HOUSE THAT
I transformed my drab rental kitchen and gave it a Cotswold cottage look for just £300 – here’s how
A WOMAN has revealed her incredible DIY transformation of the kitchen in her rental home – and it cost her just £300.
Kelsey Heinrichs, from London, and her partner Justin, decided to give their kitchen a spruce up earlier this year – using the lockdown as a chance to get stuck into some DIY.
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Thrifty Kelsey, who has been living in the south west London flat for two years, spent two weekends dedicated to the impressive transformation.
She started with the small issue of tackling the old and mouldy sealant around her tiles – but found the simple DIY task “sparked” her imagination when it came to the rest of the kitchen and its design.
Kelsey said: “Ever since moving into our London rental, I’ve had to make peace with the things I can’t change or fix either due to lack of budget or lack of knowledge.”
She started by making an Excel spreadsheet to work out how much money she would realistically need to give the entire room an overhaul, and decided to go for the entire transformation when she realised she could do it for just £300.
Kelsey pitched the idea to their landlords – who she describes as “pretty chill” – and they approved the proposed changes.
Kelsey started by painting the kitchen tiles a neutral white colour, before moving onto the kitchen cabinets using a DIY tutorial on YouTube she found, which walked her through how to give a “Cotswolds cottage aesthetic”.
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Kelsey removed the cabinet doors, drawer fronts and handles, and cleaned the doors with sugar soap from Wilko to remove any dirt and grease off the surface.
She then cut MDF strip wood to size and glued it to the cabinet doors using Wickes Instant Grab Adhesive Glue.
Once the glue had dried, she lightly sanded down the edges with 240 grit sandpaper, before applying primer.
Once the primer had dried, she lightly sanded the surface again before applying paint with a paint roller.
Finally, she drilled holes and attached new cabinet handles.
She also decided to cover the boiler by creating two panels of MDF to hide it and match the cabinets.
Kelsey then set about creating a custom pantry door that she designed herself on Adobe Illustrator.
Justin, Kelsey’s partner, then used a Bosch Plunge Router to cut out the arched windows using a circle cutting guide.
Once the door frame was cut, primed and painted, they attached cane webbing that Kelsey had ordered to create a stylish rattan effect.
They attached the rattan to the back of the door frame using a staple gun, cut off the excess and left it to dry overnight. They then added a gold handle to match the cabinets and drawers.
In total, they spent just £300 on the transformation.
The MDF and pine wood came to £81.99, the two tins of tile paint totalled £30, the tin of 2.5 litre primer cost £25 and the three tines of cupboard paint set them back £45.
The rattan cost £52.25, while the gold handles cost £35.04. The door hinges cost them £20, and the nails and other miscellaneous items cost a further £10.
Kelsey and Justin paid to update the kitchen, and their landlords agreed to cover the costs of replacing the extractor fan, washing machine and installing a new kitchen light.
Kelsey shared the results on Instagram, with her 184,000 followers – who were amazed by the budget-friendly reveal.
One person said: “I bet the landlord loves you for doing this. You just increased his property worth by like 10000000 squids! Lol.”
“This is so good,” another user commented.
Someone else added: “I need to do this to our rental.”
“Love how it turned out!” another person agreed.
The interiors blogger said: “Saving for our first house has made it challenging to decide how much money we want to invest in our current rental to enjoy in the short term and what money we should put aside in our savings that will benefit us in the long term.
“People often say that it’s a waste of money to do any renovations to a rental, and to those people, I say, bore off! It’s a worthwhile investment to enjoy the home you’re currently living in.”
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