In an ideal world, we’d probably all love a new kitchen – how many of us have moved into a house with an outdated kitchen brimming with potential but never had the budget to transform the kitchen to its full potential? So we just live with the outdated units, outdated tiles and cracked vinyl flooring, sometimes for years. But it really doesn’t have to be that way; In fact, having an old, worn kitchen has many advantages because it offers the opportunity to experiment with color in a way that you wouldn’t if the kitchen was worth keeping or if you were spending tens of thousands on a new kitchen. So don’t look to your outdated kitchen in despair – you can transform it on a small budget with a little hard work and an eye for design.
Trends in kitchen styles change relatively quickly, so it’s hard to turn a kitchen that’s just plain old into one that looks new, so it’s best not to try; instead, look at the retro styles from the 1950s and 1960s or even earlier and see if your kitchen could be rejuvenated in one of these styles.
With all the technologically advanced paints on the market, it’s now easy to paint over cabinet doors of any type, including MDF, with minimal preparation. Or if the doors are damaged, try the old 1950s trick of simply using cloth hung on a curtain wire to hide the contents of your closet. Keep in mind though that this look only works for one or two cabinets, not the entire kitchen.
Another alternative is to have new, unpainted MDF doors custom made; there are many cheap companies online that will do it for you. Then paint them yourself and hang them using the old hinges if they’re still usable, to keep your budget within a tight cap. Before you know it, you won’t be dreaming of a sleek, bright white kitchen, but rather experimenting with color and creating a unique look and style that no one else will have.
Take for example a 30 year old kitchen with oak effect doors (with real oak trim) with a cream oak trim worktop and brown carpet tiles on the floor and beige/brown patterned tiles. Lifting up the carpet tiles revealed damaged art deco black and white tiles, but even with the considerable damage, having a monochromatic floor instead of brown was the inspiration for creating an art deco kitchen.
The old wall tiles were first removed and sanded and resurfaced where necessary to prepare it for painting and a new glass backsplash.
The doors were then painted a gray-green flat emulsion (Little Greene’s “Cupboard Green”) both inside and out, and the old oak handles were replaced with porcelain knobs.
Surprisingly, the countertops in this particular kitchen were in good condition, so the oak trim was simply painted to match the cabinets.
Eventually, the carpet tiles were replaced with new black and white ceramic tiles.
These simple changes have transformed an extremely dated kitchen into an Art Deco-inspired space on a shoestring budget. The ceramic floor tiles were sourced from a range of discontinued tiles, so even the biggest expense was within budget.