A bargain-hunting couple used smart DIY hacks and clever purchases to completely transform their kitchen into a rustic cooking space.
Rachel Green, 29, and Max Butler, 31, slashed costs of revamping their brown cupboards and black worktop by hunting for bargains on B&Q, Ikea and Facebook Marketplace.
Taking it on as a lockdown project, the couple also scrolled through Pinterest to get their inspiration.
"During lockdown when we were house searching we had a lot more time on our hands", they told bargain site LatestDeals.co.uk.
"So I spent hours on Instagram and Pinterest saving pictures of my favourite ideas and creating a mood board for each room.
"The kitchen had plain brown cupboards and black worktops, so we decided to create more of a monochrome feel with marble effect countertops and matching accessories.
"We did the whole project on a budget by sourcing items from B&Q, IKEA and Facebook Marketplace."
They found some of the items they needed at Homebase, including a roller set for £5.59 and two tins of Maison Deco Refresh paint to cover the worktops, cupboards and splash-back. But to jazz it up, they painted their fittings gold.
They said: "To add a special touch we decided to make all the handles on the wardrobes and drawers gold.
"We did this by removing them all and spray painting them with a can from Amazon. It cost just £11.98."
They protected the worktops with two rolls of self-adhesive film that they bought at B&Q for £5.
They added: "One addition we wanted for the kitchen was some shelves.
"One of our friends gave us the idea so we could get some cupboard space back, as well as have the ability to rescue some of our nicer ceramic pieces from the back of the cupboards.
"I’d also seen the idea of a shelf pantry all over Instagram and wanted to recreate it for myself.
"To find the materials, we searched Facebook Marketplace for people selling scaffolding wood for cheap and we managed to get them for £3 a board.
"Then we just sanded them slightly, keeping some of the roughness, as that was the look we were going for.
"We got the brackets off Etsy, and these turned out to be one of the most expensive purchases. We went for some rustic handcrafted brackets made from reclaimed timber and they were £22."
And they added to the rustic, homely feel by placing items, like an Asda casserole dish for £9 and Poundland jars, on top of the wood.
They said: "Some of the other jars came from IKEA for the pasta, and they were £1.75 each.
"While we were in IKEA we picked up some faux foliage for the shelves and the tops of the cupboards for around £30, and a gold rail for additional wall storage for £8."
They used sugar soap to wash down the surfaces before sanding them down.
By taking off the draw handles, they could spray them gold without causing a mess in the kitchen.
They slapped two coats of paint on the skirting boards, ceiling and cupboards.
They said: "Overall it was very easy to do, it was just time consuming waiting for the paint to dry and hard to get to some of the cupboards to paint them.
"If we had to do it again, we would take the doors off to complete the job.
"We had tried to avoid doing this as we thought we might struggle to get them back on.
"However, it made it a lot harder to paint without getting inside the cupboards too."
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