The kitchen that came with our new family home was fine. Absolutely fine. An oak fronted Howdens number with excellent pan drawers, a fancy pull out bin and all of the other bits and bobs of convenience your heart (and time poor schedule) could desire.

There is also a rather snazzy ceramic sink by Villeroy and Boch and a double oven that has so many switches and turnable knobs I’m assuming it will whip up some kind of full-on delectable banquet at the touch of a button (I merely have to work out exactly what button that is obviously).

But it’s not our kitchen.

We can’t just straight up replace it because we are extending within the next 18 months to 2 years and our extension will essentially house a brand new kitchen (parquet, polished concrete worktops, a large island….I’ve already created it in my head folks) so it would be a complete waste of time and money to do much at all to the current design.

We’ve given ourselves a budget of £1000 for an O’Shea personalisation stamp “Makeover”. And I’m determined to come under if possible.

We are stuck with a kind of ivory-with-marbled-bits-of-taupe/grey floor and a matt black quartz worktop. Both are nice enough – not what I would choose but I’m rising to the challenge of modernising, incorporating aspects we really love whilst making sure these pieces blend seamlessly into their new environment.

Please find some of my key inspiration in the gallery below:

Budget Kitchen Makeover Key Changes And Ideas

1. We are painting the cupboards. I have chosen Farrow & Ball “Downpipe” for the lower units and “Manor House Grey” for the upper. (As I type this has now been completed and it already looks so much better).

2. I am replacing the handles – a mixture of pewter knobs and industrial looking pull tabs. I have found some super cheap on eBay, you can see a few of them I’ve been experimenting with in the “before” image in the slider above.

3. We are taking out the upper units on the right hand side of the kitchen as you look at it, we don’t need that much storage (there are LOTS of cupboards!) and I want to open it up a bit with shelving and perhaps a wire display cabinet to house some of my pretty vases and knick knacks. I am LOVING this version from Cox and Cox.

4. I am replacing the blind – probably with some kind of grey linen number? I dislike blinds only marginally less than I dislike curtains so I’m at a loss what to do here – I do quite like this wooden venetian blind. Any alternative suggestions welcome.

5. The tiles are going (they are actually quite luxe subway tiles but I’m not a lover of…green) and being replaced with a design more in keeping with the new colour scheme. I’m thinking charcoal slate. Or maybe a pattern. We are not doing the whole wall – just the area directly under the cooker hood to cut costs. I’m strangely attracted to this Batik Patchwork style at the moment.

6. I need to incorporate some clever (and cheap!) lighting. I’m swaying towards the industrial exposed bulb type of look but I’m not entirely sure where to put them. I’m loving this hooked wall light in copper and stone but at 25% of my overall budget it’s price prohibitive unfortunately.

Have you every updated your kitchen on a budget? Any tips or ideas you would like to share in the comments section would be greatly appreciated.

For less superficial pretty and more real-life tales of woe, I also have a feature on Rock My Family today.

You can see some sneak peeks of my kitchen makeover and the rest of our renovations on my personal instagram.