A student who didn’t want to spend a fortune doing up her kitchen has explained how she took on the DIY project herself - and it only cost £200.
Charlotte Johnstone, 25, a psychology student and complaint handler from Fife, Scotland, disliked the dated look of her new kitchen.
To give the room an update on the cheap, she used bargain materials such as tile stickers, DC Fix and tile paint.
She also purchased accessories from retailers like Home Bargains and B&M to bring a new lease of life to the room.
Charlotte decided to stick with a simple black and white theme to transform the kitchen affordably.
She told money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK : “I moved into my first flat last May and the white goods were left.
“The washing machine and fridge were white but the cooker was black.
"I didn’t have money to replace them so I wanted a kitchen they’d all match in and with what it was before it really didn’t go.
“The previous owner was an older lady so the flat was pretty dated decor-wise.”
Charlotte started her DIY project by painting the cupboards white with B&Q metal and wood paint. This cost her roughly £18 and took around five coats.
The money-saver then replaced the handles, as the previous ones were mostly broken, with black ones from Amazon which were £22.99.
When it came to the walls, Charlotte said she “really wasn’t a fan” of the brick wallpaper, so she painted over it with wall and ceiling paint from B&M which was £9.99.
"I painted over the wallpaper because the flat is old and has concrete walls so I was worried if I took off the wallpaper what larger job I might land myself with and with a tight budget I didn’t want to risk it,” she said.
"I then painted the tiles with tile paint which was also from B&M for £14.99.
"I used two black grout pens from eBay for around £7.49 to break up all the white in the tiles, walls and cupboards.
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"I then moved onto the self-adhesive DC Fix paper which was from B&Q for £6.50. I needed two rolls.
"This was probably the hardest part as I have quite a large worktop area so I actually worked in smaller sections and just slightly overlapped as I went along rather than doing one big bit at a time.
"I just cleaned the area and stuck it down just using my bank card to flatten out any air bubbles.”
Charlotte also used white sealant around the tiles and the inside border of the worktop to prevent the DC Fix from lifting.
For the sink area, she used clear sealant to stop any water from getting underneath.
"I didn’t have to buy any sealant because it was something I already had but it’s roughly £2,” she said.
"I then used self-adhesive tile stickers from B&M for the flooring which were £10 a packet. I’m sure it was six I needed in total.
"Again, like my walls the floor is concrete so I just stuck these tiles on top of the flooring that was there. The previous flooring was also sticky tiles.
"I did just glue spray called Stick2 Contact Adhesive from Tool Station which was £4.39.”
In terms of accessories for her new kitchen, Charlotte bought her chairs and table from Facebook and Gumtree.
The table was purchased for £18 but retails at £35 from IKEA, and my chairs were £10 for both.
"The three pictures I have on the wall cost me £1.50 as I got three frames for 50p in Ikea,” explained Charlotte.
"I actually just did the prints on my computer and my sister in law was able to print them laminated at her work. So with all that included I spent roughly £199.98.
"My mum sadly passed away with liver cancer in December so I’ve been using DIY as something to try and keep myself busy and maybe as a coping mechanism if you’d call it that.
'I’m by no means any expert with DIY so it was literally using DIY pages and YouTube to help me along the way but I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
