Woman transforms kitchen on £500 budget with clever B&Q and Poundland hacks
A woman has revealed how she transformed her dated kitchen into a bright and airy space for less than £500 using savvy high street shopping and DIY tricks.
When you move home, you know you may at first have to live with dodgy decor left by the previous inhabitants, while you save for your dream renovation.
Thankfully, there are ways to overhaul an entire room on a budget, as this experienced DIY-er has proven.
Freya Farrington and her partner Tom bought an Edwardian house in October 2020.
The couple, from Greater Manchester, are planning to renovate the entire house, but in the meantime wanted to improve the spaces they are living out of.
"I didn’t like the existing style in the kitchen so I wanted to blast the walls white and change the floors so it felt cleaner, lighter and more like home," Farrington, 29, a YouTuber and social media influencer, told LatestDeals.co.uk.
"With it being a temporary fix until we save to extend and build our new kitchen at the other side of the house, we wanted to do this very much on a budget."
Read more: DIY-savvy woman transforms kitchen from dark and dated to bright and modern for just £100
With that in mind, Farrington turned to the high street to source supplies from Wilko, Poundland and B&Q.
The first steps were to tackle the doors leading into the living room and decide how to cover the wallpaper.
"To open up the space we took the door off, as only one was attached," she explains. "We then decided to apply the paint over the top of the wallpaper."
For the white walls Farrington used Leyland Matt White paint, which was on offer at B&Q, so she was able to purchase two big tubs for £20.
While the paint dried, she focused on the cabinet handles.
"Instead of replacing the knobs on the drawers and cabinets, we decided to keep them and spray paint them black using a £5 can from Wilko," Farrington explains.
"I used a screwdriver to remove them all and I picked up a spray paint for just a couple of pounds, super cheap - much cheaper than if I were to buy all brand new handles."
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The next job was painting the cabinets. Farrington applied Wilko ready to use sugar soap for £2.50 on each surface before applying the primer.
"I discovered it wasn’t necessary to put primer on them, so I didn’t apply it thoroughly and didn’t even do all of the cabinets in the end," she says.
"The cupboards were painted with quick-dry furniture and cupboard paint from Wilko in an ivory shade. They cost £10 per tub and I used two of them."
Using a large roller and small paintbrush, Farrington then painted the cabinets, applying two coats.
Next up were the tiles, which she transformed from cream to grey, and she created the effect of marble splashbacks.
"Filling in the tiles with the grout pen didn’t work, so we decided to go for the marble worktops with marble splashbacks," she explains.
"For the worktop and splashbacks, I used marble vinyl d-c-fix from B&Q which cost £10 a roll. I bought three altogether.
"I switched out the original marble d-c-fix with a lighter shade, as the one I got before was quite a dark pattern. I got four rolls at the same price per roll as before, so that the splashbacks could be done too."
Once all the paint was dry, Farrington screwed the cabinet handles back on with an electric screwdriver and focused on the floor.
"It was previously vinyl, which we decided to switch out for a grey concrete effect to go with the neutral element," she says.
"For the flooring we used a neutral cheap vinyl from a place called Warehouse Carpets on the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate in Nelson.
"They often sell off-cuts of carpet for heavily discounted prices. We got this flooring for a bulk price of £600 to cover the three rooms we live out of downstairs, including the kitchen."
Watch: British family tickled pink by £50,000 home transformation.
While Farrington and her partner did a lot of the work themselves, they opted to get professionals in to fit the floor.
"But as we were sticking to a budget they just went over the top of what was already there," she explains. "We did this to save on labour time, but also because we had no idea what they could end up pulling up.
"Now it’s done, it’s quite the transformation!"
Her favourite part of the makeover is the door, which she turned black. "I’m so glad I decided to go with that colour, it really makes the door stand out," she adds.
Freya’s other supplies were £5 Wilko radiator spray paint, Wilko primer undercoat paint for £9, a Poundland mini roller set for £1, a Poundland grout pen for £1 and a Poundland knife set for £1 for cutting the d-c-fix to size.
Fortunately she had her other tools, such as large rollers, already available from previous projects.
The final touches for the kitchen were a wreath on the window, which was gifted, and four prints with black metal frames from online retailer Desenio at a total estimated cost of £81.
With a little savvy shopping and a lot of hard graft, the couple were able to bring the impressive makeover in for an amazing £458.
Read more: Three-bedroom house given chic sustainable makeover with budget charity shop buys
Now that Farrington has finished the budget renovation, she’s been really impressed with how everything has held up and plans to share future renovation projects on her YouTube and Instagram profiles.
"If I could do it again, I would have filled in or levelled out the tiles so that the marble sticker applied easier," she adds.
"In person and close up, the splashbacks are far from the perfect finish. However, it’s done really well since we first applied it so I’d definitely recommend it if you’re on a budget."
Commenting on the impressive makeover Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: "Freya has done a great job transforming her kitchen on a budget. Wilko, B&Q and Poundland are some of the best shops for finding bargain supplies.
"More and more people are starting to use d-c-fixes on their kitchen worktops. It’s a cheap and quick solution which can be done in an evening without having to pay for a professional - result!"
