Budget kitchen makeover

Before - pic 1

Before - pic 2

I have always been budget conscious, as this old article, Kitchen Renovation on a Tight Budget, proves. That was my first kitchen revamp, subsequently we lived in a Victorian house in London with a modern kitchen, so we only changed the handles of the units and the light fitting. 

In our 1930s house, the kitchen is about 30 years old at least, if not older. It's good quality, German made, though so we didn't want to scrap it as yet, not until we decide how to modernise it. So we used our DIY skills and a few frugal purchases to update it and the results are rather impressive (see bigger picture below). We changed the handles of the units, replaced the neon light fitting, painted the walls white with emulsion paint, removed the orange blinds and painted over the beige and brown tiles with eggshell white paint (2 coats were needed). Window frames and the door got a coat of gloss paint too.

All the appliances (except the fridge and cooker) were replaced with ours - we rented an unfurnished house for a year and we had to buy our own (we always sold our houses with the appliances in situ, it's so mean to take them away. Plus they are a pain to move - as we found out with the rental, but then we could hardly leave them behind since the rental agency charged us for not removing detergent residue from the oven after cleaning it. Who knows, they might have charged us for leaving the appliances behind!).

Et voila'! What do you think?

Pic taken while the paint was drying on the left side