Affordable Kitchen Design Ideas

There are strong indications that, although there's a tentative 'green shoot of recovery' in the economy, the housing market is still erring on the cautious side. This means that, rather than moving to a new property, many householders are choosing to invest more in their current home. This includes redesigning the heart of the home - the kitchen.

The kitchen is one of the key areas that any householder looks for when they're choosing their dream home - and if the kitchen isn't 'right' then it can make a house feel like less of a home. Interior design magazines are filled with gorgeous kitchens with fabulous styling details... that can cost a fortune. This can leave you with some grand ideas, and a budget that sadly doesn't match up to your expectations.

However, it is possible to take a different approach to what can be an expensive problem, simply by changing the way you look at the situation. While instinct may point towards gutting and starting again from scratch, why not work with what you already have?

Replace, reuse, recycle

Unless your kitchen is in dire need of a complete workover, then refurbishment rather than replacement offers an affordable kitchen design solution. In fact, it fits in rather well with the entire principle of 'working with what you've got' that has become the mantra of many interior designers during this period of economic austerity. It's actually more fashionable to refurbish, and is also a more environmentally friendly way of tackling the problem too. Because you're keeping the basic framework of your kitchen it means that less waste is heading off to landfill sites, so a refurbishment kitchen design also adheres to the replace, reuse, and recycle principle of the green movement.

But that doesn't mean your refurbishment design has to be less glamorous than a complete replacement. Using a little bit of imagination and the skills of a specialised team, a refurbishment can actually produce a real 'Cinderella' effect by transforming a drab, ordinary kitchen into something that's original, desirable and utterly chic - and all for a fraction of the cost of a replacement kitchen.

Keeping the costs down

And it's that last point that makes kitchen refurbishment a more desirable approach to interior design at the moment - cost. By refurbishing rather than replacing, you can cut your costs dramatically, which means you have more money to spend on the fundamentals such as hiring a professional refurbishment company to do the work for you. By taking this route you can bring on board a team of designers, installers and craftsmen that can work with you to produce the best possible result.

They also have access to a wider range of options, fixtures and fittings that will give your final transformation that unique flair, marking it out as a 'designer' kitchen, rather than just an 'off the shelf' option. With a refurbishment your budget goes a lot further because you're not spending money on new units, for example.

This approach is appealing to more homeowners as they invest in their existing homes, rather than upping sticks and moving to a new property. And it also means that the heart of the home stays closer to everyone's hearts - and is kinder to your wallet!