Creating a family kitchen with Zopa home loans
The kitchen. The heart of the home. The place to cook and eat and if you are lucky enough to have a big space, the place where family spend most of their time around a table doing homework, drinking wine, playing board games, reading or sitting on a soft, squishy sofa watching tv.
I am going to walk you through planning a kitchen with a £20,000 budget (by using my own as an example) working with a Zopa, the first peer to peer lending company with a no sweat, no catches home loan so you can also spread the cost over time. 15 years ago, Zopa built the first ever peer-to-peer (P2P) lending company to give people access to simpler, better- value loans and investments. The P2P model means Zopa directly matches people looking for a low rate loan with investors looking for a higher rate of return.
I have created a corresponding Pinterest board full of inspiration and ideas for you to look at and I will work through this board explaining how you can use this budget to create something truly unique. For this budget you will not be able to buy a new kitchen from suppliers of handmade kitchens (some starting at £25k and above), so while you may see them used as inspiration in my Pinterest board these looks will have to be interpreted for it to work in your room. Pick elements of these rooms (the colour, the worksurfaces, the lighting) and add to what you have.
But first let’s look at kitchen design……
Kitchen design is very much about individuality in 2020. Take a look at my favourite inspiration on Pinterest and you will see an eclectic mix of kitchens-colourful, vintage, upcycled, wooden, a mixture of all of these-filled with family treasures and kitchen paraphernalia. Not a kitchen straight out of a showroom, but one that is created by homeowners who are expressing their personality and the items they love. Creating a space that is cosy and homely and more importantly unique to them. Because while this look is on trend for 2020, if you create a space that is uniquely yours it will also stand the test of time. The good thing about this trend is that you do not need a huge budget to achieve it because you can pick and choose where you focus, especially if you already have the main parts of the room (cupboards and appliances). Even if you are starting from scratch, you can choose to buy your cabinets cheaply and create a more custom kitchen by focusing on the doors, the hardware, the work surfaces and lighting.
Perhaps you want to splash out on a new work surface for your current kitchen but save your old cabinets and paint them instead of replacing them. Perhaps you want to remove your wall cabinets or doors to open up the room or add open shelving. Perhaps you simply want to upgrade your lighting, taps, cupboard hardware or change the colour of your kitchen or upgrade your appliances. There are a wide-ranging number of possibilities depending on how much you want to spend.
Whether you are looking to replace your entire kitchen, or simply tweak the one you currently have to make it more modern, the good news is that the top kitchen trends for 2020 are actually quite achievable.
We are seeing an increase in sustainability in interiors more broadly and this is also true in the kitchen with more wood being used and an increase in upcycling-keeping current kitchen cabinets rather than replacing them or adding vintage items such as an old work bench as an island unit or a vintage cupboard instead of buying new. Some people are even creating whole kitchens from vintage cupboards or wood. All of these also help to create personality in the room. Have a look at my two Pinterest boards here and here for more inspiration.
Green kitchen units are a big trend for 2020 and blue and black colours will endure. We will see colour mixed with wood (perhaps coloured cabinets on the bottom half of the kitchen and wooden cabinets or shelves on the wall). We will also see “pops” of colour, perhaps with a different coloured island unit (pink and red, for example) or if you don’t want too much colour, perhaps pair a blue coloured kitchen with an island unit of wood, stone or even metals (bronze, brass or copper). Splashbacks are a focus in 2020- veined marble, stone, wood or tiled-they add individuality to a kitchen.
Lighting is key. Statement lighting is another big trend to look out for and there are some really beautiful options on the market right now. Treat the kitchen like any other room and have some beautiful lights to go alongside your task lighting.
Open shelving is still hugely popular in kitchens at the moment because this is where you can add little touches that make the kitchen homelier. You will also see peg boards increasing in popularity. If you really do not like the idea of open shelving, perhaps cupboards with glass doors will suffice, so that you can showcase you favourite items, but they are closed off from dust that can accumulate in the kitchen. If you go down the glass cabinet route, think about fluted glass which is a big trend at the moment.
The benefit of this trend of individuality in kitchens is also its downfall given the kitchen is the place a homeowner tends to spend most of their budget. It means it’s a room you are not going to want to change too often and therefore there is a pressure to get it right. It is going to take time to plan and to budget for and I would advocate not rushing these decisions.
Image Credits for Moodpboard. Devol. Purewhitelines. Dowsing and Reynolds. QuirkyInteriors. @elle_the_home_bird. Annabarnettcooks.
As it happens, I am upgrading my kitchen so what better place to start to show you exactly how you can pick and choose elements to create a different kitchen on a budget.
With a 20k budget, I would plan on keeping the main structure of my kitchen. Rather than buy new cabinets and doors, I’d keep the cupboards on the ground level of my kitchen and have them professionally sprayed to give a long-lasting colour. As much as I would like a green kitchen, I plan on going navy blue to fit in with the colour scheme I have already. If you have more time, you could paint your own kitchen cabinets (it is a good way to keep the budget down). Just be sure to use a very good primer and I recommend eggshell paint, finished with a good matt varnish. I’m removing some of my wall cupboards and replacing them with vintage scaffold board shelves on metal brackets. This will allow me to display artwork and my ever-increasing crockery collection.
I will add brass handles to my doors (I need 25 of them) and I plan on keeping my slate floor and splashback. My butler’s sink has been chipped over time so one of the places I want to spend money is on my dream fluted sink and brass taps (including a hot water tap). I will remove my cooker hood and replacing this with statement lighting-Parisienne globes. The island unit will become a feature as I want to replace the drawer fronts with brass/bronze covered ones to tie in with the lights, taps and handles. Alternatively, I will paint it a different colour and add texture with panelling. I will also replace the wooden worktop on my island with a marbled granite one (the biggest cost to this renovation). Because I am removing the cooker hood, I will replace the hob for one with built in extraction.
It has always been a wish to own a cream fridge as you can see in my mood board and I will also upgrade my double oven.
By picking and choosing what I spend my budget on, I hope to create a totally unique kitchen. By not replacing my whole kitchen, I can focus the budget on key areas such as a statement island unit, lighting, upgrading my appliances and sink. Here I can go for items that I might not choose to splurge on if I had to replace the whole kitchen. Because I am reusing what I have in a sustainable way I am also helping the environment which is another good reason for creating an individual kitchen in this way. Equally you could choose to go for cheaper versions if your budget is smaller-the beauty of an eclectic individual kitchen is also that you can take your time, you could replace some elements now and others in the future. The possibilities and budget can be spread out.
And at the end of the day, you will have a kitchen that is totally unique to you and will stand the test of time for exactly that reason.
