With money tight for most homeowners amid the cost of living crisis, DIY is a great way to save money on home renovations. One mum has now revealed how she saved herself around £700 after making her own kitchen island.
Rosie Roberts, 56, took on the DIY project after convincing her husband Mark Roberts, 52, that they should get rid of their kitchen table and chairs and replace this with a stylish kitchen centrepiece.
The savvy mum spent months searching for the perfect unit, which needed to be the same height as the rest of their kitchen surfaces. Rosie eventually struck gold when she came across a second-hand oak cupboard on Facebook Marketplace for just £40.
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She then bought a granite worktop unit for £30 from another seller and painted the inside and outside of the cupboard in two coats of grey.
The entire project, which took just days after the parts were found, cost the couple around £70 in total - around £700 less than a kitchen island would cost brand new.
Rosie completed the look with some bar stools from Amazon and posted her handy work on Facebook - amassing over 4,000 likes and hundreds of comments overnight.
She said: "My husband wasn't keen at first and said to keep the idea of a kitchen island in my head.
"But I had a vision to get rid of the table and chairs we already had, and replace them with a new, unique worktop surface."
Rosie continued: "He eventually agreed, and I was on the look out for the right cabinet unit for months.
"When I eventually found the perfect unit, I secured it for a great price, and then saw someone selling a granite surface, which was the same colour as my kitchen.
"I felt really lucky, and when we put the two together, it looked perfect."
Rosie added: "Once I managed to get the materials, we completed the project in few days and Mark's over the moon with the result.
"I posted a few photos of the island on Facebook and the reaction I got was incredible -
we couldn't be happier with it."
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