5 quick kitchen fixes on a tight budget

My kitchen is a very tiny space that was in serious need of some love and attention. I wanted to create more impact with a fresh colour scheme and had to do it on a very tight budget.

I had a look at what I could find around the house and grabbed a few paint tins to get the party started. It took me two full Saturdays to complete these 5 quick kitchen fixes and it makes a world of difference.

You can easily incorporate these ideas into your kitchen no matter the style or colour scheme.

1. Choosing a colour palette

Like most people, I also have collected kitchen paraphernalia over the years in all sorts of colours. For this project, I decided to unpack everything I had and choose a colour palette. I seemed to have a lot of sage, red and turquoise and decided that I loved the fresh and vibrant colours together. Colour palette done!

I started off by painting the walls in my own shade of sage. I used Chalk Paint™ decorative paint by Annie Sloan in Duck Egg Blue which I mixed into a lighter sagey colour by adding some Original from the same range.

The final colour is subtle and creates a muted backdrop for my red and turquoise accent colours and allows them to really pop.

I packed away all the kitchen accessories that didn’t go with my new colour scheme and only put the ones I love on display. This made a big difference.

2. Painted doors and updated handles

I use this locker for food storage due to the lack of space in my tiny kitchen. By painting the front of the doors in Provence and English Yellow Chalk Paint™ I added a bit more fun to them. I replaced the handles with these lovely decorative ones from Fired Earth – available at Builders Warehouse.

One of the quickest ways to update your look is to change door handles. It’s super easy and inexpensive – I dare you!

3. Second time around

I showed you this lovely shutter upcycling project last month but decided that it now will work much better in my kitchen as a place to peg recipes and hang tea towels. It also covers the side of a cupboard as you enter the kitchen which was a complete waste of space. See how I did it here.

4. Spice rack DIY

My husband built this spice rack and it was one of those things that just stood out and looked unfinished. I did not want to break his DIY spirit so decided to turn it into something we both loved with a lick of paint and a little blue bird that was used at our wedding as a decorative bottle top.

I cut off the rubbers on the edge of the birds that fitted into the glass jars and drilled a hole for the end to fit snugly into the face of the spice rack.

The spice rack was painted with the same Emperor’s Silk Chalk Paint™ that I used on the upcycled shutter.

The bird is now the keeper of our oven glove and the spice rack ties in nicely with the overall colour scheme of the kitchen.

5. Go green

I recently got this Feverfew plant from a dear friend and wanted to save it from the geese so decided it needed a place in my new kitchen. I simply took a terracotta pot that I had lying around the garden and painted it with a few dry brush strokes in Provence Chalk Paint™.

It’s now a pretty pop of green in the corner of my kitchen window sill.

After adding the Feverfew plant I got the bright spark to make more plants from the garden by using the large amount of Peck’s Anchovette glass jars I had been saving but didn’t really know why.

When the labels are washed off they really are very elegant so I now have a row of these cuttings in the window sill and it looks very fresh.

I think I got this from my mother that keeps on collecting cuttings from friends’ and neighbours’ gardens.

I love the impact my quick fixes had on the kitchen and hope you have found some inspiration to try them in your own home.

Happy styling!

Originally published on Homeology