WOMAN TRANSFORMS HER KITCHEN FOR £66 – AFTER QUOTES FOR £5K – BY USING TILE HACK TRICK

A mother-of-two decided to re-do her kitchen. However, when she was given eye-watering quotes to get the job done, she decided to take matters into her own hands instead.

Laura Vaatstra decided it was time to revamp the dark flooring and cabinets in her kitchen, but shose to rather try and tackle the kitchen herself after she was told it would cost £5,000 – which didn't include floor tiles, wall tiles, or labour.

Despite her lack of experience when it comes to DIY, Laura started with the flooring, which would make the biggest difference, and used a tiling hack which only cost the fraction of what she was quoted.

She started to clean the floor with sugar soap before put masking tape around the tiles, and painting a layer of Frenchic Cream Dream paint.  

The 30-year-old mother stated that she only used paint and a stencil to transform the black tiles into Instagram-worthy white, patterned flooring.

Although Laura was not at first impressed after the first coat and even said it "looked awful", she did however add a further four layers to get the light colour she wanted. When the floor was colour ready, it was now time for Laura to work her impressive stencilling skills.

Picking up a patterned stencil from Dizzy Duck Designs, Laura held her patterned stencil in place with masking tape, and used a face painting sponge with very little paint to avoid bleeding.

She did however leave the tricky corners for last so that the stencil could be cut into shape to make them easier.

After taking on the floor, Laura moved to the rest of the kitchen, where she painted the cupboards to cover up the wooden finishes, added new handles to the drawers and doors, and used Fablon to give the dark countertops a wooden-look instead.

"In total, I spent £144 on the whole kitchen. The Fablon cost £48 from eBay, the new handles were £30 from Amazon, the paint for the cupboards and the floor cost £36 from a local Frenchic stockist, and the stencil cost £30 from Dizzy Duck Designs. I really enjoyed the stencilling and am so happy with how it turned out – it saved me a few hundred pounds as I had planned on laying new tiles. I thought it would look nice when I pictured it in my head but it turned out so much better. The feedback from friends and family and people on social media has been amazing."