Reno tips on kitchen cabinet and toilet suite

[daniellee]

Hi

Hopeing to get some tips on updating these two images (kitchen and toilet)here.

Kitchen

The cabinets are of an older model. Is there a way of reusing the frame / skeleton and installing new cabinet doors / white boards, or is our option to complete remove old cabinets and install new ones?

Toilet

Referring to the toilet suite on the far end, it is pretty old and dated, with the cistern separated and attached on the wall high above the seat itself. Is there a way we can modernise it without having to rip the old suite out? Clearly most modern suites are not built this way. Apparently the cost of installing a new toilet suite is at least 2x the cost of a near-new suite itself.

Thanks for your advice.

Daniel Lee

 

[artlez]

A reckon a couple coats of white knight laminate paint will make the kitchen cabinets look a lot nicer. Do a search on this site for some examples but it definitely takes many years off tired looking cabinets. I've painted mine and it looks great.

 

[Tillie]

As suggested in the previous post white knight laminate paint might work for cabinet frame and shelves. Also you could measure the size of doors and compare it with the standard measurements of e.g. IKEA kitchen doors. You will find their measurements in the web. If same size you could replace only doors, door handles, benchtop and maybe the tiles and you kitchen would look so much more modern Of course you could also get the cabinet maker to make doors if not current standard size.

 

[mrsdawnrazor]

You have got an old Caroma cistern and pan there. You can get a replacement cistern link piece and seat in white. Make sure you go to a plumbing merchant, not Bunnings and ask for a cistern that can be set to 9/4.5l. A lot of replacement 6/3 cisterns can but dont buy a 4.5/3 flush cistern. I probably will get in trouble with plumbers here but its not a hard DIY job to fit a new cistern

 

[wylie]

I want to rip that kitchen out ...... but if you want a cheapie makeover, I would suggest new benchtops so that you can drop a new sink into the benchtop. You could have then cut a little wider (but not too much or the overhang is too deep).

You could make the "return" part of the bench a bit wider if you wanted to have a place to sit stools under, but that would depend on what is in the room you would be pushing into.

To me, that sink is the major thing that dates the kitchen (and the wall mounted taps). New doors (or fresh paint and handles if the existing doors are not too bad - hard to see from the photo).

I would also remove the glass from the cupboards and have open shelving, or take the whole thing off the wall and put new shelving up to lose the "old kitchen" feel of that top cupboard.

How am I going with your budget?

I also hate freestanding stoves, but replacing it increases the budget. You can get a freestanding bench set up from Ikea (used to be avilable anyway) that you could put an oven and a hob into, but this means new appliances. Or buy a schmick stainless freestanding stove, again, depending on budget and if you would re-use it if you redo the whole kitchen down the track.

The problem with fixing these types of kitchens is (for me) I want to keep going and if I cannot stop, it would be cheaper to rip it out and start again.

What you absolutely MUST DO is take those granny curtains down immediately and burn them .

We have an IP with a 1930s narrow bench kitchen that we didn't have time or money to replace. It had nice leadlight glass doors and rounded edges on the benches and cupboards (very popular in the old days). We painted everything inside and out in gloss and used floating floors as a new benchtop (over the red patterned laminate) with a timber edge to hide the chrome trim. It looks sort of "cute" but if we had the money we would have ripped it out. A new free standing chrome cooker made a huge difference too and will be kept when we finally replace the kitchen.

Bathroom...... nice new loo for very cheap would improve it no end, and a nice new basin or vanity for little cost would be a big improvement plus give some storage.

 

[travelbug]

I wouldn't bother trying to fix it up. It's past its usebuy date. With the old sink it will still look old.

For $3K get a new one and it's out and in in 2 days.

 

[Jen_PFR]

Really it depends on your budget and what you're prepared to pay (or prepared to do).

Painting the kitchen cabinets can make a huge difference. We just clean then with sugar soap, do a coat of ESP so the paint binds well, then paint. We've done this with one kitchen and so far we've managed to escape doing a proper renovation on it as a result - see before and after pics.

 

[NBS]

Kitchen,

I also don't like free standing stove however it looks fine.

1. new curtain ( I myself would just wash them) but thats a male speaking with zip flare to put the final touches on a place.
2. new splashback
3. new top a bit bigger near sink and new sink
4. new tapware
5. paint existing cupboards including doors (light colours)
6. New handles
7. Remove glass (they usually slide like shi%) and paint cabinet use as shelves.

Toilet
1. New cistern
2. If you don't like floor tiles replace with new tiles (I would tend to leave existing at this stage) Replacing with new tiles (over existing floor) will cause issues with toilet outlet and may require plumber to fix.

Brian

 

[Propertunity]

Personally I agree with wylie - throw the old one away.

The attached pics show an almost new kitchen we picked up at a recyclers a few weeks ago. Apparently, it had been installed to sell a house and the new owners did not like it and put in a new one. It had been used only a few times.

Cost = $1,400 cash

Other people have purchased similar off eBay.

 

[BuildingBlocks]

Personally I agree with wylie - throw the old one away.

The attached pics show an almost new kitchen we picked up at a recyclers a few weeks ago. Apparently, it had been installed to sell a house and the new owners did not like it and put in a new one. It had been used only a few times.

Cost = $1,400 cash

Other people have purchased similar off eBay.

Score, that looms awesome!

Would you care to share which recycler you bought this from?

 

[Propertunity]

Score, that looms awesome!
Would you care to share which recycler you bought this from?

They're in N Wyong at the back of where Ressurection Recyclers used to be on the Pacific Hiway.

 

[daniellee]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips. It has already given me some ideas.

One more question, this time referring to the shower area.

In this photo, I got the shower fixtures on the right side, which is actually a plasterboard wall. I was thinking of cutting away the wall, redirecting the pipes so that the shower fixtures would be on the left side. Clearly, this would involve ripping out the tiles on the left side to redirect the pipes, which will be an additional cost.

Is there anyway I can cut away the plasterboard wall (by doing so, I can create the illusion of more space in the bathroom and not redirect the pipes, thus saving myself some expense?

The shower base itself is old and is slightly smaller than the usual 900 x 900 design. Hence my intention of cutting away the wall to install a shower base and full-frame screen. To the right of the wall is the toilet suite.

An alternative would be to keep the wall, have the showerbase resurfaced and install a full-frame shower screen where the curtain is at the moment (if possible).

Hope this makes sense.

Regards,

Daniel