourselves using Youtube video's- not hard.

• Took the sliding door off and put a couple of little shelves there instead, using offcuts from the worktops.

• Built some cheap plywood shelves for our mugs using offcuts from another project and some cheap white metal brackets from our local hardware store- about £6 total. They bring me so much joy to display my treasured mugs!

• Replaced the light fitting with a vintage shade- £10

• The oven came with the house, its a Hotpoint Ultima gas stove, so it had to stay, and we like it anyway.

TOTAL COST= £339

The landlords actually paid for the worktops and some of the paint, so the cost to us was far less than that, £139. We did the work ourselves, using youtube videos to teach us if we didn't already know what to do (installing the taps and cutting out the sinkhole in the worktop) and pulled in favours from family with the tiling. 

Asking your landlord to make changes to your rental house:

Lots of people believe that by living in a rental, they cant make changes to the fabric of the house. This isn't always the case. My tip? It's always worth asking. You might be happily surprised. Put it to them that you'll be adding value to their house (choose a neutral scheme!), and if the work is extensive, they might even give you some money toward the work, like ours did. Sometimes, the simple act of replacing magnolia walls with bright White walls drastically changes the feel of a house, yet is a small difference for the landlord. You could also ask to use brighter colours if you promise to paint them in a neutral shade before you move out- I have lots of friends who have agreed this with their landlords. 

So, whilst this is far from the kitchen of our dreams, we are really pleased with the result. It feels good to cook in, and despite its tiny postage-stamp size, we feel like we've made use of every nook and cranny, and made a stylish space too. It helps a lot that I've chucked away SO much crap from here, and only have things that we either LOVE or use on a daily basis.